Testimony of Healing June 28, 1913 Issue

I wish to express my gratitude for what Christian Science...

L. D. Higgins

I wish to express my gratitude for what Christian Science has done and is doing for me. I was raised on a farm, and at the age of nineteen went to the city, taking up the drug business as an occupation. While there, an eminent physician recommended the use of brandy every night and morning. After two years I gave up the drug business and took a position as inspector of ties and bridge material for the Union Pacific railroad. I followed this line of work for three years and continued to take a social glass, but never to the extent that it could be noticed by my friends; yet this habit grew until I became a habitual drunkard, losing my position, and afterward losing my friends, my home, and my family. I was a drunkard of the worst type. I mean by this that there never was a time that I did not think I needed another drink. Always, when it was possible, I would take whisky to my room when retiring, as I was afraid I might awake in the night in great need of a stimulant.

In 1892 my friends and associates so despised me that they tried to avoid meeting me. My mother then sent me to a well-known institute for such cases, and after returning home, things seemed to be all right; my wife took new courage, as well as my mother and friends. This, however, lasted only a year. I, of course, found an excuse for using liquor again, and was soon in a much worse condition that before taking the cure. At this point my family deserted me, until I had only one friend left, namely, my mother, and for some years I wandered about from place to place, without home, without friends, and without money.

In 1899 I was approached by a business man in Fort Scott, Kan., who offered to give me a thirty-days treatment in another institute, and to give me a position if the treatment proved a success. I immediately accepted his offer, entered the institute, and remained thirty days. At the end of the thirty days the doctor pronounced me cured, and I went to work. I was sent to Iowa to get me away from all my old associated, and I started life anew, joined a church, one of which I had been a member in previous years; and this proved a success for three years. After that time I was taken with acute lung trouble, and hot whisky was prescribed by my physician. I felt that I could use will-power and master the situation, so I struggled along, but at last had to succumb to the evil which had so long held me bound in chains. Without letting my employer know my condition, I proceeded to take another cure, which lasted only six months. After trying a number of home remedies, I decided to take the first "cure" again; so I felt my home in October, 1905, and came to Kansas City to enter the institute.

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