Testimony of Healing December 10, 1904 Issue

It is five years since Christian Science was first brought...

Olive M. Detwiler

It is five years since Christian Science was first brought to my notice. I had been under a physician's care for eight months when it was thought best for me to have an operation. I went to Hahnemann Hospital and was there ten days trying to recover my strength sufficiently to stand the operation, as I suffered from great physical weakness, had very bad night sweats and then a chill, indigestion so bad I could not eat any solid food,—raw eggs, milk, and ice cream being the only food I could eat without its distressing me. The nurse got me ready and the doctor who was to perform the operation came in to see me and asked how I was. I told him I was all right except that my side hurt me and my limbs were very sore, that I thought I had taken cold. He said I had better wait a few days until I got over the cold. I seemed to get better and in a few days I was again made ready for the operation. I took another cold, but in a more aggravated form. I perspired all night, suffered with pains in my side and could hardly breathe. My flesh was so sore I could not move in the bed. The operation was to be at 10 A.M. My husband came to be with me during the time and the physician told him that unless he was willing to assume all responsibility he would not perform the operation, as he could not tell how successful it would be. My husband said that it had better be postponed for a while, until I got stronger. I asked the physician if I could not go home for a week or ten days, and he said I could. I stayed at home about two weeks and then went to see the physician again. He asked how long I had been suffering with this pleurisy and taking cold so easily, for it seemed that I took the very best of care of myself. I told him I had the grip and pneumonia about two years before and always had to be careful that no fresh air blew directly upon me or I would suffer. He said I was too delicate for an operation then. This was in May, 1898, and the physician thought I had better wait until fall,—that my husband did not want to lose me.

I am happy to say that I never needed an operation, as a Christian Science practitioner came to room at the place where we were living and used to talk to us about Christian Science. I went to see this lady and asked if she thought I could he healed. I told her she need not think I would believe in Christian Science unless she healed my body. She took my case and gave me some understanding of my relation to God, and it seemed so beautiful to me that I thought, if Christian Science is the truth I want it. She treated me once a week for five weeks and during the treatment she asked me what was worrying me. I told her I had had one child, who had been stolen from me when she was six years old and I could not find her. My practitioner assured me that there was no loss in the divine Mind, that God is good and infinite, and that my daughter was in His care, safe in divine Love. This gave me great peace of mind, for I had not thought of her in that light before, but was fearful that something would happen to her if I did not find her soon. I was healed of a muscular disease, of physical weakness, indigestion, constipation of long duration (bowels had not moved for three years without medicine or enemas). I had headache all the time, but it left me immediately, also severe uterine trouble, and I had not been without a backache for many years. These ailments all left me and I continued to be perfectly well for three years. I read Science and Health every day, and it was my only physician.

Suddenly nervous prostration and mental depression manifested themselves, caused by a desire to see my daughter and have her with me. I seemed to be in the deepest despair. I was nearly without hope; but the darkest hour is just before the dawn. It took a year for me to recover from this nerve exhaustion, but I knew that God was my health and strength, and in Him I trusted faithfully. I knew that I would find my child, since God's ways are not as our ways.

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