Testimony of Healing January 26, 1924 Issue

With the hope that my testimony of what Christian Science...

Joseph K. Griffis

With the hope that my testimony of what Christian Science has done for me and mine may be helpful to some one, I gladly bear grateful witness to its power to heal sin, sorrow, and disease. For more than thirty years I was a minister of a so-called orthodox denomination. During the last few years of that time I doubted the alleged truth of its theology. After a period of serious thinking relative to God, man, and the universe, I was convinced of its utterly illogical and fallacious claims, but had nothing better to take its place. To find the truth which would satisfy the reason and meet the needs of a hungry heart, I began a search among the creeds of Christendom and the ethnic religions of the world. This resulted in further dissatisfaction and the conclusion that if there were a God, He must be responsible for all the sin, sickness, and suffering in the world, and therefore could not be good. After this I gave up the search and settled down into cynical pessimism. I believed every creed, every religion, idolatrous. Their gods appeared to be simply the objectifications of fallible and sinful human thought. In this there was no hope.

All this time I was suffering from several physical ailments. I had curvature of the spine, the result of an accident in my boyhood, and it gave me much constant pain. For this the physicians held out no hope of a cure, and the condition was growing worse. Hay fever in an extreme form had regularly seized me every summer for more than twenty-five years; and for this the specialists knew of no help. Besides these ailments I had chronic appendicitis, rheumatism, partial deafness, and dimness of vision. For none of these diseases could I find healing or permanent relief, although I tried nearly every remedy which came to my attention. I was growing worse all the time, and at last was a broken-down nervous wreck, without hope. I often expressed the desire to die and end it all.

One day the thought came to me, Why not try Christian Science? This was in 1914. Having read some criticisms of this new statement of the Christian religion but never a line of its literature, I believed that I understood it, and occasionally had preached against what I thought it was. On the day above mentioned I frankly told the practitioner whom I called by telephone, and whom I had never seen, that I did not believe Christian Science could heal anything, but if she believed it would heal me, to begin work for me at once. Acting upon her advice, I obtained a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and began perusal of it; but to me it seemed to contain little else than nonsense. At times its statements enraged me; but, determined to find out the meaning of its contents, I continued to study it. After more than a year's hard study I began to see a little truth in it. By this time I had experienced several healings, but attributed these to change of climate, and believed that they would have occurred anyway. From this time on, however, I became so fascinated by the philosophy of Christian Science that nearly every hour of every day was utilized in its study; for, fortunately, I had the time in which to do this. For more than seven years I had not looked into the Bible; but now, in the light of Christian Science, it became a new book. Finally, the last vestige of every one of my ailments disappeared. My back became straight; pain, suffering, every discordant element, the drink habit, tobacco in all of its forms,—all left me by the power of the truth as unfolded in Christian Science, and with the help of faithful practitioners from time to time. Certain temperamental faults have also been corrected, and I am rejuvenated in every respect. Friends tell me that I appear at least twenty years younger than I did before I took up the study of Christian Science. My physical strength is greater than ever before in my life, and my mental powers are enhanced; while the very thoughts of former evil habits are abhorrent to me.

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