Testimony of Healing May 1, 1909 Issue

About nine years ago I was having trouble with my...

J. E. Hibbard

About nine years ago I was having trouble with my eyes. For nearly two years I had been unable to see, and was obliged to stay in a dark room at times. Five doctors in Chicago had done everything they could for me, without being able to effect a cure. Some of them advised the removal of one of my eyes, hoping thereby to restore the sight of the other, but I could not bring myself to consent to that. The doctors agreed that my case was a strange one, and there must have been twenty or thirty different doctors who examined my eyes on various occasions. One of them lectured before a medical society on my case and wrote it up for a medical journal. I was terribly discouraged, but about this time I became acquainted with a lady in Chicago who told me of Christian Science. I had no faith in it, and became very angry whenever she talked about it, but one day, after a very discouraging interview with my doctor, I decided to try Christian Science as a last resort. That evening I told my friend of my decision, and made an engagement to go next day to visit a practitioner. I did so, and after a few weeks' treatment I was able to read and go to work again, and ever since I have had no trouble whatever with my eyes.

It came to the knowledge of the practitioner that besides the trouble with my eyes I was a drunkard, and that whisky had a pretty firm hold on me. She became interested in me, and sat down and talked to me as no one ever had before. I had never known a mother's love, and she impressed me, but I told her that I had will-power enough never to let whisky make a slave of me, and I would not listen to her helping me on the liquor question. Well, I drifted along, drinking at times, and finally went to California. There I would be sober for a month or two, and then I would go on a regular spree, sometimes for a month at a time. I can truthfully say I never loved liquor, and I fought against it with all my boasted will-power, but I kept getting worse, and after I had gone through the horrors of the calamity which struck the beautiful city of San Francisco, I lost all control of myself. When I look back and think of what a life I led my wife those years, I do not see how she ever stood it. We came East, and I got so bad that she just had to give me up. At last I found myself with no money, home, or friends; in fact, I had reached the end of my rope. Finally I was obliged to sober up for want of money to buy drink; then I began to look around me. Where were my friends? I could not get a dollar to save my life. After thinking the matter over, I made up my mind that right here was where I needed Christian Science, and I needed it badly! I sat down and wrote my former practitioner, begging her to help me. I shall never forget the letter she wrote me! She certainly showed me who and what I was. I had sunk about as low as a human being could and live, but she said that if I was in earnest and really wanted to be taken out of the gutter and become a man, she would do all she could to help me. Strange to say, not an angry thought entered my mind while I was reading her letter, for I knew that every word of it was true, but a feeling of peace and thankfulness came over me, and from that moment I have never had the least desire for liquor.

I am very grateful to dear Mrs. Eddy for showing us the way to accomplish what was done for me. I know I am thoroughly healed and my life is happier in every way. My wife is again with me. She knows she has no reason to fear that I shall ever again yield to the temptation to drink. My business is getting better, in fact everything is better than it ever was before, and I do hope that some poor unfortunate, as I was, will be benefited by reading my story and be led to go to the only source of all real help, through Christian Science.

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