Testimony of Healing August 23, 1913 Issue

Christian Science came actively into my experience four...

Anne Archbold Miller

Christian Science came actively into my experience four and a half years ago, came as an answer to what seemed a blind prayer for light; but the cry brought a response. It may have been that the recognition of the futility of all material aids made room in my consciousness for the ever-present light of Love and Truth, for I had then been several months in a surgical hospital, where I had undergone five severe operations at one time. During seven years of invalidism I had had many other operations, in fact, an almost unbelievable number; twelve being performed during a period of thirteen months. The case was said to be so exceedingly complicated, and the symptoms so varied, that each specialist to whom it was taken—and they were many—seemed justified in diagnosing it as directly in his line, and operating accordingly. With loving gratitude I state that in almost every instance I am confident that these physicians made an earnest effort to relieve my suffering, but until the last five operations were performed I steadily grew worse, and gradually the buoyant hope which had long sustained me gave place to a pitiful resignation. They had also restored to the constant giving of opiates to allay the suffering, believing there was nothing further to be done; and I accepted the drugs with a deadened sense of their disastrous results, simply craving a little ease from the suffering.

The five operations which I have mentioned were performed in the last stages of my illness and after several physicians had given up the case as hopeless; and they were undertaken with the honest conviction that it was all that could be done at the time to save my life. For this sincere effort I have a deep sense of gratitude. The conditions in view of which these operations were performed, seemed bettered thereby, but I had lost all ability to struggle for strength, and day by day I grew weaker and more hopeless. One often hears this strange anomaly, namely, that the operation was successful, but the patient did not recover. At this time I was greatly wasted, was utterly sleepless, and was addicted to the drug habit through the use of opiates during many long months of suffering. This alone would seem, humanly speaking, a stupendous condition to meet, indeed almost beyond the pale of human endeavor, and with the addition of physical weakness, I counted my recovery an impossible effort.

After some weeks there came a day, such a day as those alone who have experienced it can appreciate, when every vestige of hope died within me; when with great effort I wrote a letter to my family, believing it would be the last one I should ever pen. I recall, as if it were this day, turning to my nurse and saying, "Pray as you have never prayed before, for there is no longer any earthly help for me." I well remember her expression, which bespoke the conviction that I had stated the truth. I then prayed as I had never prayed before,—not for recovery, since I was tired of praying for that, but for light, just light to see my way; and, as we read in the Bible, God said, "Let there be light: and there was light." The following morning I received two letters, both advising a trial of Christian Science in this extremity, and one was from a friend from whom I had not heard in ten years.

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