Testimony of Healing September 17, 1910 Issue

In presenting this testimony of what I owe to Christian Science,...

Sophie R. Weinert

In presenting this testimony of what I owe to Christian Science, I feel that I am discharging in a measure a debt of gratitude which can never be wholly paid, for can we ever cease to be grateful for that which never ceases to bless? About five years ago I was prevailed upon by a friend to try Christian Science for an attack of illness, brought on apparently by overwork. I was helped in a few treatments, and for about a year had Science treatment every time a physical ailment arose, having long since lost all faith in materia medica. While my cures were always rapid, I did not in reality make any progress in the knowledge of this Science, although at the time I thought I understood it perfectly. I had read through the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, several times, and because I had, as I then thought, absorbed its intellectural content, I fancied I knew all there was to Science and that there was nothing further to be gotten out of it; nor was there for me, at that time. I was not spiritually qualified to unlock this treasure-house of wisdom and love. I needed to be awakened, in the fullest sense of the word, before the truth which makes free could enter my consciousness.

After my first year of Christian Science I very unwillingly returned to materia medica, owing to my husband's bitter opposition to what he considered Science to be. I was never entirely well; in fact, I had not been so for years; still, I did not often have recourse to medical aid, for the reasons before given. I had several chronic complaints which medical treatment had failed to cure, and which I thought I would always have to bear. Besides, I was in a continual state of fear,—fear of drafts, fear of food, fear of fatigue, fear of anything and everything that came under the name of material law. Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that my condition kept growing worse and that my ailments increased; and when, some months after, my baby was born, I was thrown into a state of almost total collapse. Finding that I was unable to care for my child, and not willing to give him into the charge of strangers, I went to the home of relatives. I had medical treatment every day for about four months, the doctor, a dear old friend off the family, taking more than a professional interest in my case. Still, though everything was done that materia medica on the one hand and love on the other could suggest, my progress was fitful and slow. Certain spells of suffering came on at this time that nothing but an opiate would relieve. The doctor, unable to find any material ailment to account for these pains, called it a "sick habit," and said I would outgrow them in time. But instead of this, they kept getting worse and alarmingly more frequent, so that all hope and courage left me and symptoms off extreme depression began to set in.

I had never in my heart given up Christian Science, and now in sheer desperation, craving the truth as never before, I asked for Science treatment. A practitioner was called in, a woman whose very presence radiated love. I had been treated about two weeks or so, and though quickly relieved during treatment, the spells kept coming on more frequently and each one was seemingly more severe than the last; when suddenly one day the realization came to me that I was healed. It was like a voice whispering to my consciousness the good news, and I jumped up, filled with a strange new joy. I did not know at first whether to trust this silent messenger, but when day after day passed without pain, when I felt myself growing stronger and saw that I was gaining flesh, I knew the truth had made me free indeed, and inwardly I breathed a prayer of thanksgiving to God. In that instant I was cured of all my ailments, among which were chronic bowel and bladder difficulties, and I laid aside the glasses which I had worn constantly for twelve years. More remarkable, even, than the physical change in me at that time, was the mental upheaval. It was as though a picture that had always been seen upside down was suddenly set straight. Whereas before my cure every circumstance had worn to my mental gaze a distorted shape, filling me with nameless fear and dread, now for the first time I was able to see things in the right light. Darkness vanished, and with it went the spectral twins. The demonstration was beautiful and complete.

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