Testimony of Healing June 8, 1907 Issue

It is about fourteen months ago that I first heard of...

S. M. Sydenham

It is about fourteen months ago that I first heard of Christian Science and began to take an interest in it. I had reached a state of dissatisfaction with almost everything pertaining to religion, and for a few weeks had ceased to attend any place of worship. I was anxious to live as a Christian should, but when in a place where Jesus' teachings should show some tangible results, and I saw so much that was opposed to his teaching, how could it satisfy? It did not. For some four months previous to this time my mother and sisters had been attending Christian Science services at a private house, and had told me a good deal of what they heard, and soon after the meetings were held in a room hired for that purpose I went to my first service. There I met a servant of God who broke the bread, and I immediately saw that if the teaching was such as could be followed by every one, it was indeed the one thing needful. I at once began to study for myself, and in doing so a stomach trouble of over two years' standing lost its seeming power and vanished into nothingness.

I shall never forget one demonstration which occurred only a month or two after I began to study. I was in great pain, and could not control the groans which this brought forth. Knowing little of the means whereby Science brought relief, I concentrated my thought on the "scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468); also the passage, "Nothing is real and eternal,—nothing is Spirit,—but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense" (ibid., p. 71), and the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer (ibid., p. 16), which I had committed to memory. In about an hour I suddenly realized that I was well, and over me came a sense of peace and exhilaration that words cannot express. The truth had made me free.

I have had more real happiness, peace, love, and joy during my short study of Christian Science than ever before and have many blessings to be thankful for. There is yet much error to be overcome, but with all my heart I thank Mrs. Eddy for her unselfish labor and love for every one; that through her perception of the truth, and her teaching, we are able more clearly to see and know "what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."—S. M. Sydenham, Scarborough, York, England.

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