Testimony of Healing January 23, 1915 Issue

I wish to express my thankfulness to God for Christian Science...

Barney Rucker, Sr.

I wish to express my thankfulness to God for Christian Science and what it has done for me. While following my occupation as a carpenter, the scaffold on which I was working gave way, and I fell in a position which threw all my weight on my ankles and feet. I was severely injured, so was carried to the home of the contractor, and a cab was called to take me home. It was some time before the cab arrived, and as I was in great agony, my shoes were taken off, for my feet and ankles were badly swollen. My friend then went to a neighbor's house and telephoned to a Christian Science practitioner for treatment, so that long before the carriage came for me the pain had ceased and I was perfectly comfortable.

This was all done without my knowledge, but when I reached home I found I could put my feet on the floor without any pain at all, and my friends advised me to try Christian Science. I told them, however, that I preferred my doctor, so my wife called him over the telephone; but from that minute the pain started again, and continued day and night. When the doctor came he told me, after examination, that the bones in my feet were all spread apart, that the cartilage in both ankles was broken loose from the bone, and that I could not leave my bed for several weeks. Three weeks passed, my wife dressing my feet several times a day, and in the mean time my friend told me what the Christian Science practitioner had done for me at his request. He also gave me Science and Health to read and told me what this teaching had done for his family.

I then made up my mind to try Christian Science, so the next morning I started for the practitioner's office on crutches. I walked one block to the car, and on arriving down-town had another block to go before I came to the office. I finally got there and had treatment. The practitioner then told me to see how I could get along without crutches, so I tried, and found I did not need them at all. I asked her if putting my weight on my feet would not separate the bones, but she told me that God, Mind, was governing me, not matter. I also asked if I had not better keep the bandages on, but was told to take them off as I did not need them. I left the office and went out to my friend's house, where I had dinner and looked his new home over, then returned to town, and after walking five or six blocks took the car home; yet after all this I felt only a little tired. I slept well that night for the first time since the accident, but the next morning I was positive it would be better for me to put the bandages back, and I did so. Finding I could not walk a step, however, I took them off again, with the result that I walked all right. In a little less than a week I was back at work and could climb a ladder as well as ever.

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