Testimony of Healing December 11, 1915 Issue

The eighth of January, 1888, is the most memorable day...

Frances Mack Mann

The eighth of January, 1888, is the most memorable day in my life, for it was then that I purchased "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. Previous to this time I had borrowed the book for a few days and read it in a cursory manner, but it was not until I owned a copy of it myself and made a careful study of the contents that Christian Science became to me the most intensely interesting subject I had ever investigated.

For years I had been afflicted with a supposedly inherited throat trouble, and a noted specialist had told my father that I would die with lung trouble of a quickly developing nature. After a severe mental struggle I had turned away from the Puritanic teachings of my childhood in regard to God. It had become clear to me that if God was the only power and knew all about these discordant earth conditions, He must be the cause of all our miseries. If this was true He was a cruel God, instead of a God of love, and I could no longer worship Him. Then came this great light shining on every page of our text-book,—a new, wonderful, perfect idea of God and my relationship to Him as His child. It engrossed me completely. I was no longer hopeless, but the days were filled with peace and joy. At that time there were comparatively few Scientists. Our literature was limited to Science and Health and The Christian Science Journal. I had never heard that the reading of Science literature sometimes brings healing, but after a few weeks of such reading it dawned upon me that I was a well woman.

With this healing came a great desire to help all my friends to see this light. Impulsively I wrote to my old classmates, feeling sure that when they knew of my healing they would all accept the truth at once. They not only rejected Christian Science but did not believe in my healing. Indeed, all but one dropped me as a correspondent, and this one intimated in her letter that she wished to hear no more on the subject. This was a severe but helpful lesson, as it taught me that Christian Science was not to be discussed without due deliberation.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

I came into Christian Science about three years ago through...