Testimony of Healing March 2, 1907 Issue

Several years ago I broke down in health with what was...

Elmer Grey

Several years ago I broke down in health with what was pronounced nervous exhaustion. At that time I was architect of First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Milwaukee, Wis. I was offered help by my Christian Science friends, but scorned it, and two years of invalidism followed. After trying "rest" and the climate of Florida for a time, and after spending two months in one sanitarium under the care of an eminent specialist, and six months in another under a physician who was not so eminent but from whom I received far more benefit, I finally removed to California. There, after spending several months fishing and boating on the island of Catalina, working for a while as a hired hand on a ranch, sleeping for several months in a tent, and much riding on horseback, I finally regained my health sufficiently to resume architectural work in a desultory way.

I first spent an hour or two a day in the office, as partner in an established business; but eight months after starting in, having increased my working day to six hours, my health again broke down. This time I again tried living in the open air in California for a couple of months, but with little appreciable benefit; then I took a trip to the South Sea Islands, returning from that far-away country of coral reefs and primitive people much worse than when I went away. I then returned to Wisconsin and spent an entire summer in the open air there, still with little appreciable gain. Beside being very nervous, I was afflicted with a lamentable inability to read or write, so much so that at times the mere signing of my name was an effort. I finally decided to return to California for the winter, but supposing that I would not be able to resume work for some time (indeed I thought it very likely that I could never resume my chosen work) I purchased a tent, which I intended to pitch in the Santa Monica Mountains near a ranch-house of which I knew, and there lead a quiet, though necessarily a solitary and joyless life. So difficult to me was reading and writing at this time, that before leaving home I asked my mother to write her address on a quantity of postal cards to save me the exertion, and I intended to pen her abbreviated reports of my condition upon them.

Just before leaving home my interest was thoroughly aroused in Christian Science. I had been prejudiced against it through the reading in former years of a semi-religious magazine whose attitude toward it was not very friendly, but upon my attention being called to a marvelous cure it had accomplished in the case of a friend whose illness had been similar to my own, I agreed to try it on the score that the end might justify the means. I considered the means pretty foolish, but the results in this case I could not question. With my tent, my addressed postal cards, and a copy of the Christian Science text-book (the latter borrowed from an open-minded Presbyterian who said that he had not yet been able to grasp what was in it, but nevertheless it might be a better form of Christianity than his own!), I started for the far West. While on the train and when nearing Sacramento I got out the copy of Science and Health and attempted to read. The first sentence of the first chapter, telling of the absolute faith that is necessary in order to be healed through Christian Science, struck me with the force of Truth. I also read the saying of Jesus: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." The assimilation of these two ideas I verily believe cured me then and there of my inability to read and write, for to my surprise and great joy I met with none of my former difficulty in continuing to read, and that evening I got off the train at Sacramento and wrote a long letter home. The recovery from nervousness came less rapidly, although that, too, was quick, and was brought about entirely through the reading of the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It might be well to say that right here I found out what Mrs Eddy means by the term "chemicalization." One of my troubles had been sleeplessness. My Christian Science friend had wisely told me that the mental upheaval incident to such a complete reversal of previously entertained views might occasion a temporary aggravation of physical symptoms—and such proved to be the case. For a week or more I slept but little—not nearly as much as previously—but my sleep was sounder, and such as there was of it seemed entirely adequate for the purpose of rest and refreshment. This unusual mental activity soon wore away, however, and I then slept normally.

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