Testimony of Healing August 25, 1906 ISSUE

For several months prior to June, 1904, my eyes had been...

Douglas C. Ridgley with contributions from Belle A. Armstrong

For several months prior to June, 1904, my eyes had been giving me trouble. I was advised to wear glasses, carefully shade the room in which I met my classes, as I am a teacher, and to read but little, so that the eyes might have as complete rest as possible. For the next ten months I tried to regain my failing sight by this means. My wife read to me the books most necessary for my work, and made abstracts for ready reference. A capable student made abstracts from numerous library sources. I examined these abstracts briefly, or had them read to me. The school authorities placed special shades on the windows of my class-room, so that the light could be carefully regulated. Under the conditions my work was carried on fairly well, but no cure was being effected.

In April, 1905 I noticed in our Normal School Library a file of Christian Science Journals. I selected one and found an article on Inductive and Deductive Reasoning, which I read with less strain on my eyes than when I had read other printed matter. The writer quoted from Science and Health (p. 468), "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All in all." This interested me in the text-book, and I obtained a copy of it and began reading. I found some statements which seemed true and helpful, and many others which conflicted with my previous studies. I, however, read on, and found to my surprise that I could read this book for several hours each day without much difficulty. I read it through, then read it a second time with a growing conviction that it contained the explanation of Christianity as the practical, ever-present, ever-operative salvation from sin and sickness for which the human heart has always yearned. A third reading brought home to me the certainty that here was an interpretation of the Scriptures in which humanity might well rejoice and be exceeding glad, for God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. I had always wondered when and why the works of healing, as performed by Christ Jesus and his disciples, had been discontinued. I now learned to my great satisfaction that the Christ is the same to-day as when Jesus walked in Galilee, and that the laws he then demonstrated are eternal, and operative now as then.

During this study I had turned to my Bible again and again, and read the works of Christ Jesus with a new and fuller sense of the meaning. I saw that what had been done for blind Bartimaeus could be done and was being done for me. The reading of Science and Health had done for me in a few days more than the resting of the eyes had done in ten months. In order that I might obtain more rapidly the benefits which I felt sure were in Christian Science, I sought the services of a practitioner. On the evening after my first treatment I read manuscript for two hours without serious inconvenience. I had been unable to read manuscript to any extent for months. On the following Saturday I spent four hours continuously reading manuscript, and writing. I received one treatment each week, read Science and Health, and rapidly added to the amount of reading in my regular work. I did not take more frequent treatments, as I wanted the benefits to be derived from a personal investigation of Christian Science through a diligent study of Science and Health. After four treatments I was reading as much as necessary with but slight inconvenience. After twelve treatments the eyes were strong, and I have since that time read as much as my work required,—often eight to twelve hours per day.

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