Testimony of Healing March 11, 1916 Issue

My motive in taking up the study of Christian Science was...

A. W. Edes

My motive in taking up the study of Christian Science was curiosity for the most part, as I wished to compare its teaching with a system of so-called mental science in which I was at that time becoming interested. I began by making a comparative study of the literature in both lines of thought and by attending the services at The Mother Church in Boston.

I was in need of physical healing, although this was not the first consideration with me. I decided, however, to put Christian Science to a little private test, and so began by trying to leave off glasses, which I had worn steadily for eight years; but found that the headaches, which had led to my using them, returned. I then took up the matter with a Christian Science practitioner, with the result that the glasses were laid off, nor have they been worn once in the eight years since, and my eyes have been as strong as I could wish. Within a few weeks thereafter I was healed of chronic stomach trouble, which had been a constant foe for twenty years.

However, I was still undecided about the truth of Christian Science, but in the course of my study it developed that Christian Science was a religion. My student course had brought me into an atmosphere of the "higher criticism," which caused me to abandon practically all religious thought, and I fully believed that I had advanced beyond the need of a religion. When a practitioner to whom I mentioned this, simply referred me to page 138 of Science and Health, where it speaks of the "theology of Jesus," I was tempted to abandon further study. While I had believed Christian Science to be a system of philosophy and metaphysics I was attracted, but was repelled from what savored of religion. Still I was miserably unhappy and disappointed with my lack of accomplishment, with the seeming failure of all hopes and ambitions, and there was nothing to do but to go forward with Christian Science. As I continued to study, other ailments left me,—hemorrhages of the lungs, melancholy, sleeplessness, and nervous exhaustion, which had caused me to abandon the legal profession.

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