When thirteen years of age, I sustained a serious injury to my left foot, and for nearly three years I was an invalid, undergoing during that period about a dozen operations for the removal of pieces of bone from the foot. When I finally recovered it was only to be assured that the old trouble might break out at any time, as my foot was left in a bad condition. For twenty years I lived in constant dread of a return of the trouble, for there was never a week that I did not suffer more or less pain, and a great deal of the time a tight bandage was worn on the foot to reduce and prevent swelling and inflammation.

Strange as it may seem, I took up pipe-organ playing as my life-work. I studied at Oberlin, O., and in Paris, and so adapted my afflicted foot to the pedal work that even my teachers did not discover the difficulty under which I labored until I told them of it. Early in June, 1907, just as I was making preparations for a series of organ recitals, the thing I had greatly feared came upon me, and I was hurried off to a hospital to have my foot operated upon. The doctors pronounced the trouble tubercular, in its most aggravated form, and after five operations it was finally decided to amputate the diseased member, which was done on June 22. The conditions were apparently against my recovery, for when the doctors and hospital authorities had pronounced the wound healed, and I had gone so far as to have ordered an artificial foot made, the disease again appeared. Again, without warning, I was rushed off to the hospital and a second amputation was performed.

Week after week passed, and that wound refused to heal. The doctor insisted that I would get well in time, but that he could not promise how long I would stay well. He said I must always spend a great deal of time in the open air, sleep with all my windows open, and do various other things to combat the disease. Nearly two months had passed since the second amputation, and the daily dressings were so painful that my nervous system was giving way under the strain. To and to my mental anguish, a black spot appeared near the end of the stump, and the doctor said it might mean another operation and possibly a third amputation. This was our Christmas cheer from materia medica.

On Sunday, Jan. 5, 1908, the doctor announced that he had made all arrangements for me to return to the hospital that day, in order that he might use the X-ray on me; but he was too late! The evening before I had yielded to my husband's entreaty and had consented to have him engage a Christian Science practitioner to take charge of my case, and when the doctor spoke of a return to the hospital, my husband said, "She is not going, doctor; and while you have been very faithful and very kind to us during all these months, we want to discontinue your services from today, for we are going to try Christian Science." Thus we, who had ridiculed what we thought was Christian Science, were brought in our dire extremity to lean upon God's blessed arm. That same day I had my first treatment. When the dear practitioner left me all my pain was gone, and from that day to this it has never returned, for my fear was cast out by "perfect love." In five weeks the wound was healed, although the doctor's prediction came true and early in the practitioner's work a much feared abscess did form; but it sneaked away as quietly as it came, for it was simply error coming to the surface to be destroyed by Truth.

In two months from the time I was healed I was walking on the artificial foot which had been ordered months before. June 4, one year from the day I first went to the hospital, we again went to housekeeping, since which time I have done practically all my own housework. I walk without even the suggestion of a limp and my health is perfect. My friends said I could never play the pipe-organ in this restored my health could and would enable me to do my work,—the work for which I had spent time and money in fitting myself. In August, six months after my healing, I played for the Sunday services in three of the largest churches in Chicago, making my demonstration of healing so clear and unmistakable that many doubters were convinced.

I realize that all these things are mine through the power of the Christ who has been so clearly revealed to us through Mrs. Eddy, whose leadership I gratefully acknowledge.—Minnetta Riggs, Chicago, Ill.

I wish to add my own testimony to that of my wife as given above. While she was suffering so terribly under the surgeon's knife and from the effects of the many surgical operations, friends here in Chicago and elsewhere would say to me, "Why do you not investigate Christian Science?" Now I had been an orthodox minister at one time, and was full of a narrow and bigoted prejudice against what I thought was Christian Science. But when on a business trip to Akron. O., our old home, just a short time before we turned to Christian Science, I called at the home of a former neighbor, who is a Christian Scientist. I knew the sterling quality of her character and I knew she was honest when she said, "Oh, why will you let your wife lie there and suffer? I know that Christian Science will cure her if you will only try it."

From that time I began to inquire into this great truth, with the results as given in the foregoing testimony. Personally I have received great blessings from this new-old truth. From infancy I was a great sufferer from throat trouble of the most stubborn type. In the summer of 1908 a most violent attack came upon me while I was on a lecture tour. Ordinarily it would have meant a week or ten days in a hospital, but I went right on with my work, did not miss an engagement, and was entirely healed in three days, a Christian Science practitioner giving me absent treatment. A stomach disorder of five years' standing yielded instantaneously; the tobacco smoking habit of over twenty years' duration has gone, and I have not the least desire for the weed. Both my wife and I are slowly learning to do our own work in Science. The Bible, Science and Health, and the authorized literature on Christian Science are our constant companions. We have been most fortunate in our practitioner, as both she and her husband are truly consecrated Christian students and workers. We have been much with them, and they have led us on the way into a clearer understanding of Life, Truth, and Love.

Although I preached for years, the Bible has for me a new charm and a vital meaning since I have read it from a Christian Science standpoint. We are in this work and study for all it can bring to us in the way of spiritual development and holier living. We are trying to realize the Master's promise; "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." We are grateful for membership in Second Church of Christ, Scientist, in Chicago; we are grateful to an inexpressible degree to God, who "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," and who still so loves us that He has in these latter years given to the world our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, who so wondrously interprets the healing truth to us.—Spillman Riggs, Chicago, Ill.