Testimony of Healing July 9, 1910 Issue

It is with the most profound gratitude that I tell of the...

E. B. Goodwin

It is with the most profound gratitude that I tell of the blessings that have come to me in my comparatively short experience in Christian Science,—gratitude both to God and to our Leader, Mrs. Eddy. The direct cause of my investigating Christian Science was the complete healing of my wife from many complicated disorders. My father was a practitioner of medicine for over forty years; I was connected with the drug trade for several years, and am a graduate from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania; I also practised medicine for several years. Having thus had a belief in the power of material remedies instilled in me from childhood, I was naturally enough very antagonistic toward Christian Science, and especially prejudiced against it as a healing agent. The fact is, I knew nothing of it, and did not want to know anything, but I can now readily see that this feeling was caused entirely through ignorance of what Christian Science means.

For several years before coming to California, my wife had been in a very poor state of health. In speaking of her troubles, my reference to them is made from a once material point of view, and not from a Christian Science standpoint, for at that time we knew only the material side. From childhood she had suffered from deafness and impaired eyesight, the sight being practically destroyed in one eye and the sense of hearing lost in one ear. These ailments dated from an attack of fever. The heart action also was very irregular, and she suffered from acute attacks, many times becoming unconscious, so that she was never without a vial of so-called heart stimulant. She experienced periodical attacks of neuralgia, and her digestion was bad. She had to wear the strongest of eye-lenses, and could not leave them off for a moment without severe attacks of headache, which would at times continue for two or three days. Oculist after oculist, aurist after aurist was consulted, but all with the same result—no benefit. She was also a sufferer from other organic troubles, and seemed to be unusually susceptible to climatic changes, it being, as we thought, necessary for her to seek a warmer climate in the winter and a cooler climate in summer. She was also sent to sanitariums for treatment.

She had met and talked with several Christian Scientists, but did not take up the study of this teaching for a year or so after we came to California. A few months before we left the East, a noted surgeon was consulted, and as usual in such cases, an immediate operation was advised. In ten days my wife was in the hospital, and had undergone an operation; but this gave her no great relief, and in many respects she suffered more. Shortly after coming to California, which was soon after she left the hospital, she took up the study of Christian Science, much against my wishes at the time, as I would not allow myself to believe that there was any merit in it. I objected to having our two children brought under its influence, and would not listen to any discussion of it, so intense was my feeling against it. Suffice it to state that after my wife had been studying this wonderful Science of Truth for a short time, and had taken a few treatments, she began to improve, and for over three years she has been perfectly well, as God intends every one to be. She has gained greatly in weight, her hearing is as acute as a child's, and her eye-glasses have been discarded entirely.

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