Article August 10, 1907 Issue

Editor Herald:—Having once held the same opinions as...

Elizabeth Pogson

The Yorkshire (England) Herald

Editor Herald:—Having once held the same opinions as your correspondent "Fairplay," regarding Christian Scientists and their asserted neglect of the children's health, I feel it my duty to enlighten him as to why those opinions changed. Seven years ago our little boy, then one month old, developed gastritis in a severe form. Six months previous to that we had lost a little girl, six months old, with the same complaint. She had been under medical treatment since her birth. The boy was under the doctor's treatment for eleven months, having the best medicine he could give him, and as this certain medicine was so expensive the doctor never resorted to it except in extreme cases. The latter part of the time the boy was supposedly kept alive on blood from raw steak. His condition was so bad that he had to be weighted twice a week for the doctor to tell if there was any change at all. When he was nearly twelve months old he weighed eleven and three-quarters pounds.

Just at this time Christian Science was presented to us, and after passing the usual criticisms and condemnation upon it, we decided to put it to the test upon myself, and I was wonderfully healed in five days of varicose veins. Still we dared not even then trust the children to it, for we would never dream of going to bed without the boy's medicine by our side. Soon, however, the time came when we knew that we must trust God with our children as well, so we threw away the medicine. That night the child had a bad attack, screaming with the usual pain, and I can assure you it would have been far easier for us to have given him a dose of medicine and consoled ourselves with the thought that we had done our best, than to sit up, after a long day's work, and read the Bible and the Christian Science text-book, and try to realize the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of God, also what Jesus meant by "the will of God." But this we did, with the result that in fifteen minutes he was quietly sleeping, and slept till morning. The next night he had another attack, which was overcome in less time, and that was the last attack he ever had, and very soon he began to manifest health and was able to eat food of any sort.

Now let "Fairplay" picture to himself a boy, strong and sturdy, who can eat anything at any time and do anything, and then picture what he gave promise of becoming if he lived, a sickly child, always suffering, kept on special diet, and unable to enjoy the sports of other children; then your correspondent will be able to judge whether we "neglected the health" of our child in giving him Christian Science treatment. Looking at these facts, is it any wonder that I should feel grateful to Christian Science and be only too willing to help any of the hundreds of mothers who are being worn out through the constant care of sick children?

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