Testimony of Healing April 15, 1916 Issue

When I had been out of school about a year I became very...

Florence Stratton Weaver

When I had been out of school about a year I became very ill, and the doctor said the ailment was a serious throat trouble. He removed a portion of the palate, but the condition was not improved. Then some one recommended the waters of Ems, Germany; so I went there with a friend, but at the end of six weeks was so weak that I had to be wheeled everywhere. The physician then sent me to the noted iron baths of Schwalbach, where for another six weeks I went through the same regime, even to the taking of the iron mud baths, but was no better. We heard of the noted physicians of Heidelberg, and went there. One of them told me that the waters at Ems and Schwalbach had injured the coating of my stomach, and immediately, in response to his conjecture, I found that I could not eat the simplest food without suffering.

After two months' trial of this doctor, the friend with whom I was traveling became alarmed about me, so she brought me home in the middle of the winter. During the next two years I had sixteen physicians in my home city, also tried a sanitarium, but at last ended by going to bed and having a trained nurse. I was very ill and all expected me to pass on. At this time the thought came to me that I would not die; that if I could only stop thinking of myself and keep happy thoughts, I would somehow get well. It came as a firm conviction. Just then Christian Science found me. When asked if I would allow some one to come and treat me, I consented, with the provision that there should be no talking, for I felt too weak to bear any one's voice.

The practitioner arrived. I only remember that she said one sentence which very much awakened me: "You think that you are glorifying God by lying here so patiently, but you have almost worn the whole family out, and now you must get up and glorify God by being well and helping the world." She said, "I will not talk to you, but I will come daily and treat you. I will also leave my instructions with the nurse, and I want you to know that God will give you the strength to obey." When she had gone the nurse said, "I will now bring your luncheon." After she left the room I prayed as never before that God would give me strength to obey. I thought she would return with something very light in the way of food, but to my surprise she brought a well-filled tray. There was a moment of hesitation and resolve, but I felt that there was opening to me a new field of experience, and as a result I ate the first full meal in two years. I was then going to slip back into bed, but the nurse said the practitioner had told her that I was to remain up all the afternoon and that she was to help me walk around the room. This, too, I obeyed.

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