Testimony of Healing October 15, 1910 Issue

Six years ago I went through an operation which I was...

Gertrude H. French

Six years ago I went through an operation which I was in hopes would make a strong woman of me, but as time went on I found that I was just as great a sufferer as before entering the hospital. As this state of things became more and more apparent, I began to grow despondent, irritable, and moody, and I realized that a crisis had come in my life, on whose issue my whole future happiness hung. Just at this time a friend, without knowing my state of mind, suggested our visiting the Christian Science church. That evening I attended a testimony meeting, and there met one who afterward became my faithful practitioner. In one week's time my healing, physical and mental, was so wonderful that my husband accompanied me to the church, where we have since become members.

Eight months from that time my husband changed his business and secured an income far beyond anything we had thought possible. Things went along smoothly for some time, and then a dark hour came when everything was gradually taken away from us. Conditions grew from bad to worse, until I was really more wretched than when Science found me. At length, one day, when far removed from the practitioner who had treated me, humbled and absolutely broken in spirit, I fell on my knees and cried to God to show me light. Like the little child that He would have me be, I knelt there waiting—waiting for my answer—and the great Love that never fails in our hour of need, heard and answered me. It was as if a heavy veil was lifted from me, and I for the first time saw my true self, and there was but one word that would describe the opposite mortal concept, viz., "ingrate."

In vain I looked for one instance where I had in some measure given, for all I had received, but with shame I realized that there had been nothing but carelessness, neglect, and ingratitude for all the health, wealth, and happiness that Love alone could bestow. I understood at last that the demonstration from the first had been made through another's understanding of the truth, and not through any work on my part. That hour of humiliation saw the birth of the Christ-idea in my consciousness, and with the peace "that passeth all understanding," I arose a little child indeed, willing, eager to be led, guarded, and guided by the one Father-Mother God. I took up the Bible, our text-book, Science and Health, and the Quarterly,and began to work. From that day my understanding has grown, and today I can truly say that I have a firm foundation which nothing can overthrow, and I thank God for the truth which in every hour of bitterness, pain, and misery helped to lead me from darkness into light.

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