Testimony of Healing October 27, 1906 Issue

Although I am unable to tell of all the benefits I have received...

Gertrude Emery Boardman

Although I am unable to tell of all the benefits I have received from Christian Science, I feel it is a duty to give this testimony. I had the misfortune to lose my mother when young, and when I was still in my teens my father died and I went to live with a sister in Minnesota. I entered the State University but sickness ended my school life in less than a year, and the following year I was married. After the birth of my second child my health became so poor that I finally had to go on the operating-table. Later I was very ill for some time and was left with a severe bowel trouble. I was treated for this trouble by many physicians, but was never helped more than to secure some relief from the attacks of pain. About nine years ago I found myself impoverished, with the great problem of self-support looking me in the face. In a few years I had again to go to a hospital and undergo several operations. The operations were themselves pronounced successful, but as the months went by my health failed completely. I was very much discouraged. Then began a weary round from doctor to doctor. Finally one physician very frankly told me to stop trying to get relief from doctors. He said mine had become a chronic case, and that no doctor knew of any cure for it. I had become a victim to nervous trouble, and owing to the opiates I constantly took, insomnia was added to my ills. By this time the bowel trouble contracted many years before had become almost unbearable. I suffered greatly and my mentality was so weakened that I feared I would be insane.

At length I decided to go to a Christian Science practitioner and ask her if she could help me. This seemed strange, even to myself, as I had always bitterly opposed Christian Science, but there seemed nothing else to try. I asked for treatment for the mental trouble, saying I had no faith in Christian Science for the physical troubles. At once I commenced to be relieved of the suffering; I was able to rest nights, and the opiates were given up. The time soon came when I desired to study and to understand something of the Principle of Christian Science and the reason for my improved condition. I studied every spare moment and gradually the other discordant conditions began to yield. The battle over inertia was long, but that too has been overcome to a great degree. I can but marvel at the patience and love expressed in so many practical ways besides in the treatments. To-day it would be hard to realize that I was ever the sick, puny invalid who came to Christian Science for help. With but a few days of vacation the years since I was restored to health have been spent in constant teaching. My home has been provided for, and many old obligations contracted during the years of illhealth have been canceled. Shattered faith in the mortal has been replaced by an abiding faith in God, good. Hope is no longer a will-o'-the-wisp leading into foul marshes and pestilential bogs. The understanding that Mind is the great builder is lifting me high above human discord and the gloomy scenes of the senses, into the beautiful highlands of the spiritual. Chastened by the stern lessons of suffering, I realize that this discipline can only be productive of blessings as it teaches me more obedience to God and a larger thoughtfulness for my fellow-men.

To our dear Leader, whose pure and unfaltering devotion to Truth is bringing humanity back to our Father, my gratitude and love is inexpressible; it increases with spiritual growth, and we know that spiritual growth never ceases.

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