Testimony of Healing December 31, 1904 Issue

It is sixteen years since this sweet message of rest and...

Emma J. Hull

It is sixteen years since this sweet message of rest and peace on earth came with its healing touch, lifting me out of hopeless invalidism. For five years I had been an invalid, sometimes better, then down again, and each time worse than before. I have ever held in grateful remembrance the several physicians to whom I appealed for help. They were exceedingly kind, and did all in their power to relieve me, but none of them would say that I could be cured. One physician, of wide experience, said there was no case on record like mine. At times my sufferings were almost unbearable, and I never knew what it was to feel rested. I was constantly thinking and saying, "I am so tired." At one time I was with a friend who was greatly interested in so-called mind cure, and very desirous that I should try it, but it did not appeal to me in the least, and I have since been thankful it did not. I finally returned to the home physician whom I had at first. I was steadily growing worse, nervous prostration was added to my other troubles and a constant fear that I was losing my mind. I said to the doctor one day, "I want to know just what you think about me. Am I ever going to be well enough to do work of any kind, again?" He told me, as gently as possible, that I must give up all thought of it. After leaving me, he said to a member of the family that I could not live over two months at the outside.

At the age of twelve, I had united with a church, and ever after tried faithfully to live up to its requirements and be a Christian, but there was always a doubt and an unsatisfied longing for something beyond what I found there. In a conversation with my pastor, I asked him why the miracles of Jesus' time could not be performed now, it seemed they were needed as much as then. He replied, "Oh, no, they were intended just for that time, and cannot be expected now." The reply did not satisfy me. Often, while lying on my sick-bed, I would open my Bible and read of Jesus' healing work, and the thought would come that, if I only had faith enough, God would cure me, but my desires and prayers seemed of no avail. As I look back to that time now, I see how I was being led and made ready for the true healing.

Shortly after the doctor had told me that I could never hope for health again, a lady from a distant town came to our home to remain over night. I had heard that she was a Christian Scientist, and gave mental treatment. I desired my friends to ask her to come to my room, and she did so. Almost the first thing I said to her was, "Do you think Christian Science could help me?" I shall never forget her reply, it was so positive and assuring. She said, "Certainly, why not?" talked with me a few moments about it, and went away. But a ray of light and hope had dawned in my consciousness, and a week later, I had dismissed the doctor, placed myself under her care, and absent treatment began. The first day was this noticeable change,—I lay on my bed quietly and with a rested, peaceful feeling. There were often dark days of suffering after this but I clung to Christian Science, and in four weeks I was able to take the trip of fifty miles to the Scientist's home, and remained with her two months. It was then that I first saw Science and Health, and the more I read in it, the more I wanted to read, although there was much of it that seemed entirely incomprehensible. Sometimes the Scientist would help me to see some particularly difficult passage in a clear light; then again, she would tell me not to be troubled or anxious over it, but to read the parts that were clearer, that when I was ready to see it, this would be clear too, and through obedience, I found it to be so.

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