Testimony of Healing December 26, 1908 Issue

For many years I have hesitated to send in my testimony,...

Lurline H. Swain

For many years I have hesitated to send in my testimony, feeling that as I did not seek Christian Science for physical healing, and had no unusual experience to relate along that line, it would not prove of much interest in comparison with others so much more impressive; but I now realize that the smallest mite is acceptable unto God, and that we cannot hope or expect to receive blessings unless we give something in return. I want to add my grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christian Science to those thousands of others, who through the pages of the Sentinel and Journal bring hope to many weary hearts,—to those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness and peace and waiting to be filled.

For about nine years I have looked to no other source than Christian Science for relief from physical ills, and it has never failed. Chronic stomach trouble, and severe headaches, etc., disappeared gradually as I studied the Bible and Science and Health, and I can now discern to some extent the meaning of Isaiah's words concerning a state of existence in which "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity;" for when disease is blotted out from the human mind it will not be manifested on the body, even as there would be no sin committed were it not first conceived in the human mind. Christian Scientists also know that the physical healing is of small importance compared with the spiritual regeneration or baptism,—that putting off of "the old man" of which the material manifestation is but the natural result.

I wish to say that in a time of sorrow and loss Christian Science brought me such comfort as I never dreamed would be possible, and I am grateful for this above all else. Even the slight understanding of God which I had gained, of Life as All-in-all,—filling all space and leaving no room for its opposite called death,—so uplifted me above the thought of death as to enable me to see that the real man is God's image and likeness, and cannot die any more than God, who is eternal Life, can die. Although the sense of separation from our loved ones is a trial, the bitterness of which disappears only as we gain a higher understanding of the truth of being, the "sting of death" is taken away by the teachings of Christian Science and we know that the grave has not won a victory. We then learn to profit by these trials, and they become stepping-stones to a higher condition of thought, turning us away from matter to Spirit, where all real being is. It is only thus that we can realize with Paul, that "all things work together for good to them that love God."

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