Testimony of Healing September 28, 1907 Issue

I have received so much help from our periodicals that...

Harvey Hazlett

I have received so much help from our periodicals that my heart overflows with gratitude and love to God, good. Ofttimes the good articles bring tears of joy to my eyes, and my heart responds, "Bless the Lord, O my soul;" because the truth has changed me from being a man of the world to a man of God. I am now living alone in my home, so far as mortals are concerned, yet not alone, for I am conscious of the presence of God. Mrs. Eddy says "The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart" (Science and Health, p. 265). I have had experience in this line and I know that her words are true. I am what the world calls a poor man,—a day laborer,—but I am glad I can say that I am an heir to the "King of glory," and I thank God that I can be a laborer in the vineyard of Truth. I send my testimony in the hope that some one whose spiritual and physical healing is slow, may not be discouraged but joyfully press on in the strait and narrow way which leads to harmony. The light will surely come if we are sincere and honest.

I first heard of Christian Science in the spring of 1891. At that time I was to sense a hopeless cripple, having lost the use of my left arm by a severe injury when I was about fifteen years old. My arm and shoulder seemed to shrink, and I was in that condition about sixteen years. I could get no help from materia medica. The last surgeon I went to see gave me no satisfaction, and I never expected to use my arm again. When I heard of Christian Science I was perfectly willing to try it, for I had reached the point where there was nothing else to try. After commencing the treatment it was some time before I could realize any benefit, but I gradually began to use my arm, and at the end of four or five months I was doing so steadily, and have used it now for sixteen years.

I am glad that I live in this age when the Christ-healing has again appeared, and I want to show my gratitude to God, and to our dear Leader, by following in the footsteps of Christ. Before coming into an understanding of Christian Science I often wondered why God had led me in the way He did. I could not understand how He could be a God of love and permit us to go through such deep waters of affliction and trouble; but through the illuminating power of divine Truth we learn that we have been led safely through all. This knowledge is brought about by a right understanding of God and of man's relation to Him. I remember that in the past I have rejoiced over some temporal blessing or some material gain, but when I came to know Him better my heart went out in thankfulness for spiritual blessings and for the overcoming of sin. Jesus said, "Rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven;" and again, "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." When I look back on some things that I thought terrible to be borne, I now feel like saying with Paul, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Paul knew that God was leading him, and he knew that God's leading was always in wisdom and love. How often we have charged God with bringing some calamity upon us, when from His very nature, which is Love, He could not possibly do so; and how our hearts rejoice when through the understanding of Christian Science we overcome some trial of our faith, and how we bless the dear Father for leading us beside the still waters of peace and trust. When we are governed and controlled by God, divine Principle, we are not led into trouble.

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