During early boyhood, in the spring of 1867, I was taken...

E. F. Parmelee

During early boyhood, in the spring of 1867, I was taken suddenly with an ailment so alarming that my life was despaired of, but under the care of our family physician in a few weeks I was out and was sent West to a farm owned by an uncle, where I rapidly regained health and strength. The lesion remained, however, and continued to cause me more or less disquiet, any unusual exercise bringing a strain.

This brings us down to my healing in 1904. That year I was called suddenly to my boyhood's home. I had been suffering severely for a day or two with my old trouble. During the journey I was in great physical discomfort, and was, to say the least, in a state of exceeding mental disquiet. On arrival at Buffalo, I went immediately to a Christian Science practitioner, who worked faithfully for me, else I doubt if I should have succeeded in reaching home. The symptoms developed so alarmingly that I left uncompleted the object of my trip, returning next morning to Boston. On my arrival I telephoned to a practitioner whom I knew. I fully expected a siege, although trying to know the unreality, as understood in Science, of the whole wretched business. That night I slept comfortably for the first time in five days. The next morning I arose and dressed with greatly restricted suffering, ate my breakfast and wrote two letters. The third day I visited the office at noon, with scarcely a trace of the trouble; taking up my regular work on the day following.

Healing in Christian Science is not simply an alleviation, it is a healing from start to finish. I have ever since been able to twist my side in any way, lean forward, back, or sideways and touch the floor with my finger-tips in any direction, with no sense of obstruction,—something I could not do before. The clarified thought of the practitioners laid bare the falsity of "the lesion," and I have no fear of its re-appearance. In resultant gratitude I am studying the text-book, Bible Lessons, the Sentinel, Journal, and other authorized literature pertaining to Christian Science.

If gratitude for blessings always at hand be an attribute of Christianity, why should not a grateful recognition of Mrs. Eddy's work and its results, in perceiving and re-establishing an understanding of primitive Christian healing, be conceded by theologians and everybody else as the greatest evidence of real Christianity, in that it fulfils the divine command so often reiterated, "Preach the gospel," "heal the sick." Future generations will concede her the crowning glory of having again re-instated the Messiah, or spiritual knowing, in human consciousness. While the various creeds have argued the letter, she has perceived its life-giving spirit. While the various theological interpretations have been relatively barren of results, she has fulfilled the spiritual prophecy, "By their fruits ye shall know them."—E. F. Parmelee, Boston, Mass.

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