[Translated from the German.]

Eight years have gone by since Christian Science found...

Eight years have gone by since Christian Science found me in a wretched, hopeless condition. I had consulted various physicians without surcess, and for fourteen years had suffered with severe and often-recurring cramps in the stomach, which made life miserable. I prayed much at that time, but also believed that God had afflicted me with this disease. My health was declining when another internal trouble manifested itself, to which was added severe inflammation of the bowels. Besides these ills, I had been suffering from the heart for quite a while and was unable to perform any kind of work, the suffering being so intense that I longed for death, as I looked upon it as a deliverer. The physician in attendance gave up all hope. He said I had so many diseases that he did not know with which to grapple first, and was unable to help me besides, the ills all being in too advanced a stage. I had no appetite, and my friends believed death to be the only alternative.

While in this pitiful condition doubts came up in my mind as to the existence of Love divine,—which I had failed to experience,—yet in my extremity God's help did come. A friend from Berlin who was here on a few days' visit called my attention to Christian Science, of which I had never heard before. She told me among other things that it was not God's will that a mother should be taken away from her four minor children. This sounded like heavenly music from afar off, and at the same time like a fairy-tale. She left a copy of Der Herold der Christian Science with me, the contents of which I understood but little, being very much used to material modes of thinking. In a letter she advised that I take Christian Science treatment. As my condition was unendurable, and my daer husband and children were uppermost in my thought, I clung to the hope held out to me and applied to a Christian Science practitioner whom I did not know then and do not know personally to this day, who lovingly took up treatment while we corresponded with each other. She was very kind and showed great patience with me. She sent me some literature, which I read carefully, as well as the Bible, and the light dawned upon me; I had found that which I had been seeking after,—a correct concept of God, "with healing in its wings." It seemed like a wonder to me when my appetite returned, often taking the form of hunger, a thing which I had not known for a long time. Then the pain disappeared at intervals, and with five weeks' treatment vanished altogether—I was freed of the diseases and my suffering! What this means can only be understood by one who has been in a similar condition.

Since then I have been entirely free from the pain which had tortured me so long. I often fell on my knees and gave thanks for the great love, goodness, and omnipotence of God which are being revealed to us through Christian Science. Words fail to express how far above the physical healing is the spiritual awakening and inspiration which comes through this recognition of divine power! I experienced a sense of peace and joy, and also wish to state here that three years later, when our youngest child was born, the delivery was painless, whereas the former births had always been attended by great suffering. I mention this to show that the curse "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" will also disappear from the face of the earth. I tried to realize that God has only good things in store for His children, and thus all sense of fear which tried repeatedly to creep in was eliminated.

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June 22, 1912
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