Testimony of Healing September 19, 1914 Issue

About seven years ago I was ill with a very puzzling liver...

Erminie J. King with contributions from Florence J. King

About seven years ago I was ill with a very puzzling liver trouble. I consulted several of the best physicians in Chicago, four of whom were specialists, and not one of them agreed with any of the others as to the name of my ailment. I then took up Christian Science, in which I had been interested for some time, but which I had never studied. I went at it in earnest, with the determination to find out what there was in it for me. I read Science and Health, but did not consult a practitioner; in fact, I did not know any. I read the book through three times. The first time I did not get much out of it, but very gradually it became clearer to me, and just to that extent I began to improve, and I kept on reading every morning. I used to get up at six o'clock in order to find time for this study, and I got much illumination at each reading. It is the making over of our thought that does the healing work, in reality. The practitioner can start us on the right way and always help us in a sudden emergency, but our own work, daily and hourly, is what builds up the structure on a sure foundation in Christian Science.

It was at least a year after beginning to read the book before I was entirely healed. I gradually improved, and whatever it was that ailed me simply faded away into the nothingness where it belonged. It served to prove to me that everything was in the thought. I never had any help from any one; I was healed simply by reading the book, although the last doctor I consulted told me that I would have to go to a hospital to have my liver drained, that there was not a sound organ in my body, and many other discouraging things. Any one seeing me then would have thought it true, but I have steadily gained in health, and now weigh much more than I did at that time, and am always well.

I hope my experience will help others to be patient with their own healing if it seems to be slow, and that they may see how so much depends upon the work we do for ourselves in Christian Science; for the healing comes not by any extraordinary effort, but by daily and hourly clearing our thought of the things unlike good. It rests us greatly every time we realize that God is All. It is difficult, with what we consider the material evidence before our eyes, to make our thought over, but it can be done. We should not be discouraged or grieve if we cannot understand the truth all at once. Mrs. Eddy says we should "emerge gently" (Science and Health, p. 485). If the demonstration is not made readily, it will come, never fear; it will be made.

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