Testimony of Healing March 25, 1911 Issue

It is with sincere gratitude for the many benefits which...

David Henry McElroy with contributions from George A. McElroy

It is with sincere gratitude for the many benefits which Christian Science has brought me that I give this testimony. When I first heard of it, about three years ago, my brother was taking treatment for lung trouble, and he was improving wonderfully. Whenever he would get me alone he would tell me how well he was and what Christian Science was doing for him. He would talk to me for hours, but I never thought that some day this truth would save my life and limbs. I used to wish that he would talk about something else, in fact I always tried to avoid him when alone; but since then I have learned to know that what he was trying to tell me was the truth. Not long after that, however, I had an experience which brought me out of darkness into the light that never fails.

During the month of May, 1909, while at work mixing metals in the Brooklyn navy yard foundry, I was tempering a pot of molten brass, and received a small scratch on one of my fingers. Not having time to attend to it then, I let my finger go until I could find time to clean the wound. In two days my finger started to swell and pain me, and the master molder said I should go at once to the doctor; that I had been poisoned. I went to the navy yard doctor, who dressed the wound and told me to call on him again that night before I went home. When my day's work was over I called on him again. He examined and dressed the finger, and told me to report to him twice a day. When I reported to him the next morning he consulted another naval surgeon, and they opened the wound; but my hand was terribly swollen when I reported to him on the fourth day. He took my temperature, then told me I would have to go home and put myself under my family doctor's care, as I had the worst case of poisoning he had ever seen. He said they had done all they could for me, and he kindly offered to come and see me.

I cannot tell how I felt from this day on, to think that two of the best surgeons in the United States navy had told me they could do nothing more for me. I feared that I might lose my arm, and possibly my life. I went home, and called on my own doctor, one of the best in his line in the city of Brooklyn, and told him what the situation was. I watched him closely when he was looking at my wounded finger, and when I saw him shake his head I said to myself. "It's all over with me." For five or six weeks I did not get more than one hour's sleep in twenty-four hours, my finger getting worse every day. To make matters harder for me, my arm just below the shoulder became affected, and this puzzled the doctor. In one month I had lost a good deal in weight, and after I had visited this doctor thirty times he told me I would have to be operated upon. I told him to go ahead and cut away if it would save my life; as I had given up all hope of my arm being saved. The doctor made a deep incision on my upper arm, and watched it for a week, but the arm did not get any better. He said I would have to undergo another operation, which he performed. I had to go daily to have the wound cleaned and dressed, which was very hard to endure. The pain was very bad, and my finger and arm were getting worse every day.

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