Testimony of Healing August 14, 1909 Issue

I have long desired to give my testimony of blessings...

Emeretta S. Van Dine

I have long desired to give my testimony of blessings received through Christian Science, but words can convey only a faint idea of them. I first heard of this teaching about eleven years ago. As I was then in good health and very happy, a church-member, and trying to live a Christian life as I understood it, I thought I did not need Christian Science, although I could readily see the great change which had taken place in the dear one who presented the truth to me. The reading of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, was sweet music to my ears, as the beautiful words came forth from lips cleansed of profanity and made to praise God by voicing His truth.

From time to time I read the literature, for possibly three years, when another Christian Scientist was a welcome guest at my home. This visit was a very enjoyable event, for I had all my questions answered so clearly and rationally that I became hungry to know more of Christian Science. Not long after that I procured a copy of Science and Health, and ever since then it has been the most closely read book in my home. By its study the Bible has become more interesting than before; light has been shed upon its pages, and gradually the misty sense of life and the future has cleared away and the real appears. The healthy tone and ideal life-inspiration of Science and Health were enough to keep me interested, until the truth it taught dawned on my consciousness. The first benefit I received was the overcoming of melancholy attacks, through my thoughts being filled with the good I daily read. Thus it was that Mrs. Eddy's statement was proven to me even before I expected: "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love" (Science and Health, p. 201). I enjoyed such a spiritual uplift that I ceased to do my work from a sense of duty, but rather as a privilege, thereby to reflect God as Love, especially to the dear ones in the home.

One day, I read in the Journal a testimony of eyesight being restored through the daily study of Science and Health. I was surprised, yet believing. As I had worn spectacles about six years for a serious trouble, I felt encouraged that I, too, might be healed, though I had been told by a specialist that I must always wear glasses. So in faith "believing" I took up the study in earnest, thinking that herein was the truth which makes free. The first day I laid the glasses off my eyes did not feel at all tired, so then I only wore them for special work, but not for reading. Finally I laid them aside entirely, and have not used them for five years. I know that I gained in spiritual perception, which was manifest in clear sight, and I do my work, whatever I wish, regardless of the time of day. It has been a great joy to me to see so clearly as to be of use in the Cause and serve as Second Reader for a year and a half in our society here.

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