Testimony of Healing May 9, 1914 Issue

It is said that each one comes to Christian Science in his...

Gilbert J. Fowler

It is said that each one comes to Christian Science in his own way. In my case it was not because of any material need, nor indeed was I at first conscious of any great spiritual lack. Scientific and professional success, foreign travel and other means of culture, hosts of friends, and not least, a happy home life,—all were mine. In addition I held a position of growing responsibility in a religious body to whose traditions I was attached by every tie of family and habit of mind. But through all this, deep down, was the longing for the truth, truth which should satisfy, which should be effective. I looked for something which should save men, regenerate them without the whip of fear or the stimulant of an unreflective emotion.

I knew many earnest social workers, some well known among all who care for the welfare of others, and I knew also many kind and gentle-minded people who in less prominent ways were devotedly striving to help their fellow men. Yet the core of the problem seemed to elude them all. Like my good friends in the medical profession, they appeared to be dealing with symptoms, not causes. My own religious conclusions were useful enough as a fair-weather philosophy, but I had had painful evidence of their ineffectiveness in times of trial. One could talk about the truth and hear much talk about it, but the truth itself seemed far off.

When my wife began to read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and her health and spirits visibly improved, I wondered if it could be possible that this religion from America would prove to be what I was seeking. Just then I chanced to have a painful abscess on the jaw. After talking the matter over with my dentist, I went to see a Christian Science practitioner about it, with the same state of mind in which I would approach any problem in my professional work. Besides giving me treatment, the practitioner talked to me, and I saw at once that some of my preconceived ideas about Christian Science were wide of the mark. The abscess disappeared, and other things with it, particularly feelings of contempt and resentment in regard to certain individuals.

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