Testimony of Healing March 18, 1911 Issue

When I first heard about Christian Science I was told...

Sara E. Bacon

When I first heard about Christian Science I was told that it claimed to heal organic heart trouble, even when the patient was hundreds of miles away. In my so-called wisdom I ridiculed the statement, and devoted my time for the next four years to acquiring a medical education. From 1886 to 1901 I practised homeopathy in Chicago. At first I was an ardent enthusiast in the profession; but in later years I heard of many people being restored to health without the use of drugs, and while outwardly I scoffed at these statements, inwardly I declared I could not honestly blame any one for accepting this healing. I also began to have less faith and interest in medicine and to have an increased desire for a knowledge of the Bible. Gradually the medical literature became less attractive, but my Scriptural study brought me no special comfort; instead there was physical weakness, with great mental depression, which only those who have experienced it can understand. I turned to the only God I knew of, but He apparently did not hear me.

In the spring of 1901 I stored my goods and left the city to stop with a friend who thought I needed a change of scene, and the second Sunday I with my friend attended a Christian Science service. As I entered the little hall, with less than a dozen people in it, I felt something come over me like life, hope,—the atmosphere seemed so calm and restful. I had never seen the text-book, Science and Health, and I did not know what the service would be, but I resolved to be on my guard and not let anything I heard cause me to be disloyal to my lifelong orthodox religion. I listened closely, and when I heard the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation it seemed as if heaven were revealed, so different was it from my old material sense of the prayer. The entire service was the sword of truth to me, and at its close I was ready to make a full surrender of my former prejudice and educated beliefs. From that day I forgot all about nervous exhaustion, so eager was I to read and find out something about Christian Science. I seemed to have entered upon a new life, but it was not an easy thing to do. I greatly desired to grasp this new revelation quickly, and I gave to it six months in which I did little else than study Science and Health. At times it seemed as if the old educated beliefs were so strongly implanted they must triumph, but the memory of the terrible mental unrest I had suffered drove me onward.

In the fall I went back to Chicago, and found that the warehouse in which my goods had been stored had burned down, and my earthly possessions consisted of one trunk, my Christian Science literature and a Bible. At first it seemed as if I had sustained a great loss from the fire, but later I was so grateful that I was spared from even looking upon that which would only bring mental pictures of scenes that I wanted to forget. Infinite Love was at that time and has been ever since my source of supply. At times I have asked myself why I did not in 1882 take the right path when the two were placed before me. The answer has been that I needed all I received in order to bring me out of Egypt into the land of promise.

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When I first heard about Christian Science I was told...

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