Testimony of Healing May 5, 1906 Issue

It is with a sense of gratitude and joy that I bear testimony...

GUSTAVE HAAS

It is with a sense of gratitude and joy that I bear testimony to the good Christian Science has done and is doing for mankind. From early youth it had been my desire to enter a field of usefulness, but after spending some years in the orthodox ministry, religion appeared to me to be in the experimental state as much as medicine. I tried hard to be clear, but no one seemed to know the truth definitely. Why only one of the commands of Christ Jesus was recognized as valid, and that one the easiest of them,—preaching,—and why an expressed desire to obey the whole was considered fanatical, was neither clear nor satisfactory to me. The contradictions in dogmas and creeds, the inconsistencies in theory and practice, so unlike the Scriptural simplicity, became unbearable. This led to thorough self-examination, in which the hypocrisy of my own position became evident. I saw evil and its fruits in all directions, but knew no effectual remedy for the same. All this confusing uncertainty led me to look to God more earnestly, but I seemed to lose ground. Disheartened, but determined to be loyal to Truth, so far as I could understand it, I left the ministry.

My reward is rich indeed, for Christian Science is the answer to my prayers since childhood,—to know and to serve God aright. That which I sought while in the ministry, but signally failed to realize, and therefore thought an impossibility, I have found in process of actual fulfilment. Christian Science is extending its work and blessings over the whole world. I am very grateful for the demonstrations God has enabled me to make; happy to serve in the vast "nursery" of Christ, Truth.

In sacred awe and joy I acknowledge Mrs. Eddy as the Revelator of Christ, Truth, to this age. The attainment of an understanding of Truth I find to be a question of humble obedience to the Mind of Christ; a seeking after the righteousness of God, "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." The childlike, obedient heart will best know "the Christ of God," so it is not a question of letters but of revelation measured by one's own obedience. For this glorious possibility to follow our blessed Master in works as well as words, I thank God and our dear Leader. Truly this is the fulfilling of the Master's words, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come." To the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science was left the burden and privilege of this message, and God found her worthy and ready.—REV. GUSTAVE HAAS, New York, N. Y.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

In 1875 I was thrown from a carriage and severely injured