Testimony of Healing May 6, 1911 Issue

For a long time my wife and I had given up the orthodox...

A. E. Murray

For a long time my wife and I had given up the orthodox religion as unsatisfactory both to heart and reason, and although we very seldom spoke of religion, we were hungering after the truth both for ourselves and our children. One evening my wife returned home after paying a call, and I jokingly asked her, "Well, what is the latest scandal?" "We were not talking scandal," she answered; "but I have been hearing a good deal about Christian Scientists. It seems they are all so happy and that such wonderful cures have been effected by them." "Are they the people who don't believe in doctors, and who tell you you can't have a headache because you haven't a head?" I asked. "Never mind," she replied; "but let us go and judge for ourselves."

On Sunday we set off to see the "hysterical women and anemic young men" of whom we thought the congregation would be composed, and on reaching our destination a genial usher conducted us to a front seat and supplied us with books. The service was very different from what we had ever known, reverent and simple, and every one joined heartily in the singing. The women looked bright and healthy, and the young men were well built and would not have been easy customers in an attack. After the service was over one of the members asked us how we liked it, and after talking to us a little, finished by saying, "If you ask for bread, God will not give you a stone." When we came home it was with much food for reflection. On first reading Mrs. Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," it seemed hard to understand and impossible to live up to, but little by little darkness gave way and the dawn broke. It seemed as if we had been walking in a valley dark with the mists of error; but now, although the darkness sometimes gathers again, we see the light of Truth illuminating our horizon.

A stumbling-block to many is the fact that this truth has come to us through a woman; but the lecture, "Christian Science: Its Compassionate Appeal," wipes out this false thought. The personal God of our youth no longer appeals to us; but we realize a God who, instead of giving us the desire to sin and then punishing us for it, is an ever-present help in trouble, our Father-Mother God to go with us on life's journey. To understand this opens up a new field for our activities, and we must regard everything spiritually and not materially. Christian Scientists do not insist upon one's giving up old habits, but they tell you, and truly, that these habits will leave you of their own accord. The reason that they remained with us so long was because of our ignorance, but in the light of Truth discord gives way to harmony, and the tempest-tossed seeker finds peace and joy.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

For the last eleven years our family of four has relied...