Testimony of Healing March 26, 1910 Issue

Christian Science found me an invalid, and the first one...

with contributions from T. O. Leeland

Christian Science found me an invalid, and the first one to convey this teaching to me was a sister of mine who lived on a farm in the state of Washington. She had been to Tacoma with her husband, who was under medical care and in a critical condition, and while there they heard of Christian Science through some one who had been healed. It was presented in such a sensible way that they decided they would attend the next Wednesday evening meeting, and my sister, who had been using medicine, claimed that she was healed during the meeting. On seeing the proof, her husband decided to give up medicine and visit a practitioner, and from the very beginning he found that the treatments were helping him.

My sister became enthusiastic about this teaching and came back home again to tell me of it. Listening to her, I became hopeful and decided I would do as she said these people did, in trusting God without using any material remedies, but the book she referred to I thought I had no use for, as I had read the Bible so much and believed it, and besides I thought there was no better teaching than that of the church to which I belonged. After a while I found that this way of thinking did not improve my condition, and I became dissatisfied, thinking it to be according to God's will that I was sick. A month later, when my brother-in-law came home and brought with him the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, he read to me, but I did not take any interest in it, as I thought I had already convinced myself that there was nothing in this teaching. Time went on, and I knew from the past that I was marching on to an early grave. I could see no other end to it, as I had been most thoughtful about myself in regaining my health. I had been under the best of medical treatment, and followed every rule laid down, yet I grew continually worse.

One day the thought came to me to take the text-book and read it, and as I did so I came to this short sentence, "Time is no part of eternity" (Science and Health, p. 468). I asked myself if this was true, and I thought how often I had heard ministers in the churches preach on this subject, and that they always made comparisons in order to show their hearers the need of being prepared for the hereafter. By reasoning on this point I saw that a space of time having both beginning and ending could not possibly be any part of eternity, which has neither beginning nor ending, and the book became interesting to me. The next point I gained was where Mrs. Eddy shows how the material senses mislead us, and I saw this to be true; also the need of obeying the Scriptural injunction, "Prove all things; hold fact that which is good." Thus I gained one point after another, and before I expected, I found I was improving.

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