Testimony of Healing June 16, 1906 Issue

Nine years ago I had a very severe attack of peritonitis,...

Ada E. Rowney with contributions from T. G. Stonham, Editor

Nine years ago I had a very severe attack of peritonitis, which kept me in bed for three months, and from that time until last May I had not known what it was to be free from pain. The disease became chronic, so that I had periodical attacks keeping me in bed from two to six weeks at a time, each attack leaving me in a worse condition than before. In April, 1904, my sufferings were terrible; it became impossible for me to have at home the constant care and attention I needed, and I was taken to a hospital, and whilst there the doctors decided to make an internal exploration. According to their statements, this operation revealed tuberculous peritonitis, the intestines being matted together by adhesions which must have taken years to develop, and that it was therefore impossible to do anything to help me. I left the hospital in October, and here let me express my gratitude to the doctors and nurses of that institution. I am convinced that if surgical and medical skill, combined with constant care and attention, human kindness and sympathy, could have done anything besides comforting me, I should have been restored to health. A few weeks later I was placed under the care of my old physician, and struggled along until May, 1905. During that month my condition seemed hopeless. The nourishment I was taking did not amount to half a pint of milk in twenty-four hours, taken a teaspoonful at a time, and even that amount would cause terrible suffering, which could only be relieved by vomiting. All natural action of the bowels had ceased, and added to this was a terrible craving for food which I could not take.

Let me say here, that through all this my faith in God, as I then understood, or I should say misunderstood Him, was never shaken, and May 21 I decided to take no more medicine, but simply to trust in God alone. It should be noted how God taught me that my extremity was His opportunity. The very next morning a lady, who had never been to see me before, came to tell me about Christian Science. God bless her! she was indeed to me a messenger of Truth. The same day this lady loaned me a copy of Science and Health, and the following Wednesday evening my husband visited Second Church of Christ, Scientist, in London. On Saturday I was visited by a practitioner, and at the first treatment the terrible pains I had suffered just before he came had entirely passed away, as did also the craving for food. Soon after, I sank into a peaceful sleep lasting four hours, and that night I slept soundly for twelve hours.

The next day, Sunday, was divided between sleep and the study of Science and Health. At two o'clock on Monday morning I was lying wide awake, and words fail me to describe the peace and joy which possessed my whole being. I had had no pain since Saturday, the hard places in the abdomen said to be caused by the adhesions were becoming quite soft, and I knew that God was healing me. Later on, after my husband had gone to his work, thinking I would like to read, I reached out for my Bible, which lay on a chair by my bedside. I drew it towards me, opened it, and read the first and second verses of the 30th Psalm, "I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me." Those who have passed through a similar experience will best understand how in those words I recognized the voice of God. Never doubting, I got up, and without assistance dressed myself, walked into the next room, raised the window, and sat there basking in God's glorious sunshine.

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