Testimony of Healing May 14, 1910 Issue

The first time that I appeared before an audience to...

J. L. Penry

The first time that I appeared before an audience to introduce a lecturer on the subject of Christian Science, it was embarrassing to me to admit that I had lived so many years in ignorance of this great truth, and had made no effort to know about it until I was driven to it by disease and suffering. My experience rises plainly before me, and, since to my mind the greatest mortal error is ingratitude, I will not be unthankful, but will tell of my experience in Christian Science, as revealed to the world by that grand apostle of Truth, Mary Baker Eddy. One could hardly conceive of a man being in greater misery than I was about fifteen months ago. My suffering from rheumatism was so severe that many times I had to be helped to dress and undress, and often had to be helped to arise from my couch when I lay down to rest; in addition to this, the physicians told me that I had an acute nervous and stomach disorder; that my kidneys were affected, and I was on the verge of absolute despondency. Moreover, in accordance with the almost universal custom which once prevailed in this western country, that of drinking the social glass, I had when a mere boy acquired the belief that whisky was a panacea for all ills; so that in my hours of suffering it became to me a demon by day and a dragon by night, habit ever suggesting its use to alleviate pain, until it became a battle royal when I strove to resist it.

This was my condition when a Christian Scientist of my city found me. When she approached me with literature on the subject of Christian Science, I took this literature but did not read it. She called occasionally to inquire about me, and I would always deceive her about reading what she had left, to save her feelings, as I then thought. She finally told me that it was never intended by God that any one should be sick and suffer, and this opened a new thought to me, as I then believed that God had willed that I should be left alone and be sick, because of the many sins I had committed. I had faithfully and earnestly taken all the drugs which had been prescribed, and more in despair than hope I told this lady to point the way for my restoration and that I would follow on. I went with her to Canyon City. where I met a Christian Science practitioner at her home. I had read nothing about Christian Science, hence I did not know what was expected of me; but we all three sat there for what seemed to me an eternity, and I listened to talk which seemed altogether foolish to me, and began to blame myself for coming there. When I told the practitioner that my friend had said she could help me, the reply was, "I can only be an instrument in God's hands, but God can and will help you." She asked me a few seemingly unimportant questions, and dismissed me with the injunction to eat whatever I wished and all that I wanted, and to let her hear from me in three or four days. I then thought she would not hear from me, so full of despondency had I become, but I promised to do all that she asked me to, and I kept my word.

The next day, instead of creeping to my office, I felt like going in leaps and bounds, and my heart was full of praise to God for this wonderful truth. I had been in the very throes of suffering when I called on the practitioner, but that morning I do not think I ever felt better in my life; and ever since, with slight exceptions, which can easily be accounted for, I have been well and happy. I wish to say further, that while I was open to conviction, I had no confidence whatever that I would be healed, but I kept this to myself, out of respect for what I regarded as an unselfish interest in my behalf by some of my friends. Since having been healed in Science, the Bible has become the plainest book I have ever read, and I can catch the spirit of it and feel that the God who inspired its words loves me with an everlasting love; whereas before I was continually fretting myself with the thought that God was willing under certain conditions that I should eventually end in the meshes of his Satanic majesty, else why did He create the devil.

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