Testimony of Healing May 24, 1913 Issue

I desire to express my gratitude for what God has done...

Dorothea M. Pertz

I desire to express my gratitude for what God has done for me through the truth revealed to us in Christian Science. Six years ago, while following the profession of a trained nurse in San Diego, Cal., I met with an accident to my hip, causing the bone to be injured, so much so that I was paralyzed on one side. Up to this time I had read a few Sentinels, also pamphlets on Christian Science which a kind friend loaned me. The reading of these convinced me that the writers had a much clearer and more practical understanding of God than any I had heretofore known, and in my distress I prayed that God might show me the way. In the morning, after a sleepless night, a lady came to see me who was also slightly interested in Christian Science. I begged her to go for a practitioner, and one soon came, bringing with her the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I shall never forget how I enjoyed the study of its pages, although for five days and nights the pain continued; yet I knew that "God is no respecter of persons" and that He could and would heal me.

The practitioner came twice a day, but it was not until I saw that Christian Science was not the exercise of any human will, but rather the letting of the divine will work in me, that I experienced the healing power. This conviction came to me through the almost continuous study of the text-book and the kind help of the practitioner. On the sixth day I rested quietly, and about the tenth day was out of bed, but in walking I was not yet entirely free from pain. With a few more treatments, however, the pain also was overcome. About two weeks later I visited the Grand Canyon of Arizona, and on account of many tourists being there at that time, I was unable to secure an animal to ride through the canyon, so together with another lady I walked down the steep trail and back again the same day. The depth is considered over seven thousand feet. I mention this to show how completely I was healed, for I never felt conscious of my hip-joint on this trip, nor have I since.

Before this I had been subject to sudden attacks of heart trouble and had been told by the physicians not to take violent exercise of any kind, as this might prove fatal. On many occasions I was utterly helpless when these spells would come on and sometimes had to remain in bed for weeks; but all fear of this trouble had been removed through my new understanding of God as ever-present Love, and while crossing the range of mountains in Mexico I felt no fear, and no ill effects such as I had experienced on similar occasions. While staying in the city of Mexico much fear was expressed, however, by others about altitude, and once more the availability of the all-power of divine Love was proven to me. I had been in the city two weeks when, after retiring at ten, I awoke an hour later with the old sensation. Fear possessed me, and I rushed out to the balcony for air, when instantly the thought came to me, Whom are you serving, God or error? I then felt ashamed of having listened to this wild fear. I felt divine Love's presence, and realized that the higher I was in the altitude of thought the nearer I was to God; that the everlasting arms were around, about, and underneath; that I lived and moved and had my being in Him. I felt secure, and the attack vanished, never to reappear.

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