Testimony of Healing February 29, 1908 Issue

I had always been considered sickly and delicate, and...

Jessie E. Hall

I had always been considered sickly and delicate, and had suffered much from childhood up. As I grew older the physical conditions became worse, and I began to make really strenuous efforts to find some meaning and method in life. I failed in both efforts, although I submitted to an operation and did faithfully everything prescribed by materia medica. In my effort to find the "why" and "how" of life, I spent much time in the public library, searching for some book which would shed light on the mystery of existence. My researches only resulted in greater mental confusion, until I arrived at a state of agnosticism. I had kept up on will-power for years, and finding that this had failed me, I lapsed into a despondent, hopeless, and wretched state of mind. I was not given to complaining, or voicing my troubles, and I carried a constant sense of repression, which made the physical expression all the more intense, as the conditions seemed very real to me. I was irritable and nervous and suffered greatly from physical weakness. I also had acute attacks of pain, which were relieved only by the administration of morphine by a physician. I had various other ills, but I think the desire to die and the great exhaustion were the hardest to bear, as they were constant, whereas I was free from the other ills at times.

In April, 1904, through the earnest effort of a friend, I turned reluctantly and in desperation to Christian Science for help. I thought I knew a great deal about Christian Science through my investigation of "mental science," and supposed the two were practically the same, except the mental science was "more progressive and liberal," although my investigation had only increased my confustion of thought and led me to doubt some of the vital and fundamental truths of religion. When I came to investigate Christian Science, however, I learned what Life is, and how to live. I have gained perfectly normal health, and a peace and serenity of mind entirely unknown to me before. Of some things I was healed quickly, notably a weak heart, but on the whole my healing was slow. I have had to prove every step of the way, and every step has been won by hard and persistent work. This work, which I consider is just as important and necessary now as at first, consisted in the absolutely faithful daily study of the Bible and Science and Health, and in the earnest effort to live the truth as far as I saw it.

Although I was often impatient, I have never been really, sorry that the healing came to me and I feel that I have only a little glimmer of what Christian Science can be to me as I grow in understanding and clearness of vision. There is no emergency of life to which it cannot be successfully applied ; the only possible failure lies in the failure to apply correctly the Principle. On account of the angle at which they grew, I had five perfectly sound teeth (with one exception) extracted from a perfectly sound jaw, without the use of any material means whatever, except the forceps, without pain and almost without sensation. I had help from a faithful practitioner, and my own thought was clear. The dentist, too, was a Christian Scientist with a sure sense of God's presence, and this combined to make a perfect demonstration or proof of ever-present Love, so that no inconvenience of any sort resulted.

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