Article December 15, 1898 Issue

THE LATE MAJOR LESTER

K. Stuart

From the Surrey (England) Adv. we take the following:—

At Sunday evening's meeting of the Christian Scientists at their church in Bryanston Street, the following letter from Mrs. K. Stuart, a sister of Major Lester, one of the alleged victims of Christian Science treatment, was read. Mrs. Stuart's letter is dated Vienna, November 17, 1898, and is addressed to Mrs. Julia Field-King, the leader of the movement in England. It runs:—

Dear Mrs. Field-King:—I heard to-day that I may do what I have so much wished to do, that is, make it known that my dear brother, Major Lester, did not suffer under Christian Science treatment as people insist he must have done. I was not with him during the first month when he was attended by five doctors, but I have a letter from my father telling me that towards the end of August and in the beginning of September his agonies were so intense that they had to remove his razors from the room, as he had said he could not endure the pain, and wished to end life. Those who loved him best wished that he might die soon, that the agony they could not endure to see might end. Morphia used to be injected, but its effect only lasted a couple of hours. After Christian Science treatment commenced, and till he passed away he never again had intense or unbearable pain, only on one occasion. I remember when, during a treatment for pain, the healer seemed to wrest it from him, and he cried out as the boy did when Christ cast out the devil. The pain seemed to rend him sore, and come out of him. My great anxiety has been that the world should know that he did not suffer intense pain, as the doctors announced he must have done, for surely no Christian Scientist could believe for a moment that this were possible; but it seems that others believe we "could stand by and see intense pain", day after day, and "do nothing to relieve it."

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