Testimony of Healing April 13, 1907 Issue

In our far-away home in northern Mindanao the papers...

Grace P. G. Knudson

In our far-away home in northern Mindanao the papers and letters giving an account of the dedication and Communion services at The Mother Church, reached me but a week ago, Aug. 19, and last Sunday I had a special session all to myself, enjoying the Lesson-Sermon for the Communion service, and reading the printed accounts of the dedication. I know of no students of Christian Science nearer to us than Manila, which city it takes us from five to eight days to reach, and it was fourteen months ago that I had my last talk with a Scientist. We seem to live here in an atmosphere of conflicting human thought, and nearly all the time it has seemed difficult to maintain a reasonable mental poise. There have been periods when it has seemed difficult to apply the Science, but at such times I have been able to cling to the simple yet comprehensive statement, God is Love. Upon special occasions it has come home to me that God is here and is quite as active as in the midst of so-called civilization. Each time the lesson is brought to me it comes with added force; it comes also with an added humiliation that I should ever seem to forget and to doubt His presence.

During a residence of several years in the Philippine Islands I have known almost every variety of tropical disease to be successfully met by Christian Science treatment. My husband, who is not a student of Science, was attacked two years in succession by a fever, which kept him confined to his bed from one to two weeks each time. The third year it came upon him very severely one evening as we were preparing to entertain a large company of invited guests. By seven o'clock he was obliged to go to bed and I could get no time to do any special work for him until nearly twelve. Then, after working for him for perhaps fifteen minutes, I went to bed, to work intermittently as I lay in the dark during a wakeful night. In the morning he had no trace of illness. The fourth year the fever passed him by entirely. Several months later I found myself in a small town, temporarily cut off from the outside world by the breaking of the cables, and down with my first and only attack of tropical bowel trouble. It came suddenly and fiercely, and the thought of being alone in Science and not able even to obtain help from Manila, put me into a great state of fear. I read Science and Health as constantly as I could. The third day I was too weak to hold the book, so had it propped by a pillow beside me on the bed, but kept on reading. Then the fear began to subside and I grew better. With three days more of work I was able to go for an evening walk, quite myself once more. My husband had kindly refrained from speaking of my condition to the people in the town, and so it was not until I was entirely well that a dear American nurse came to see what she might do for me.

Five years of almost constant travel and adventure have impressed me most strongly with the sense of God's protection realized by one having even a slight knowledge of the application of the laws of Truth as taught by Christian Science; and this protection has been shown in the harmonious accomplishment of various undertakings and in a conscious spiritual exaltation in the face of difficulties overcome. One notable example was when, in 1904, my husband and myself made a trip of eight days into the interior of Mindanao. This trip had been accomplished before only by parties of men accustomed to "roughing it." It meant hard mountain climbing and every one soaking wet for hours at a stretch. All expeditions before ours had been fortified with whisky and quinine, but even so no one had returned without being the "worse for wear,"—several men having been laid up for days, and one young fellow suffering for weeks,—and we were advised of the bad personal effects of the trip if we did not take along several quarts of whisky and ounces of quinine. Besides ourselves, our party consisted of one young soldier and some thirteen native guides and carriers. The expedition was most harmonious and enjoyable,—no accidents, no colds, no bad effects of any sort resulted. It was the first and only eight days for seven years that I have been separated from a copy of Science and Health. Before we started I prayed for the protection of the party, and for the entire trip—like the violin obligato to a song—throughout every day's happenings there ran in my mind, Nothing can by any means harm God's children, and with it was an almost constant consciousness of spiritual exaltation. I am grateful for the knowledge that gives me this consciousness of protection,—grateful for this and for all the many blessings of Christian Science.

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