Testimony of Healing April 25, 1908 Issue

Happiness and Christian Science came to me at the...

Eleanor Armistead (Appleton) Standen

Happiness and Christian Science came to me at the same time, and I must confess that at first the former seemed to mean much more than the latter; but as the years have gone on since then I have come to see more and more clearly that it is only through Christian Science that my happiness has come to me, and that without it there can be no real or lasting happiness. For a long time I had been searching for a God whose ways and laws I could understand; I felt instinctively that the words, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled," were true, but I had no suspicion of how I was going to be filled, how overwhelmingly I would be blessed and benefited in every way. I did not accept Christian Science without many a hard struggle, but I thank God that I persevered, even when many things seemed dark and unintelligible to my limited understanding, and now I know that "the natural man" cannot understand "the deep things of God," for they are only to be discerned spiritually, by one's becoming as a little child, humble and meek.

Three children have been born to us, and on each occasion Christian Science was our only resort. Each time the birth was practically painless, though I was almost thirty-three years old when my first baby was born, and all untoward conditions, both before and after the births, were met and overcome through Christian Science. To a mother with young children Christian Science is indeed the Word that heals. I have seen bowel and throat trouble, also a feverish attack, yield to the truth, besides the various little ills that often come up when the children are teething. We have never used medicine, and the children have never seen a doctor. The gratitude that fills my heart when I try to realize what I owe to Christian Science is quite unspeakable. When we trust to God alone, the peace that comes to the consciousness indeed "passeth all understanding."

A very wonderful and beautiful thing happened to me a few months ago, when my baby was not three weeks old. My nurse was still with me, and on my complaining one day of a slight pain in the breast, she made an examination and took my temperature, to discover that I had high fever and that there were indications of serious trouble with the breast. A telegram was at once sent to a practitioner in London, and I went to bed. During the whole of that afternoon I tried to realize the Allness of God, and I knew, with a certainty that nothing could shake, that Truth and Truth alone could heal me. I had perfect trust and confidence in God, and, like a little child, I rested in His care and fell quietly asleep. Before midnight the fever was broken; by morning it was completely gone, and I ate a hearty breakfast. During the day the pain ceased, and in just forty-eight hours from the time I had gone to bed I went out for a walk with my husband. I was absolutely well again, and nursed my baby through it all.

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