Testimony of Healing August 6, 1910 Issue

The Master's declaration, "Ye shall know the truth," has...

Maude Louise Nirdlinger

The Master's declaration, "Ye shall know the truth," has become the command and demand of my existence. Before it blind superstition, prejudice, doubt, and fear have given way to understanding, until a glance over the past eight years is like the reviewing of a battle-field strewn with conquered foes. The conquest was not easy, but hope ever held aloft its torch, illumining the way.

As far back as memory can travel, I can recall only a life of weakness and pain. North, east, south, and west was I sent at different periods, that change and climate might effect what medicine had failed to do—to give health and strength. Childhood and girlhood vanished into the past with its weight of wretchedness, and as on the threshold of womanhood I saw no relief, a wave of utter, bitter despair engulfed me. Heretofore I had prayed; now I bowed to the inevitable, but I would not be a hypocrite—I would not meekly say, "Thy will be done," when every fiber of my being was in hot rebellion. I had been taught that the misfortunes of the world, its utter misery, hopeless woe, and bitter pain, were sent us by an all-wise, loving God to test and purify our love, but I could not reconcile my poor human reason to such a conclusion. Thus, not understanding, doubt grew upon doubt, until every vestige of faith in the religion of my forefathers was swept away. Oh, those were indeed dark days—without hope or God in the world. The Scriptures rightly declare that as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he," for so bitter grew my thoughts that they fairly corroded every outlook.

It was at this time Christian Science was mentioned, with the declaration that God is good. I shook my head. "I have heard that story before; but I don't believe it," I replied shortly. "Christian Science does not ask you to believe. It teaches you to understand," was the gentle rejoinder. To understand that God is good! The possibility was startling. It is habit to believe that which we do not understand, and to understand too little of that which we profess to believe, but houses built upon sand will not stand.

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