Testimony of Healing March 9, 1907 Issue

As I think over the wonderful success of Christian Science,...

John O. Zuch with contributions from Helen S. Pennell

As I think over the wonderful success of Christian Science, of its practical benefit to all mankind, and of the inestimable value and help it has been to me, a great sense of gratitude and love compels me to express my thanks to Mrs. Eddy for her great gift to all mankind. I write this testimony with a desire to encourage those who are in doubt as to the practical benefit and regenerative influence that Christian Science has upon all who sincerely seek its aid. Many who hesitate to put all their trust in the demonstrable truth taught by Christ Jesus and discovered in this age by Mrs. Eddy, are restored to mental and physical health through the results of her unceasing toil and self-sacrifice, and encouraged to press on until the goal is reached. When a child I met with an accident which necessitated a most serious amputation. As I grew towards manhood I was conscious of my seemingly great loss, and I became morbid and melancholy. My mental suffering was greater year by year, until at last in desperation I traveled from place to place, seeking something to distract my thought from this unbearable condition. As a more acute sense of suffering came from time to time, I would seek relief in drink, so that I might, if but momentarily, forget my great distress. I was aging rapidly; I had no sense of rest or peace; no friends; no love. I was so lonely that I appeared to myself to be the only human being on earth.

I belonged to an orthodox church, and I tried to live up to its teachings, but I seemed to receive no help. I was unable to overcome sin. I had been taught that as God is almighty He made all there is, including sickness and disease; that it was God's will that I should be in this condition, and that I should not murmur at what God chose to send me. In reading the Gospels one day, I asked myself why the professed followers of Christ Jesus do not heal the sick, the lame, the halt, and the blind as he did. My interest in the church waned; I felt that I had received more than my share of troubles; I even felt that God was an unrelenting taskmaster; that my earthly parents seemed to have more love for me than God had, for they would gladly restore me if they had the power. Life seemed a burden to me, and I wished it was ended. I asked for death; I saw no hope in life.

In this condition, this darkest hour in the depths of mental suffering, divine Love heard my cry and led me to the home of a Christian Scientist. There I met a lady whose attitude was a revelation to me. She did not regard me as an outcast; she treated me as a brother; with gentleness, kindness, love, she patiently showed me the unreality of the conditions which surrounded me; pointed out to me the great fact of being, that "man is not material; he is spiritual" (Science and Health, p. 468). Gently she led my thought from the material to the spiritual, and loaned me a copy of Science and Health to read. What attracted me first of all, was the positive statement of Mrs. Eddy that the works done by Christ Jesus could be repeated today; that is, the healing of the sick, the lame, the halt, and the blind. I began at the beginning and read the book carefully, with the result that I was cured from a chronic ear trouble which had been contracted in childhood. I was thankful indeed for this healing and desired more. I have since overcome the tobacco habit and other false appetites. With the aid of my practitioner I began to improve mentally and gained some wonderful glimpses of man's real being. I was beginning to see the real, the perfect man, as God created him in His own image and likeness.

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