About the year 1896 there appeared in The Christian Science Journal, in full detail, a beautiful testimony of healing in connection with the case of my father, a very aged gentleman, who, under the doctor's care, was dying. His case had been pronounced utterly hopeless on account of his extreme age and the malignant form of the disease. My sister, who is a Christian Scientist, sent word to her teacher in Toronto, Ont., asking her to take the case, which she did. Other members of the family were opposed to Christian Science treatment and argued in favor of the doctors, who continued to make their visits. The home was filled with confusion and conflicting thought; but the practitioner, not knowing of the disagreement in the family, continued treatment. The doctors were encouraged to keep the case in their own hands, while his daughters urged to have them dismissed and Christian Science given a fairer trial.

At last the instruments and all other material means ceased to give any relief, spells of unconsciousness were followed by the conscious agonizing struggle with death, and the doctors acknowledged that the case had passed beyond their skill. All this time the Scientist had been declaring that the truth would be victorious. Finally the family agreed to let the father decide for himself between Christian Science and materia medica. During an interval of consciousness his daughter whispered, "Father, will you take Christian Science treatment, or continue with the doctors?" Placing his hands in the attitude of prayer, the seemingly dying father moaned, "O give me Christian Science!"

With renewed courage the practitioner went on with the work: the beautiful promise in Hosea was fulfilled, and he was ransomed from the grave,—redeemed from death.

Years passed, and the aged pilgrim, whose days of earthly pilgrimage had multiplied instead of diminished, lived on until the one hundredth year came and went. When entering upon the second century the fear of death appeared again, and some weeks ago we received the message that our father was passing away. Before our arrival at home two local doctors and a physician from Jersey City had been called in. Each in turn said that under the circumstances he could not recover, and the rumor spread from place to place that death was expected momentarily. The neighbors expressed themselves as not surprised, seeing that he was a man of such great age. He was so weak that he could not raise his arms, and lay gasping for breath: his mind was wandering, and he was racked with spasms of pain: his feet were cold in death, while the perspiration was on his brow. The body which was in a state of mortification was a shocking sight. Over the abdomen and reaching as far as the heart, round the sides to the back, and extending in two long points up the shoulders, the body was black, and elsewhere the flesh was streaked and mottled with an angry red. The physicians said no one ever recovered after reaching such a stage; it was impossible; it had never been known. When the physician from Jersey City called he said, after seeing the body, "This is gangrene, he will never recover, his time is short," and left a prescription for a preparation designed to overcome the odor of mortification. The doctor in attendance left, saying all was over, that when the mortification touched the heart death would be instantaneous. Fear and gloom filled the home, but when the message was received that the end was near, the case was given once again into the care of the same faithful Christian Scientist, who so many years before had demonstrated so clearly that death was powerless. In a moment of sweet solemnity of thought and recognition of the infinite power of God to heal human sorrows, Isaiah's words. "And behold at eventide trouble; and before morning he [the enemy] is not," were fulfilled in our home. As soon as the practitioner began the work a change for the better took place. At times error came up in different forms only to die away in the presence of the omnipotent. Gradually the healing went on. He grew strong and partook of food with his own hands, instead of depending upon others to help him. His thought ceased to wander and rested in divine Mind: the warm glow of life came into the icy feet; the mortified portions of the body assumed a mottled appearance, and finally all the discoloration disappeared, and he was healed. An indescribable holy hush, that told of the presence of One who is infinite, fell over the home; all was peace and quietness,—a foretaste of eternal repose.

Rumors of death had been widely circulated, and the people were astonished at his sudden recovery. One aged man, deeply impressed, remarked with gravity, "Strange, but there must be something in it." Another, a stranger passing through the place on business, was told of the case, and accepted some literature to take to his home many miles distant. As far as sixty miles away the story was told, — the story telling now of life instead of death. Men, unconsciously impressed by the influence of a holy presence, approached with unusual gentleness, and looked in silent respect at the beautiful, transfigured face, with the grey hair falling back from a brow smooth and fair, and the snow-white beard flowing from cheeks faintly tinged with the bloom of health. With grace he greeted them all, and with a strong voice and in a bright, intelligent way recounted anecdotes of the days of their fathers and grandfathers. The healing verified the promise in the book Job. "And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday."

In the beautiful biographical sketch of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, written by Hon. Henry Robinson, we find the following touching paragraph:—

"Nobody could have imagined then that to that free, sweet-faced, breeze-kissed, country girl it would be given to dispel superstitious ignorance, to awaken the world from the dreadful incubus of materiality, to teach the children of men that God and man are co-existent and inseparable, that He is the all-pervading divine Principle, and that death holds on mastery over Life."

Thousands are being liberated from that "dreadful incubus." and from the thought that death does hold mastery over life; and the healing of our father adds one more case to the already extended list. Born amid the density of the materialistic environments of war, rebellion, tyranny, and profigacy, in the dark, superstitious days of the reign of George III., he has lived to see the "guiding star of Truth" (Science and Health, Pref. p. vii.) "with healing in his wings" rising out of the wreckage of the ancient order of things, and flooding the earth with the clear, holy light in which God is revealed to man: all as the fulfilling of Mrs. Eddy's momentous mission. Having seen a hundred years of life's uncertainties, and the slow breaking up of theories, dogmas, and creeds, up to the ushering in of this bright day of peace and righteousness, this hoary centenarian's plain remark in recognition of Mrs. Eddy's labors. "She is a good woman doing God's will on earth," outweighs all the criticisms of those who do not understand her.

Mildred R. Bell., Woodstock, Ont.