Testimony of Healing August 1, 1914 Issue

Freely and abundantly I have received blessing...

Nellie V. Whittier

Freely and abundantly I have received blessing upon blessing through Christian Science, and from the fulness of my heart I would give to others, through this testimony, something of the joy and encouragement which was given to me through a faithful Christian Scientist. I was sinking into chronic invalidism from a complication of physical ills of long standing, culminating in a dangerous case of appendicitis, and had just come out of a hospital, where I had been taken to be operated on for this trouble. I was pronounced too weak to undergo an operation, but in three weeks I was able to leave the hospital, though in a miserable condition and with no hope of recovery under materia medica. For years I had spent a great deal of money for doctors and medicines without finding permanent relief. I had just reached that point of despair and hopelessness when one gives up, and turns from the hope of life to death as a relief from suffering, although I had always prayed as best I knew how.

It was at this point that Christian Science came to me. When the Scientist came into the room where my big chair had been placed in a sunny window, she was a stranger to me. As she was staying in the same house, she had heard of me through the other guests. I will never forget her firm, clear tones as she came up to me and introduced herself, with a smile full of sweetness and good cheer, saying: "I hear you are the new guest, and that you have been in the sanitarium. My dear, there is no need of your being in this condition. It is not God's will. Man is a child of God, free from all man-made laws as to disease. If you are willing you can get well. Will you come up-stairs? I will lend you a copy of 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' by Mrs. Eddy. Read and study the book, and later if you wish I will help you." I had broken down under her loving tones, and only half understood, but I felt as if a great window had been opened and flood-tides of light, of joy, and of hope were lifting my heart out of its gloom. I promised to go to her room if I could get up the stairs, and I did so the next day with a great effort, for every step was one of pain; but there in her room I first heard of Christian Science, and had it explained somewhat. Then I went down-stairs to a room where I knew I would be alone and undisturbed for hours.

To say I read the book would be too mild a way to express it; I simply devoured it. Hour after hour I sat there, and could hardly read fast enough to satisfy the inward thirst I felt for every drop of that spiritual "cup of cold water." All my life I had been waiting for this. I had read and thought deeply along religious lines, and had longed to find a religion founded wholly upon the Bible. As I read and studied I thanked God. I did not understand it all by any means, but under the advice of my new-found friend I put into immediate practice what I did understand. This lady was not at that time a regular practitioner, only an earnest student, but she worked to the best of her understanding, and in three weeks I came out of that dreadful condition healed, and I have remained so. That was in September, 1898, and from that time to this the Bible and Science and Health, with the Journal and Sentinel, have been my daily reading and study. I have not taken a drop of medicine, while for years before that I was taking something continually. I have not only helped myself, but others, through the understanding of man's true being.

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