Testimony of Healing May 7, 1910 Issue

My first knowledge of Christian Science came to me on...

Rufus D. Smith

My first knowledge of Christian Science came to me on Thanksgiving day, 1895, when I attended a Christian Science service on the invitation of a friend. For nearly thirty-five years prior to that day I had been a great sufferer from diseases incurred in the army and in a prison during the Civil War. During these years there were many weeks and months of pain and sickness, resulting in the amputation of my leg at the thigh; then I hoped there were better days in store for me, but physicians told me that I would never be well again, that I had a bad case of liver disease which would lead into many serious complaints. Believing that they knew what they were talking about, I settled down to await results, and I soon came to think they were real prophets, for in a few years I was afflicted with bowel and stomach disorders, and for about seven years before I turned to Christian Science I was a great sufferer from nervous illness and headaches.

I had never thought there could be any possible help for me except through the physicians. I was treated by many of the very best obtainable, and they were very kind to me, but they were all agreed that there was no permanent help for me. My mind was as wearied and worn as was my body, and I sometimes speculated as to whether the grave or the madhouse would get me first, I had been raised by Christian parents, but if I had ever believed in a God it was such a long way back that I did not remember. I called myself an infidel and was proud of it, and gradually I had come to feel very hateful toward professed Christians, believing them to be either weak or hypocritical. My friend who invited me to attend the service told me that I could get help through Christian Science, so I attended the service with him and was very much surprised to see the Scientists assembled, for I knew nearly all of them and they were of the very best people in the city. I engaged the service of a practitioner and had treatment next day, continuing present treatment for one week and absent treatment for another week, during which time I strictly followed the rules laid down for me by the practitioner, being determined to give Christian Science as fair a trial as I had always given the physicians.

At the end of this time, somewhat to my surprise, I had not died from lack of medicine, this being the first time in fifteen years that I had gone two weeks without it. I soon began to read carefully the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I became so much interested in them that I read little else. After a few weeks I found my condition somewhat improved, I could eat sufficient food to satisfy hunger and with very little inconvenience, and there came to me a great sense of mental relief and satisfaction. I attended the Christian Science services regularly, and in time came to like its explanation of the Bible. I had such an abiding prejudice against Christians in general that my progress in the understanding of Christian Science was very slow, but the light dawned upon me little by little and my health and mental balance were gradually restored, so that at the end of five years I realized that I was entirely free of all my physical diseases, with as good a mental condition as I had ever had; and I was very happy that I could truly say that I believed in the Bible and in the God of the Bible, and in His Son, Christ Jesus.

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My first knowledge of Christian Science came to me on...

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