Testimony of Healing December 20, 1913 Issue

It would be impossible within a limited space to do more...

Lawrence Beesley

It would be impossible within a limited space to do more than enumerate the profound changes of thought which Christian Science has wrought in me during the seven years I have known of it. When I first saw the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, I was numbered among that negative class of people called agnostics, a name which I suppose all its advocates recognize as eminently unsatisfactory and indicative of a waiting frame of mind, a waiting for more definite knowledge than the creeds and dogmas of centuries are able to supply. I had studied natural science for many years, having graduated from Cambridge University in the departments of chemistry, physics, and the biological sciences, and had subsequently engaged in research work there, publishing the results of that work. During the time between leaving Cambridge and my first introduction to Christian Science, I had taught and lectured on natural science in one of England's largest schools, where the principal part of my work consisted in laying the foundation of a future medical career for the boys who attended my classes.

When Christian Science was first presented to me, it was essentially a new theory, which required the proof of application and derived result before it could be accepted as true, just as any other theory required to be tested. During these seven years it has been shown day by day, in thousands of instances, to be not a mere theory, but a statement of definite, unchangeable law, which is susceptible of proof at any time and in any place, and which in its application has been attended by entirely satisfactory and successful results in the exact proportion to my faithfulness in obeying the law.

Among the many proofs of the law of demand and supply which Christian Science offers, from the point of view that it will supply what is needed, I wish to return my deepest gratitude for one which came to me. I was a passenger on the steamship Titanic which collided with an iceberg and sank in mid-ocean on April 14, 1912, and I am convinced that if it had not been for the knowledge of Christian Science, and the application of such knowledge to overcome conditions of fear and danger, my name would now be on the list of the missing. We know, as Christian Scientists, that we are learning day by day to rely on God absolutely for our help in every condition of human life, and are content to accept the innumerable blessings which come to us as a result of such reliance, without seeking or wishing to know the intermediate steps that come between our faith and its results. But, in this case the way in which a small knowledge of Christian Science protected me, and led me out of danger, is so unmistakable that it may be helpful to relate it.

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