Testimony of Healing January 24, 1914 Issue

Having received much help and encouragement for the past...

Charles Edward Archer Martin

Having received much help and encouragement for the past three years from the reading of the testimonies of others, it is plainly my duty to voice gratitude for the many benefits that have come to me since I began the study of Christian Science. When "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy was first brought to my notice, I was in a veritable mental slough of despond, and ready to appreciate to the full the clear note of hope and courage which it sounds from every page. As I read on, pain and ailments which had always been with me, and which I had looked upon as my natural heritage, gradually disappeared. A stomach disorder vanished, and the desire to smoke left me so completely that it took me some time to convince myself I was really healed. To my awakened consciousness the habit was only an illusion, and a very absurd one at that.

About a year after I came into Science, an old enemy in the form of severe chest trouble again attacked me, and for a time the symptoms were so violent and persistent that fear often kept me in thrall; but by the help of a kind friend who took my case in hand, and spared no effort to bring me into harmony again, I was able to continue at my work all through the time the illness lasted. There were occasions when to sense I felt so ill that even while my friend spoke encouraging words to me, I seemed to be slipping out of this mortal life. In about three months of Christian Science treatment, worse symptoms were overcome than those which had previously required a two years' rest in the climate of the northern Andes. What a rich blessing has come to humanity in this teaching of our Leader that sickness is only a belief, that while "belief is changeable, . . . spiritual understanding is changeless" (Science and Health, p. 96). I have also been healed of acute attacks of rheumatism, to which I had been subject all my life. Now for over two years this disease has not troubled me in any of its forms.

All these blessings, however, are not to be compared to the joy experienced in the uplifted thought which comes as a result of the study of the Bible and Science and Health. It enables us to meet the problems of life with more love and more reliance on God, and not only supplies our own wants, but gives us confidence and understanding, so that we are able to pass on the "glad tidings" when some brother or sister comes to us in need.

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