Testimony of Healing February 11, 1905 Issue

In my old thought I believed that to help one's fellow man...

BESSIE BERWICK

In my old thought I believed that to help one's fellow man in every way, but more especially in a religious way, was a part of each one's duty. Now the sense of duty has slipped away, and in its place I find a longing, oh, so great, to have every one share with me the knowledge of this beautiful truth. I think I am right when I say that no one but a Christian Scientist can appreciate the joy, the peace, and the freedom which I have felt ever since I became interested in Christian Science. I had never been a strong girl, but in the winter of 1900 I became so ill that I had to give up my studies and many other duties. Extreme nervousness and melancholia were said to be the trouble. My doctor gave me first one kind of medicine and then another, and ordered me to walk as much as possible. I can truthfully say that I followed his instructions as closely as I could. The walking I could not always manage, for at times I was very weak and often suffered great pain. My appetite left me, and I was subject to long crying spells which were most distressing to my kind relatives. I was under the doctor's care from January until the middle of July, when I went to the seashore, well supplied with medicines and with the doctor's words ringing in my ears: "If you are not better when you return, you may need to have an operation performed, and even after that you must not expect to be entirely free from nervousness."

I spent six weeks at the seashore, living most of the time out of doors and doing all I could to grow well and strong; but, I must also add, living with the dread thought that I had inherited melancholia from my father, and that I had it in an exaggerated form. I shall not dwell on the misery of those awful days and nights, for on my return to Brooklyn in September my aunt told me of Christian Science. She knew very little about it, but we agreed that at any rate it would do me no injury. The blessed relief that came to me almost immediately, has come to many through Christian Science, but no one, I am sure, is more grateful for it than I, though I did not seem so at first. I thought it was all very well that I should be healed by Christian Science, but that I should attend the church services, or read what seemed to me the dry literature, was quite too much to expect. But again I now know to have had no more reality than the envy and jealousy which caused it. It seemed that an irreparable breach had come between me and one whom I loved dearly. Again my troubles dissolved, as darkness before the light, and now I am thankful for the understanding which enables me to know that they can never return, for they were nothing but bad dreams and, as we all know, a dream is but a phase of belief which vanishes when one awakes. I am awake now, and I am striving to show others the beauty of this glorious truth which makes free. I have proved in many ways that the Principle of Christian Science is perfect, and that the truth never fails when it is strictly adhered to. Discord in my home was one of the errors I had to meet, and I have had many beautiful demonstrations of the power of Love over selfishness and inharmony.

Until I came to St. Johns nothing was known of Christian Science here, as there was not another Scientist on the island, nor within two and a half days' journey. Now one of my friends is reading our literature and trying to become a Scientist, and another friend has accepted the faith and has proved its truth on several occasions. We two read the Lesson—Sermon on Sunday. Here, on the most easterly point of land on this side of the ocean, where we can see the broad Atlantic, we read the same Lessons that our fellow—Scientists all the world over are reading. We who are in the isolated places of the world have indeed reason to be grateful to our Publishing Society for its noble work. To the friends who have so kindly helped me, to my patient teacher, and to that dear one who made known to me this glorious truth, I would show my gratitude by earnestly striving to let my light shine before men, humbly knowing all the while that of myself I can do nothing, but I can apply, every hour of the day, the knowledge that it is God who worketh in me, "both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

I beg to enclose a testimony from a lady residing in...