Testimony of Healing October 25, 1913 Issue

When I first came to investigate Christian Science, not...

Carl A. Schulz

When I first came to investigate Christian Science, not quite nine years ago, I was very much prejudiced against all forms of religious doctrines which were based on the Bible. I was an agnostic, and was never ashamed of it. I would become very irritable when it fell to my lot to attend a religious ceremony of any kind. I never had a good word for any of the churches, and this included the Christian Science church as well.

I remember having on one occasion poked fun at Christian Science in a very disagreeable and unkindly manner. What frame of mind I was in to investigate it may be imagined. I did not for one moment believe, before I began my investigation, that I was going to derive the least benefit out of it; indeed, I thought I was beyond ever being restored to happiness again. A friend of mine prevailed upon me to read the book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I was somewhat suspicious that this friend was not altogether right. Near to where we were sitting, there lay on the table this wonderful book to which he had referred, so I picked it up, opened it at the beginning, and from what I thought at the time to be curiosity, began to read. I must have read for ten or fifteen minutes, when I turned to my friend and said, "All this seems to be well written, and if you will let me I will take the book to my room and read it during the night and return it to you in the morning." To this he consented.

No one, I am sure, knew what I was undergoing in the way of mental strain at that time. Life was not worth living, and I was miserable and unhappy because of the immoral habits to which I was bound and from which I could not get away. We, my friend and I, were living in a hotel at the time, and every night I would get the little book, read it carefully, and then return in in the morning. Finally, when I had finished reading it, I turned to the New Testament to find if the Bible really contained all these plain statements about what God can and will do for man, and there I found them just as they were quoted in Science and Health. Satisfied that as yet I had found no contradictory statements, I went back to Science and Health and began over again, and by the time I was halfway through, a healing from the cigarette habit took place, and with this healing came the spiritual uplift that accompanies, I believe, most healings. I found myself again taking interest in life, not trying to be happy in the old way of debauchery, but in a new way, at least new to me, and that way was the one which Christian Science points out, an understanding of which proves beyond a doubt that man must be born again. I was so happy that I wept many, many times, and I began to be thankful for what Christian Science had done for me.

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