Testimony of Healing April 10, 1915 Issue

A few years ago a member of my family to whom a friend...

Mary Thurman

A few years ago a member of my family to whom a friend had earnestly spoken of Christian Science, half jokingly recommended that I should take treatment. I made a cynical reply; but the startled thought "Why not?" grew in a short time to an intense desire to learn about this teaching, although I had always heard it ridiculed and condemned. At that time I was seventeen years old and had been a semiinvalid since the age of six, often suffering terribly from muscular and inflammatory rheumatism, and spending the greater part of every winter in bed. Constant medical treatment, strict adherence to systems of dieting and drugging, together with the loving and patient care of my parents, to whom my invalidism was a great sorrow, failed to give me strength and health.

A year or so before I heard of Christian Science I had with seeming wilfulness and impatience declared that I would no longer follow all the doctor's directions, for I had no more faith in them. I was a church-member and read the Bible because it seemed right to do so; but at this time I began to think earnestly of the promises and healing recorded in the Scriptures. I prayed every night that God would give me health and strength, and when these did not come I became impatient and bitter, wondering what the Bible was for and whether there could possibly be any wisdom in God's afflicting me, as it seemed to me, so unjustly.

At this period of mental and physical disease came the glorious answer to my prayer, the message of Christian Science. With an independence rather unusual in one who had been so constantly cared for, I called on a practitioner and arranged for treatment. This occurred in the spring, and the following winter was the first in many years which was not spent in suffering and in a constant fight against a stiffened, swollen, aching body. Each succeeding season has brought still greater physical and mental freedom. Now I am strong, active, and happy, rejoicing in the ability to play and work with family and friends, and to take a helpful, busy woman's part in the world. It is good not to be a burden to the dear ones about me, but to be a help, and to take the responsibilities that belong to the oldest daughter in a large family.

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