Testimony of Healing July 6, 1899 Issue

From a New-Churchman

James Erwin

Editor Sentinel:— The article "Healing the Body through Spiritual Means," by L. M. H., copied from the New Church Messenger, in your issue of May 4, recalls an experience of mine some ten years ago, at which time I was an earnest student of Swedenborg's system of theology. At the instance of a lady friend, I had bought and read a copy of the thirty-first edition of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy. Although I did not at that time grasp the Principle taught therein, yet I believed in it, so far as I could comprehend it.

The experience to which I refer was an attempt to heal myself of the mumps, upon the lines laid down by Mrs. Eddy in her book. I was awakened one morning, after having been exposed to the contagion, with a pain in my right jaw, and upon putting my hand to my face found one of the glands considerably swollen. The thought suggested itself, You've got the mumps now, sure. Almost simultaneously with this thought came to mind this passage of Scripture: "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John, 1 : 3). The contrast between the two thoughts caused me mentally to ask myself the question, Did God make the mumps? and immediately the answer came, No; He never made anything that was evil or false; so this must be one of those illusions, as I have read in Mrs. Eddy's book. If so, I don't need to have the mumps, for as a child of God I cannot be sick. So I mentally determined that I would not acknowledge the claim, but would deny its reality whenever it suggested itself, which it did quite vigorously at the breakfast-table whenever I put anything sweet or sour into my mouth. After breakfast I had considerable fever, so I went into an adjoining room and lay down, and began mentally to deny the reality of the claim of disease, and affirming the Scripture passage above quoted as the basis of my evidence for so doing. I do not know just how long I lay there, but when I arose it was with a happy feeling, that Truth had overcome, for the fever had abated, the pain had ceased, and by the next morning the swelling had subsided.

This was the first demonstration I had witnessed of purely mental healing, and it led me to see that the system was practical. Later investigation led me to lay aside my Swedenborgian theology entirely, for the simple, practical, and demonstrable Science of God and man, as expounded by Mrs. Eddy in her wonderful book, which I began to apprehend, as the word of God, and not merely a woman's opinions. This filled me with a profound reverence and awe, as I began to realize how far I fell short of reflecting that perfect Mind which was manifested by Christ Jesus, and also showed me the folly of clinging to unspiritual and non-healing systems of religion and medicine.

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