Testimony of Healing June 9, 1906 Issue

Common gratitude would make me acknowledge a...

Frank Roberts

Common gratitude would make me acknowledge a favor to any one, but I have waited for nearly eight years to acknowledge my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy, the first person in this world who ever told me the truth. If a publication of my testimony helps some other poor fellow to lift his head in this world and learn that there is no hopelessness,—that there is a way to drop the black veil that enshrouds him, where he may stand free in the presence of his God,—I shall in a measure make an amend for my apparent neglect and in a small degree pay a tribute to that splendid woman who has done so much for mankind.

I will relate as faithfully as I can the story of a man in hell, and how through Christian Science the black night disappeared and "there was light." Drink was the cause of all the misery I endured in my early life. I cannot tell when I began drinking, but it must have been at a very early period. I know that at first there was a feeling of horror at the thought, but my associates (older than myself) were all men who drank, and I looked upon it as a real clever thing to do, and "custom soon made it a property of easiness." I would not have any one think there was ever any pleasure in it, and the time soon came when I was referred to as a periodical drunkard; always pitied, blamed, considered of some worth occasionally, but figuratively kicked for my weakness. There would be long periods of sobriety, and then a fall that would drag me back; then a new resolve, but the tyrant would seize me again by the throat and push me under. Oh, the pain, the shame, the agony of it all! About this time some dear friends tried to interest me in Christian Science. I went to their church, but was not at all impressed. They were reading two books, one of which I never read and the other I had never heard of. As I looked about at the people, I wondered how they could be interested. I went the following Wednesday, and came away doubting the truth of the stories I had heard. The following Sunday I again sat through the service, which seemed dreadfully long, and I came away with the conviction that it was a good thing for women but it was like all the others to me,—nothing.

The periods of my horror began to come closer together. I became so untrustworthy I could not get a place in my profession. A marked change began to appear in my surroundings. In my lodgings I was moved from the best room to less and less attractive quarters, until I was given a place to sleep because they remembered me as a better man; but finally I was asked to go. Weak, helpless, and alone, I begged for a few days to look about me. I realized that I had at last reached the street. About this time I met an old friend, who arranged for my removal to Philadelphia—that was early in May. I was placed in a sanitarium, and by September I had gained sufficient strength to go to work. All the after-effects of what I had gone through soon began to appear. Memory seemed to fail, and night after night I went to my bed with the hope that I would sleep and never wake again, yet I had almost a currish fear of death. I thought I must do something to save myself from insanity, so again I plunged into the lower hell of giving way to the awful curse, and again shut myself from all good by getting drunk. It was then that I cried out to an unknown God to save me. I saw the last small remnant of human will slip away, and there I was again—in terror, helpless, and panic-stricken.

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