Testimony of Healing December 24, 1904 Issue

Several years since, my attention was attracted to Christian Science...

W. S. T.

Several years since, my attention was attracted to Christian Science through the interest manifested in it by some of my friends. I decided to look into the new religious philosophy, as I conceived it to be, and in a very critical frame of mind, secured a copy of Science and Health, unknown to my friends, for the purpose of carefully examining for myself the statements and doctrine therein contained. I read the book carefully, filled the margins of its pages in many places with my comments, and put it away with the feeling that the time spent on its study was simply wasted. In the mean time, the results attained by my friends in the living of Christian Science, were more and more attracting my attention and exciting my wonder, until I felt convinced that a religious system which was capable of producing such harmonious results, was more to be desired than any ideas upon the subject that had previously come under my notice. Starting into a more thought ful examination of the once discarded book, and with the kindly assistance of a helpful thought or suggestion now and then from my interested friends, I am very glad to say that I found it was indeed the most helpful, reasonable, and acceptable philosophy of the relation of man to his Maker that had ever come under my notice. When my eyes were opened to its beauty, I saw that it contained what I had been searching for, and was very glad to embrace its teachings.

One of the statements of Science and Health that excited my greatest derision in my first reading was a claim that cases of sickness could be, and frequently were, entirely cured by the reading of the book.

In the hope that my experience may come before the attention of those who may now be holding the views that once were mine, I will briefly state two cases of practically instantaneous healing of physical ailments within my own experience, which have followed the thoughtful perusal of our text-book. Some years since, I was taken with a heavy cold while at a remote point in the mountains, where my occupation absorbed all my time and attention from six in the morning until ten o'clock at night. The week had been an exceedingly busy one, and when Sunday morning came around, I awoke with a consciousness of satisfaction that at last I had a day partially to myself, where I could take up carefully the reading of the Lesson-Sermon for the week, as found in the Quarterly. After breakfast, I settled myself to its study in the parlor of the hotel. I was then suffering from the cold, which had received no attention, and which was, in consequence, distressingly unpleasant. I soon became absorbed in the study of the lesson, and seemed to have a very clear appreciation of the spiritual truths expounded: so much so, that upon reaching the conclusion of the lesson, I seemed filled with the consciousness of the all presence of Life and Truth. The contemplation of these thoughts filled my mind completely for some time following, and I left the room at the call for dinner, with the consciousness of having mislaid or forgotten something, and presently realized that it was the entire absence of any manifestation of the disagreeable cold in the head (my constant companion of the preceding two days) that I had missed. This brought clearly to mind and definitely proved to my own satisfaction, the truth of the injunction found in Science and Health, page 495: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. ... Let Christian Science instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality and silence discord with harmony."

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