My brother had given his children into my charge for...

Helene Schmidt with contributions from George Barella

My brother had given his children into my charge for several weeks, and one day I heard loud crying, when my daughter brought my little niece to me, saying that she had been run over while skating. The little one seemed to be badly hurt, for one of the wheels had gone over the left arm, and it was very much swollen and deeply cut near the elbow, apart from other injuries. On the temple was a deep wound, and evidently the wheel just stopped there, as a lot of hair was torn away. I treated the child at once, and she soon calmed down and fell asleep; but during the night she began to vomit severely, and my first thoughts were of an injury to the brain, though the next were to deny this testimony of material sense and to declare God's allness. Before I could get to the child the vomiting ceased, but she still complained. A few words of truth quieted her fears, and under treatment she fell asleep again, and when she awoke in the morning the fever had gone down, she could move her fingers again, and at noon she could leave the bed.

She made steady progress to recovery, and I had never seen so wonderful a healing of wounds. They gradually closed, and in a fortnight all the external ones had healed and the swelling was gone. After another week I took the child back to her parents, who up to that time knew nothing of the accident. The little girl looked so fresh and rosy that her mother remarked on it. The arm had been healed, only she could not quite straighten it, although otherwise she could move it in all directions. My sister-in-law is interested in Christian Science, but my brother is not, and after he had examined the arm, he expressed his opinion that the wheel had cut one of the extensor muscles, and that in healing it had contracted. This, he said, might also have happened under medical treatment, yet he thought that I had undertaken a great responsibility to treat this case. To my question whether he would not now rather have medical treatment for the child, he answered that there seemed to be no need for it, and he would not object to my giving the child absent treatment. After two and a half weeks I received word that one day in school, during gymnastic exercises, the arm of the child had perfectly straightened, and that they were now all very happy and thankful.

I cannot adequately express my thanks to God in words for this wonderful healing, and for all that I myself learned by this experience. I daily understand better how much gratitude is due Mrs. Eddy for her loving obedience to God's will when He called her to become the revealer of the truth to our age.

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