Testimony of Healing August 11, 1906 Issue

Six months ago the words Christian Science conveyed...

Winifred M. Playfair

Six months ago the words Christian Science conveyed to me nothing more than the bare fact that some people, Americans mostly, called it a religion, and that it denied the existence of pain. I knew no one who was of that religion, did not even know the name of the text-book or that of its author. When in trouble, it had been my habit to take up some study, of such a nature that I should be prevented from dwelling on the misery I could not avoid feeling; and once more, in what seemed the greatest and has proved to be also the last of such wretchedness, I looked about for something of the sort to help me through weeks of suspense. There seemed no earthly reason why I should take up Christian Science rather than the thousand things I had often wanted to study, and yet strongly and insistently I was driven to it. It was after a whole month, and a great deal of trouble, that I got the name of the book; then, before I could get a copy, I heard of the church in Sloane Square. The wrong address was given me, and the wrong time for service, and I almost gave up my search for it, when on a rainy morning in June I found the church closed. I could do no more than note that there was a service on Wednesday at eight. There ended my difficulties. On Tuesday I received a copy of Science and Health which had been lent to a friend by a Christian Scientist.

On that Wednesday I realized that healing was an essential part of the religion. It did not occur to me to doubt that I could be healed. The sequel is an old story. For years I had been very nearly an invalid, and for a year I could not move from my sofa. For the six months previous to this date, it was only dire necessity that had forced me to my feet. For years I had suffered severely from mucous colonitis, and had tried all sorts of diets. I digested next to nothing, and was greatly reduced in weight. I had frequently had abscesses in the jaw, for which doctors could do nothing except give me morphia when the pain became excessive. In fact I was never entirely free from pain, and very often I was in agony. I had also a growth in my side, but my condition was such that the surgeon refused to operate, as he did not consider it safe. My control of the body was already affected, and the prospect was that I should be helpless.

This was the mental and physical condition, with the added knowledge that the one thing I had relied upon in all my troubles was about to fail me, and that in a very miserable way. On that Wednesday in June I was given the name of a practitioner. On Saturday I wrote to her, and that night I went to bed at ten o'clock. At seven the next morning I opened my eyes, having slept dreamlessly and peacefully all those hours. As I opened my eyes and realized that the night generally so full of misery was over, the words, "the hem of his garment," leapt into my mind. I had not looked at a Bible for twenty years, but I knew it was just that, and that I was healed. I never again lost a night's sleep. I could eat and digest anything and everything. In four treatments all symptoms of the mucous colonitis had disappeared forever. In all I had eight treatments, but two of those were only because it was so hard to believe I really was well. Everything I took to the truth was cured, and cured completely. The growth disappeared and I could wear my clothes as others do. I put on flesh at the rate of a pound a week, slept and ate like a healthy child, and most glorious of all, my other troubles fell from me as if they had never been, as in truth they never had. In place of misery, I had peace, joy, and gladness. Instead of an overwhelming longing for speedy annihilation, my days were full of energy and absorbing interest; and yet my troubles and the stress of circumstances were what others would have thought even harder and sadder than before; but I was coming into my inheritance, daily learning where to look for and how to reach the divine source of all good. Steadily and gently the way to God was shown me; every difficulty and doubt was met through the Bible and Science and Health.

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