In The Christian Science Journal for September, 1901, under the head of "Testimonies from the Field," we published, as the first testimony, the case of Mrs. Jay Scott of Fresno, Cal., written by herself. We published this extraordinary case in our usual unsensational and almost prosaic way. So much have remarkable and even startling cases become commonplace to us and our readers who are Christian Scientists, that it would not occur to us to give them a sensational character, even if we were so disposed.

We received a number of letters and inquiries about Mrs. Scott's case which led us to write her for further particulars concerning it, and to our letter she made a prompt and frank reply.

We have concluded, in view of the unusual nature of Mrs. Scott's case, to republish in the Sentinel her testimony as published in the Journal, and to publish in connection therewith her letter in reply to ours.

Following is her testimony as published in the Journal:—

"During the past few years I have been more or less in ill health, my chief trouble being chronic constipation, which finally terminated in a complication of female disorders from which I suffered to such an extent that I was persuaded early in November of last year to enter a sanitarium in Fresno, where, after an examination I was told that an operation was necessary in order to save my life. Consequently I was put under the influence of chloroform for two hours, an incision was made in the abdomen and one of the organs was removed, also a tumor of some kind. I was kept very quietly at the sanitarium for nearly two months when I was allowed to return home. During the next two months I suffered constant pain, some days feeling a trifle better, but most of the time very miserable. The wound in the abdomen refused to heal and would frequently discharge. Then the physician, after another examination, informed me that the operation was not a success and would have to be done over again, otherwise, I would be a cripple the remainder of my life.

"I walked, or rather crept about, doubled up like a feeble old woman. I would never be able to straighten up again, he said, unless I would submit to another operation. I went home completely discouraged. I could not bear the thought of the cruel knife again, especially as the old wound had not yet healed. I said to a friend who was staying with me, 'Now what must I do? If I go on the table again it will kill me.' She replied, 'Why, I would certainly try Christian Science; you have given the doctors a trial and they have failed.' She told me of a practitioner in San Francisco. I had heard of Christian Science before, and always thought it a grand humbug; but it was that or the operating knife, so I went to San Francisco and saw the healer.

"I went prepared to doubt everything, and came away more than half convinced that there might be something in it.

"My sister-in-law, who lives in San Francisco and who is a staunch Christian Scientist, took me in with her family during my stay in the city. My treatment began immediately, and the improvement was rapid for a week or more, then all my old beliefs manifested themselves, my wound discharged more copiously than ever, and one day a stitch came to light, and, later on another, which the surgeons had left to hold one of the organs in position. I continued in this way for nearly a month, sometimes suffering a great deal of pain, then feeling much better, and all the time gaining strength slowly but surely.

"One night I made the startling discovery that the bowels were performing their functions through the aperture in the abdomen. This so frightened me that I alarmed the household, and my brother-in-law, who had retired, arose and went to my healer, who lived two miles distant, to inform him. A surgeon would surely have said, 'Well, that proves that her bowels are perforated, and of course I can do nothing more for her.' My healer said, 'Tell her to fear nothing, there is no condition of mortal belief but can be met and overcome by divine Love.' This state of affairs continued for over two weeks, when one day, after suffering excruciating pain, there passed from me a piece of cloth a yard long and nearly ten inches wide. This cloth is called a surgeon's sponge and is used during an operation to absorb any moisture which may accumulate in the abdominal cavity, and had been overlooked by the surgeons five months previously. Said operation was witnessed by four physicians and three nurses, and yet the incision was sewed up leaving the sponge inside. It had forced itself into the bowels from the abdominal cavity and made its way to the rectal extremity and passed off in that manner.

"After this my improvement was very rapid, my back was straightened up, the old wound has entirely healed. I can 'run and not be weary;...walk, and not faint." I can work in my garden, and could do a week's washing if necessary. More than all this, I fully realize that nothing but the power of the Great Physician, Divine Intelligence, God, could perform such works.

"When I returned to Fresno I called upon my doctors, told them what had happened to me, and showed them the cloth, which I had kept. They were completely astounded. One of them said, 'I would never have believed you had you not brought the sponge, which I recognize.' He said he had heard of a similar case which happened to a woman who died in three days in awful agony. The other said, 'I am very sorry, Mrs. Scott, that it happened so, and the only thing we can do now is to congratulate you that you are alive.'

"When they were told that it was to Christian Science that I owed my deliverance, they were silent. I feel that my pen is inadequate to express my thankfulness to Christian Science for what it has done for me.

"I trust that this may meet the eye of some afflicted fellow-woman and save her from the surgeon's knife.

"Mrs. Jay Scott, Fresno, Cal."

Mrs. Scott's letter contains the full names of the two physicians referred to in her testimony, but we withhold them, as we do not wish to cast any reflection upon these physicians. They, like all other mortals, are liable to make mistakes, and we are quite disposed to cover the unfortunate oversight with the mantle of broadest charity, the more so that it afforded the Truth, as demonstrated by Christian Science, an opportunity to prove its power and show forth its marvelous efficiency in overcoming physical conditions.

Following is Mrs. Scott's letter:—

Fresno, Cal., October 1, 1901.

Dear Editor:—Your letter asking for further particulars in my case has been received, and I will say that the physicians who attended me were ... At the time the cloth passed from me I was in San Francisco. There were three ladies present, and their names and addresses are as follows: Mrs. F. H. Wilson, Room 11, Hughes' Block, Fresno; Mrs. F. T. Berry and Mrs. D. Gorman, 209 Valencia Street, San Francisco, where I was stopping at the time.

The cloth passed from me between three and four o'clock Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday evening at five o'clock I took the train for Fresno, a distance of two hundred miles, and arrived there about eleven without any inconvenience. Thursday morning I sent for the two physicians. The first question I asked them was if they had, during the operation, inserted anything into the rectum, and they said no, they did not touch me there. Up to this time they had no knowledge of what had taken place.

I then told them I had in my possession a cloth that they had left in me, and had passed from me through the rectum.

They examined it and recognized the cloth (or sponge as they called it) as the one they had laid in me during the operation, to absorb the moisture.

One of them came very near fainting, but turned quickly to the other one with a knowing nod. Then one of them took my hand and said, "Mrs. Scott, this thing has been done and cannot be undone, and I am very sorry for it. All I can do now is to congratulate you that you are alive, for we shall never understand how you lived four days after the operation." They said they never had known of but one case where the sponge was left in, and the poor woman died in dreadful agony three days afterward. My husband and my sister were present during this interview with the doctors.

One of the doctors met my husband on the street about two hours afterward and told him he never came so near fainting in his life as he did when he saw and recognized his own sponge. Mr. Scott then told him that it was through Christian Science that I was healed.

During the interview with the doctors they asked me what physician or physicians had been treating me in San Francisco, and as I had not seen a doctor I told them so.

I do not know what kind of an answer the doctors will give;...but I know all the ladies referred to will tell you everything just as it happened.

My husband was sheriff of Fresno County for six years, and his brother, Philip Scott, is at the present time one of the county supervisors. I have received a dozen or more letters from all over the United States asking for further particulars, as they all seem to want more proof of the case, and if you see fit to publish this you may do so.

Yours in Truth,
Mrs. Jay Scott.

This case is sufficiently important to warrant much comment. It might well be made the text for an extended discourse on the healing power of divine Truth as understood and applied in the early morning of the twentieth century. We might make interesting prognostications as to the condition of the world—as compared with its present condition—at the close of this century, if such marvelous healing continues; and who, having a knowledge of the healing work already accomplished through Christian Science, doubts that it will continue? We might speak at length of the great mission of the woman whose spiritual discernment and whose labors resulting from such discernment have made this healing possible; and we might say much of the book she wrote wherein is set forth the modus thereof. We shall, however, at this time, content ourselves with submitting for the serious contemplation of serious people a few plain queries.

1. Did God select for the great work of presenting this wondrous healing power to the world a worthy or an unworthy human instrumentality? What says reason, what says common sense, what says common justice, in reply?

2. Was Mrs. Eddy fitted for the work she has accomplished, or was she not? If not, we wish to know how it was that she accomplished it? Is an unworthy instrument selected by the All-wise One for the accomplishment of a worthy purpose? Is there anything in the Bible upon which to base such a conclusion?

3.Is it or is it not true, that Mrs. Eddy not only possessed the knowledge of how to heal disease by means above the physical and material, but was able to impart it to others? If not, how could the person in San Francisco who healed Mrs. Scott, have done the healing? This person will say that he learned to do this work through the writings and labors of Mrs. Eddy.

4.Ought not the whole world to be thankful to God that He has sent into it, in this age, His mighty healing power; and ought it not to treat with the highest reverence and deepest love the individual through whom He has seen fit to reveal it? If it is right to be thankful to God for blessings bestowed, is it wrong to thank Him also for the fit instrument thereof? We trust we shall be pardoned if we seem personal in these queries; but may we not ask those who are wont to be supersensitive upon the question of personality, whether, in this, we are more personal than if we submitted the same relative queries as to the mission of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, or any other of the world's great and good people and public benefactors?

5.We ask those who are sceptical of God's healing power, or of the fact that He heals sickness now as well as in the long ago, to pause and soberly ponder the words which came spontaneously from this grateful heart when she said: "After this my improvement was very rapid, my back was straightened up, the old wound has entirely healed, I can 'run, and not be weary;...walk, and not faint." I can work in my garden, and could do a week's washing if necessary. More than all this, I fully realize that nothing but the power of the Great Physician. Divine Intelligence, God, could perform such works." The happy beneficiary of this healing gladly gave the credit to the higher Power. She knew very well that no human power could have wrought such a work. Nevertheless, she is thankful for the human instrumentality through whom this Power was manifested.

6.We beg those who know nothing of Christian Science, but yet thoughtlessly pronounce it a fraud and a humbug, soberly to consider Mrs. Scott's experience. When Christian Science was first suggested to her, knowing nothing of it and being prejudiced against it, she said she had always "thought it a grand humbug." She does not think so now. She knows better. There are many thousands who, a few years or a few months ago, thought Christian Science a "grand humbug," who know better and are glad to acknowledge how sadly they were mistaken. This number is increasing daily. The glib cries of "humbug," therefore, do not disturb Christian Scientists. They know such cries come from those who have yet to learn what it is they are crying out against.

While the case of Mrs. Scott, in some of its phases, is an extraordinary one, it is not more so in fact than many others. We have published scores in our periodicals, and at the mid-week testimony meetings may be heard the frequent recital of cases quite as marvelous, if not as unique, as the one we are considering. These cases illustrate, in a graphic way, the Divine immanence in human affairs; they teach beyond cavil that God, in these latter days, is truly "made manifest in the flesh."