Testimony of Healing August 15, 1908 Issue

In obeying the Scripture, "Let the redeemed of the Lord...

Alvaretta B. Russell

In obeying the Scripture, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," I rejoice in the desire to attest publicly to the efficacy of Christian Science in the healing of sin and sickness. Words are inadequate to express my love and gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for pointing out the way to peace and happiness and showing me how to walk in it, even to the realization of what it means to be God's children. I am glad to say, that through the healing of a discordant, unhappy disposition, many diseased physical conditions, some of which would otherwise have been incurable, have been overcome.

For over fifteen years I suffered from spinal trouble, different physicians declaring different causes for its existence. I wish to speak only briefly of the intense suffering I endured in trying to be obedient and to do my part to be relieved of this condition, which I had often been told would result disastrously if not soon overcome, and very slight hope was held out for me. I could walk only a little, could not sit up all day, while I seldom slept more than four hours out of the twenty-four, and was never without pain. Besides all this I had serious eye trouble for years, and at last could not read or sew, even with glasses, on account of severe pain in the eyes and failure to see. I also had stomach and bowel trouble, and severe headaches, which attacked me as often as once in two weeks and generally lasted over twenty-four hours. For nearly a year there had been serious bowel trouble, and the doctor said that the one chance for help in this trouble was a surgical operation. I could not consent to this, as I had undergone one operation to no avail, and I almost passed on while under the anesthetic. I feared another operation more than I feared death without it. I could eat scarcely anything, and besides the diseases mentioned I also suffered from heart and lung trouble. I had been treated by the best physicians available in my eastern home, and had also tried some of the best reputed health springs. Then I cam to California, and was under the care of some of the best physicians of Los Angeles. I had tried all systems of medicine. I had given them all a thorough trial, being under medical treatment for fifteen years, and four months with osteopathy, and I desire to say that each one of the physicians was patient and kind in his endeavor to cure or even relieve me of the awful suffering.

In this condition—without hope for physical relief and without belief that a God existed who answered prayer—I was urged by a dear friend to try Christian Science, and consented to go with her to a practitioner that day. I took my first Christian Science treatment at four o'clock in the afternoon, returned home, and enjoyed the first dinner of ordinary food that I had eaten for nearly a year. I slept all that night, and have not missed a meal or lost a night's sleep since, on account of illness. The first treatment, which was four and a half years ago, healed me absolutely and permanently of the stomach and bowel trouble, natural activity being reestablished. In a few weeks the headache was entirely gone; the heart trouble was also healed about that time, and the diseased lung was instantly healed during the reading of the Bible Lesson at a Sunday morning service. Then I knew I was beginning to find and understand a God who hears and answers prayer. It took nearly three years to overcome entirely the spinal trouble, though it was partially relieved in a short time. The eye trouble was almost entirely healed in two years. I am thankful for the spiritual gains which attended the slow healing as well as for the quicker relief, for I have learned in this way what it means to work out our own salvation. I have learned somewhat of the truth that makes us free, and how to apply it in time of need, which is all the time.

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