Testimony of Healing March 12, 1910 Issue

After many years of waiting, I desire to add my testimony...

Frank B. Homans

After many years of waiting, I desire to add my testimony to those coming from the field. Twelve years ago I was absolutely destitute of any religious belief. It had been eighteen years since I attended church, except perhaps on a few special occasions. In fact, I was very bitter against religion, as what I had been taught about God made me hate instead of love Him, for He seemed to be the embodiment of injustice rather than love. It made me feel defiant to think that God had brought me into this world, filled me with a nature predisposed to do wrong, and then arranged to inflict eternal punishment if I did not yield my individuality to doing those things which seemed unreasonable for me to do. I could not accept the theories taught in the churches which I had tried in early life. I had been christened in one church, raised in another, becoming a probationary but not a real member, joined another, and also attended still another for about two years,—all this before I was twenty-four. After that I quit.

At the age of forty-five I was very profane, addicted to smoking, an occasional drinker, fond of gambling, and I drifted into any and all of the usual pleasures of a man who takes life easy. Now, all these things are of the past; not only the habits, but all desire for these things has departed since I have learned what man really is. I had always despised profanity, but all attempts to free myself from the habit failed. This habit left me first, and smoking went next—I forgot it. Gambling held the strongest charm, but what formerly seemed perfectly fair and square now seemed like stealing—I could not take another man's money simply because I held a better card than he. I did not want it, and so the game had no further attraction. Drinking—well, I had no use for that either; I needed what intelligence I could reflect, free and clear from entanglements, and so one night, after I returned from a Wednesday evening meeting at The Mother Church. I went to my cellar, loaded all my cherished liquors into a basket, carried it out on the rocks behind the barn, and one by one dropped the bottles to destruction.

During a time of great trial Christian Science came into my home, and although physical healing was not realized, I learned something of what its teaching is, and I realized its practical, common-sense basis, which I could not only understand, but prove. I knew it was the Christ-teaching revealed to this age, even if I did not realize the one thing I so greatly desired. I found myself drawn to this new (to me) religion with an irresistible love, with a strong desire to press on and learn more of it. Later on, other friends and relatives who tried Christian Science failed to get the healing, and some returned to medical treatment. Of course I saw many small proofs, such as cures of colds, fever, etc., but there was always the argument, "Well, they would have recovered anyway." I was still in the Thomas class, and must see the nail prints for myself. It was an indisputable proof that I wanted, in order to explain why I clung to something so foreign to my former habits of thinking. During these five years I attended The Mother Church in Boston, heard the marvelous testimonies each week, believed every one of them (because I knew it was possible), but not one single case or indisputable proof came to my personal knowledge.

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