Some months ago, while attempting to board a street...

ELLIOT HOWARD GILKEY

Some months ago, while attempting to board a street car, I was thrown to the pavement and rendered unconscious for a time. I never asked how long I was in this was in a strange house with a Scientist sitting beside me, and I shall never forget the feeling of peace and comfort that came over me at this evidence that I was in the loving care of infinite Mind,—divine and ever-present Love. I cannot find words in which to express my sense of the power with which the truth cleared the atmosphere in that room and let into my thought the consciousness that there is no power apart from God.

My daughters remained calm enough, in the midst of others' excitement, to do all that was necessary to secure my treatment in Christian Science, without antagonism from the attending physicians who had been called in by friends in the absence of my wife. The proposition to take me to a hospital was vetoed, and I was taken home in an ambulance and put in my own bed. Can one realize how grateful I am when I remember that my youngest daughter, aged fifteen, came to my side in that house where strangers were assembled, and said to me. "Papa, you know the real child is not hurt," and that my oldest daughter, aged eighteen, stood out firmly for the supremacy of Christian Science in the hour of my seeming inability to decide such matters for myself; and that my wife, recalled by telegram, only a short time after she had bidden me good-bye was enabled by her knowledge of the truth to overcome her own fear, and arrive at my side confident in the power of divine Principle to heal "all our diseases"?

I had been put by friends under the care of two physicians immediately after the accident, and when my wife reached home, about five o'clock in the afternoon my right arm and shoulder had been bandaged, one of the three or four cuts in my head had been stitched, and I was resting easily, with a professional nurse in attendance upon me. I was conscious of the gentleness and kindness of these professional friends who, according to their best judgment, had ministered to my comfort. They were informed that we were Christian Scientists and desired no medicines to be given, and no professional assistance except such as they had seen proper to give surgically, and which they had already performed in the setting of a seemingly broken shoulder and the stitching of a scalp wound. It is due these good people to say that our wishes were cheerfully acceded to during the short time I received their visits. While it is quite certain they voiced some dark thoughts on the day of the accident to others, nothing of the kind was spoken of in the family, and, on the other hand, pleased surprise was openly expressed at the rapid healing witnessed.

I was under the treatment of a brother Scientist from the time of the accident for about a week, and worked constantly myself, with the happy consciousness that divine Love was ever with me. I stayed in my room two days and in the house a week, at the suggestion of the physician, whose recommendations I acceded to in the spirit of "suffer it to be so now," and because I had no reason to oppose him so long as he did not prescribe for me or insist on my taking material remedies. The wounds in the scalp healed promptly and all sings of them were easily gotten rid of in less than a week. The shoulder knit so promptly that the surgeon had no further work to do, even from his own standpoint, than to renew the bandages and keep them from slipping.

Ten days after the accident I attended the Sunday morning service in our church; the following Wednesday evening I was able to take my part of the church service, the physician having taken off the bandages on the right arm and shoulder which I had been wearing, practically without pain, one day less than two weeks. Three weeks from the time of the accident, I shaved myself with a safety razor, using my right hand and the arm which had been broken. I told the doctor, the day he took the bandages off, that some doubt had been expressed as to whether I had a fractured shoulder, because I recovered the use of the arm in so short a time; to which he replied, "I told Dr.—, who helped me bandage your shoulder, that your break was so unusual that unless one saw it he would hardly believe it could occur." I send my humble and grateful testimony to the 'Field, that it may help some others to see that our needs will all be met in the very best way possible in view of the individual's present attainment. Thank God for Christian Science, through which I was enabled to overcome evil and return to my place in the church and in my office, all within two weeks and a half of my temporary disablement.—ELLIOT HOWARD GILKEY, Columbus, O.

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Testimony of Healing

It is through Christian Science that I am alive to-day

May 19, 1906

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