Testimony of Healing August 17, 1912 Issue

I wish to relate as briefly as possible the reason why I...

Van Harrison

I wish to relate as briefly as possible the reason why I believe in Christian Science. I had reached "man's extremity" and had to ask God for help. I had a severe case of stomach trouble and my heart had been in a bad condition for a great many years. I had not been able to lie on my left side for over eighteen years. I also had ringing in the ears and constant pain, and was partially deaf. Besides all this my left hand was crippled so that I had not been able to use it for thirteen years,—the result of a wound. In spite of all that the best doctors in these parts could do, the ligaments and tissue of the inside of the hand were destroyed so that the fingers were drawn back until they very nearly rested on the back of the hand and the ends of the fingers were bent forward and rested on the inside of the knuckle joint. I had not been free from pain and a viselike grip all of this time, so that I had become a nervous wreck. I did not expect Christian Science to do anything for this, but strange to relate, through the help of a kind friend and practitioner, Truth has overcome all of the diseases, even to the crippled hand,—insomuch that I can do any kind of work almost as well as I ever could.

But this is not all! I had one enemy that caused me more suffering than all the others combined, and that was a depraved appetite for liquor and tobacco. I had been a slave to the tobacco habit for forty-five years, and I cannot remember when I did not have a desire for liquor, but it did not get the mastery over me until about twelve years before I was healed in Christian Science. In those twelve years, however, there were not many days that I was not under its influence. I wanted to be a sober man, but could not seemingly let the drink alone. It did not seem that I could live without it, yet I did not want to live with it and suffer the pain and the disgrace.

It had come to the point where I asked God more than once to take me out of the world or take the desire away from me, and my prayer was answered. I had a friend that was a friend indeed, who was interested in Christian Science and not afraid to speak the truth on all occasions. He knew what I needed, and recommended Science and Health to me. He let me have a copy of the text-book, and I began its study. I followed Mrs. Eddy's instructions as nearly as I could. When she affirmed the truth I affirmed it. When she denied error I would deny it, and it was not long before I began to see and understand truths that I never heard or thought of before. Every time that I understood a truth, and would make it mine, it would have a quickening effect on the body that nothing else ever had. This went on for about three weeks, when one day I realized that I had found the truth. I was free from the liquor habit! I was the happiest man in the state of Iowa. The tobacco habit has left me, and the desire for tea and coffee has gone with the rest.

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