Article August 30, 1900 Issue

A Remarkable Case

BY C. W. CHADWICK

The Field will no doubt be interested to hear of certain persecutions recently visited upon Christian Scientists in Omaha, Nebraska.

On the 7th day of last June, J. B. Sedgwick, residing at 910 South 25th Avenue, an earnest student of Christian Science, was thrown from his buggy, sustaining what might have proved to be very serious, if not fatal, injuries, had it not been for the protecting power of Christian Science. The scene of the accident was near his home, so that his wife was soon at his side declaring the truth of God's power and presence, as he lay in an apparently unconscious state. A few moments later a physician who chanced to be at the Presbyterian hospital near by, learning of the mishap, hastened to the scene of action, and attempted to make an examination. He was politely told that his services were not needed and asked to leave the man in God's care. This proposition seemed to him too absurd for consideration, but being informed that the two ladies at his side were the wife and daughter of the injured man, and that they were Christian Scientists and did not need his help, he concluded to take his departure, which be did, expressing himself in very un-Christian language.

The developments of the next few hours proved that the "carnal mind," had been stirred to its utmost. The hospital telephone was brought into immediate service, word being sent to police headquarters that there was an "insane woman" near at hand who should at once be taken into custody; communication was also had with the office of the city physician and with the board of insanity, and several officers of the law were instructed to visit the home a few hours later. In the mean time, while all these forces were being summoned to protect the public from further danger from contact with an "insane" Christian Science woman, the patient had been carried into his home, and God was being allowed to do His perfect work. A practitioner was sent for; consciousness was soon restored and all suffering destroyed. The man was practically healed within three hours after the accident, but mortal mind did not want to have it that way. In spite of the widest possible publicity, however, and numerous calls at the home, with thought aroused to a high pitch, the patient held his own. Sunday morning, the third day after the accident, he attended Communion service, and has not missed a meeting since. Just how serious his injuries were, no one knows, but the physician who first saw him pronounced him in an apparently dying condition, and the thought was given out through the press that the conditions were most precarious. The assistant city physician, a friend of the patient, who called to see him at his home and was allowed to make a cursory examination a few hours after the accident, has since told the gentleman that he was certainly in a very critical condition at the time he saw him. As soon as it became evident to unbelievers even that the man was recovering, one of the papers came out with the following: "If he gets well it will prove that he had simply a superficial scalp wound; if he dies the hypothesis of a fractured skull will be confirmed." It is almost needless to remark that honest, thinking people are free to acknowledge that Christian Science must have healed the man, and that it was nothing short of a miracle, while others are trying in vain to account for the demonstration outside of the realm of cause and effect.

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