Testimony of Healing November 19, 1904 Issue

When a knowledge of the work of Christian Science first...

Ritta May Metcalf

When a knowledge of the work of Christian Science first came to me, I was a student of medicine, having had a strong desire, almost from childhood, to do something to relieve the sufferings of mankind. In healing my parents, Christian Science accomplished for them what no system of medicine had been able to do. This impelled me to investigate the claims of this new religion, which had made them whole again and caused them to renew their youth, although they made no effort to change my plans in respect to my chosen profession. Being an enthusiastic student of homoeopathy, I was almost startled by the statement in Science and Health, page 156, that "Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the next stately step beyond homoeopathy." Then I recalled Hahnemann's teaching in the Organon, that it is the dynamic or spirit power of the drug that heals, and not the crude drug itself, and that in the college we were constantly instructed to look for the peculiar or mental symptoms of disease in the patient, some of the professors even going so far as to state that certain forms of disease considered most malignant had their origin in a mental shock. After this it was not difficult for me to understand that if disease had a mental cause, its cure should also be through mind without the intervention of matter. Thus the transition from a drug system of treatment to a metaphysical system was easy and natural, though I did not yet see what religion had to do with it.

While in no special need of physical healing for myself, having for the most part always enjoyed good health, I was painfully aware of a need of spiritual healing, spiritual awakening and growth. I was a member of an orthodox church and tried conscientiously to conform to its requirements, but this did not satisfy my highest spiritual desires. I felt there was something in the Bible that would bring me peace and joy if once found, but I failed to find any one who could give me the key which would unlock the Scriptures.

After a few weeks' study of the text-book, in which time Truth seemed no clearer or nearer than at first, I took up Science and Health one evening in sheer desperation, being much fatigued at the close of a hard day's work, thinking if my father could get so much out of it there must be something in it for me. Too tired to turn to anything wholly new, I opened to the Lord's Prayer and read it through with its spiritual interpretation, then began to question myself after this manner, "If there is a God, what is He? What must He be to satisfy me?" The answer came, "Good, not half-way good, but all good, the infinite good; if infinite, then He is limitless, boundless good, and must be all-knowing and all-powerful, always and every where present; and that means that this infinite Being is with me now and at all times; in fact, that I live, and move, and have my being in Him." Then I knew that the light which is brighter than the day was shining unto me, and my burden was lifted: for in that light I saw the nature of God and man and their relation to each other, and I have been able since then to do any amount of work required of me without any recurrence of the old tired feeling. The meaning of Science and Health and the Bible had dawned upon my consciousness, and this glimpse of Truth brought the peace for which I had been longing. Shortly after this experience, my father asked what preparations I was making to return to the medical college, and I replied that I saw no use in continuing the further study of an inferior system of healing,—I had found the Great Physician who healeth all our diseases.

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