Testimony of Healing September 20, 1913 Issue

Having suffered from nervous and stomach trouble, with...

Bessie Down Patterson

Having suffered from nervous and stomach trouble, with its attendant ills, since my earliest recollection, and not receiving even temporary help from materia medica, change of climate, etc., I was surprised to find that I had been completely healed, and lifted into a sense of freedom of which I had never conceived, after being with some Christian Science friends one day. A few weeks later I was driving one morning with one of these same friends, a young girl, who asked me why I wore glasses. I replied that it was because my eyes did not focus and I suffered from headache if I left them off. She asked, "Where do you get your sight?" to which I answered, "From God." The friend then quoted the Scripture words, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." Two weeks later I realized that I had not worn glasses from that day, and I have felt no need of them since, although I have used my eyes to do the most trying needlework.

It would seem that these proofs of the efficacy of Christian Science to meet my needs should have been sufficient to impel me to accept its teachings at once; but a false sense of God and His law had to be dethroned before I was ready to turn to divine Truth, though I gave the glory of my healing to Christian Science and urged others to try it. Two years later, when I had been very ill for two months and was greatly reduced, my faithful family physician said he was not able to diagnose my case and honestly admitted he could do nothing more for me. I was brought from my home in the South to a Hudson river town, where the physician who was called in said he knew of nothing more to do for me than had been done, and he did not come again.

Several days after this, when my family were expecting my death at any moment, believing I could not live more than a few hours at the most, a Christian Scientist came to me, and after talking with me a few minutes, I arose from my bed and sat by an open window for two hours. I slept sweetly all night, breakfasted with my family, took a drive, and spent the remainder of the day with my Christian Science friend. An acquaintance who had been told the afternoon previous that I could not live through the night, was surprised to find me standing on the front piazza when she called at nine o'clock to inquire if I were still alive. I had been absolutely healed in one treatment!

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