Testimony of Healing July 6, 1907 Issue

Feeling that the experiences attendant upon an accident...

Cora Steddom Bartlemay

Feeling that the experiences attendant upon an accident which came to my little son of seven years may be helpful to some one struggling against fear of environment, I give this testimony. A year ago last July we were visiting in the country, the little boy being with my sister, two miles from my mother's home, where I was staying. At the time of the accident the child had gone to the barn, when he was suddenly attacked by a vicious hog. He retained enough self-possession to thrust his head and body into a straw-stack, while he kicked with all his strength. A boy heard his screams, gave the alarm, and with the help of my sister succeeded in driving the infuriated beast away, but not before the child had been badly bitten and bruised. My sister telephoned at once for a surgeon, and also sent for me. I arrived at the house ahead of the surgeon, who lived two miles away.

I had been a student of Christian Science for ten years, and the child had never known any other treatment. When the word came that he had been injured, my thought went out in gratitude to our Leader, who has revealed to us that Mind is omnipresent. I found the child surrounded by fears, tears, and excitement, but he was perfectly calm. I asked to be left alone with him, but soon the surgeon entered with my brother and sister, and insisted that the wounds be sewed up. I felt that it was entirely unnecessary, for I had no fear, but I was compelled to give in. The child resisted the chloroform to such an extent that the one who gave it was greatly affected by it. I was called on to stitch the bandages, the four people in attendance being too nervous to do it. The laws of materia medica respecting poison, pain, etc., were all promptly denied, and so real did the truth appear to my sense that it seemed utterly impossible the child should suffer. He lost no sleep, complained of no pain, had no fever, and ate a hearty supper. I had asked my brother to dismiss the physician, but he came again late in the evening, when my brother and sister corroborated my statements about no fever, pain, etc. I again asked that the physician might be dismissed, and I spent the whole night in declaring the truth, for the entire country-side had the news over their telephones and they all knew that I was a Scientist. The physician came again next day and undertook to dress the wounds, but the child would not allow him to do so. He became angry, and after a conference with my brother went away. I was told later that the physician must have charge of the case so long as I remained in that house. I had in the mean time written to a Christian Science practitioner for help.

It seemed very dark to human sense at this juncture, but the child was happy and free. Together we spent the day in studying the Lesson and reading the 3rd and 6th chapters of Daniel, and in the evening deliverance came. My brother came to our room and said kindly that he had decided to leave all responsibility to me, and that it was at the suggestion of the physician that this decision had been made. I telephoned for the physician, that I might talk kindly with him about our views, but he insisted upon recounting frightful stories about "blood poison," etc., and then said, "Now, in the fact of all this, do you dare take the responsibility of your child?" I replied that I dared not leave the child to materia medica that the cases of which he had spoken were only the result of fear and false belief; that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,—quoting from the Lesson-Sermon of that week. I can never forget the wonderful sustaining power of that Lesson, and a sense of gratitude for the faithful work of our Lesson committee came to me as never before. Christian Science at last had the field. When I dressed the wounds the child said, looking away, "I do not have to look at matter to see how well I am, do I, mamma?" The dressing was not done, however, any oftener than cleanliness demanded, and in one week from the time of the injury he romped as if nothing had happened. The family agreed that the child had not made one complaint through it all. My brother acknowledged that he had never seen anything like it, and that he would never again feel that I was unable to care for my boy. It seemed wonderful to them, and especially in view of the fact that a man in the neighborhood had been attacked in a similar manner and was a sufferer for many months as the result.

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