Testimony of Healing July 20, 1912 Issue

When Christian Science was first presented to me, twenty...

Belle Black with contributions from Florence Jones

When Christian Science was first presented to me, twenty years ago, I grasped it with an eagerness that has never abated. I searched it as for hidden treasurers, and my search has not been in vain. I had been a close student of the Scriptures, but had no understanding of the divine Principle which overcomes disease and fear. I had not possessed good health for some years, and was so dependent upon physicians and drugs that I had repeatedly refused to visit a dear relative who lived ten miles in the country, saying I could not go so far away from the doctors and drugstores. I had tried many methods of treatment, and taken medicines in every form under the advice of skilled physicians; had sought different climates, and spent much time in sanitariums and health resorts, besides studying medical works, but since receiving the first ray of light through Christian Science, I have never consulted a physician or resorted to the use of material remedies.

I am now in the enjoyment of good health, although my healing was slow. There seem to be periods in the career of every human being when the heart cries out, "The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide." These experiences may seem to the Christian Scientist to be retrogression, but we find that they compel us to wait on God, and we read in Science and Health, "Beholding the infinite tasks of Truth, we pause,—wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory" (p. 323). When the summons came to me to work in the Master's vineyard, my first thought was: Could I, a poor frail mortal, preach the gospel and heal the sick? The answer was, No, but God can do this through your ministry. Plant and water to the best of your ability, and God will give the increase. I was urged onward by these words of the Master: "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." So I stepped out of social environments into the field of Christian Science work, and placed myself unreservedly in the care and protection of the loving Father; and now after a score of years I can reply as did the disciples upon their return, after having been sent out without purse or scrip. They were asked, "Lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing."

My efforts to bless others and to perpetuate our healing and reformatory cause were the tithes brought into the Father's storehouse. The windows of heaven were opened and there were poured out upon me innumerable blessings,—renewed youth and vigor, physical health and strength, and an indescribable spiritual peace. I had been greatly reduced in weight, but I gradually gained flesh until I reached the normal condition which I enjoy at the present time.

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