Testimony of Healing April 3, 1909 Issue

In September of 1907 I had a severe attack of nervous...

Mary La Forge Bohl

In September of 1907 I had a severe attack of nervous illness. My family doctor told me he could do nothing for me; that I must have patience, and I would gradually come out of it. In about two weeks' time I was able to be out of bed, but this did not mean that I was better. I was afflicted with extreme depression, and realized that I must do everything in my power to fight it off; I also worried about money matters, and in fact everything about which it was possible to worry. My friends realized something of my condition and did everything they could to help me, but all to no purpose. I lost flesh steadily, and when I would meet people who had not seen me for some time they would exclaim, "What in the world have you been doing to yourself!"

I would like to say that this state of mind was entirely contrary to anything I had previously experienced, as my natural disposition had been to look on the bright side of things. For about three months I had been getting only two or three hours of restless sleep in a night. I was tempted many times to take drugs for this trouble, but then I would have the fear that I might become addicted to the habit, and as I had seen some of the awful results of this in a friend, I abstained, because I realized it would only mean more suffering. The following February I visited an osteopath. I took this treatment for about six weeks, with the result that at first I did sleep a little better and then I seemed to be getting worse all the time.

About that time I went to visit a friend, and she told me of some one who, as she expressed it, thought he had been cured by Christian Science, and she urged me to try it. I thought the matter over and decided that it certainly would not do me any harm to go and see about it. At that time the only knowledge I had of Christian Science was from reading an article now and then in the newspapers, and this would hardly encourage one to take it up; but I obtained the address of a practitioner and went to call on her. She tried to show me the light and gave me the text-book, Science and Health, to read. I read the book faithfully, but did not then understand it, and seemed to be growing worse. A few days after my visit the practitioner sent me a marked copy of the Sentinel. The testimony was that of a man whose experience was similar to my own, and it gave me courage to go again and ask her to try to do something for me. I had not asked her to do this on my previous visit, as at that time I was only looking for a little explanation of the Science, and thinking that perhaps I might become interested in it. I went to her when it seemed to me there was no hope left, but in just four weeks from that time I was feeling better than I had felt in years, and would not know that I ever had such a thing as nerves.

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