Testimony of Healing August 28, 1909 Issue

In looking back at my first experience in Christian Science...

Violet A. Webster

In looking back at my first experience in Christian Science, some seven years ago, I feel as if others might be helped by hearing of it. My healing of an organic trouble of long standing was instantaneous. This new truth-healing appeared very marvelous to me then, yet I did not seem to grasp its full significance. It seemed to me that it was a wonderful physical remedy (and this is possibly true of many beginners in Science, and of those who have experienced quick healings), so when any ailment arose I would ask a practitioner for help, just as I had asked help of a physician. I had faith that God would heal that particular ailment, but so little did I realize the "works of the Lord," that I did not see the value of studying and working myself, to know that God meets our every need. After several years of this "mental laziness," there came sorrow, financial problems, stubborn physical claims, and then only did I see that I had need to avail myself of the whole promise,-that I must ask, if I would receive. By earnest study on my part, with a practitioner's help over the hardest places, all discord was overcome, and I understood what Paul meant when he said, "We glory in tribulations," for through tribulations I had learned what progress really is in the life of a Christian Scientist. We must work out our own salvation; progress while we have the light, before the night cometh.

From my own experience I feel that we cannot too forcibly impress the necessity of attending the church services regularly, studying the Lessons prayerfully, and reading our periodicals, for only in this way are we made fully cognizant of the all-power of Truth. On this plane of thought we see so much that brings the material point of view before us, and especially in the business world, where the thought of competition and limitation is held, that we should seek to see through these conditions, and take time to do our daily mental work. To study faithfully the Lessons, and to carry the demonstrated thought to the weekly services, greatly blesses ourselves and others. The careful reading of the periodicals is another splendid help, for each number contains some demonstrable truth which shows us the mighty work God has done and is doing for mankind, and this helps us to solve some individual problem. God's work is done, and we cannot doubt the availability of the divine help in every time of need. Understanding this great fact, we know that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven, and this means that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" (Science and Health, p. 468); all is harmony here and now.

It is with gratitude to Truth that I tell of a quick healing which came to me in Christian Science. I was, at the time, living in a family of twelve, each member of which had been stricken down under a prevailing epidemic, and confined to the bed for two weeks or more. As I was the only Scientist in the house, it took a clear realization of Truth's power to down the thought of contagion, and finally mortal mind seemed to succumb. I awoke one morning with all the symptoms, fever, chills, great pain, etc., but by the declaration of God as my strength, I was enabled to rise and go to a Christian Science practitioner. By this time the discord seemed so great that I was unable to think clearly for myself, but with the earnest help of the practitioner I fell asleep about two o'clock in the afternoon, and awoke perfectly free, not only from the sense of disease, but from the sense of fear which it had engendered. The winter after this I was called upon to nurse a friend, not a Scientist, who had the same disease. I had to sleep for two weeks in the same bed with her, in a room in which she could endure no air. She herself was fearful lest I should contract the trouble from her, but I knew that the host of God with me was mightier than the seeming host of errors, and I felt not the slightest sense of fear, nor did any bad result follow.

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In looking back at my first experience in Christian Science...

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