Testimony of Healing October 27, 1917 Issue

Searching for that which might help me to realize my...

Martha Pickhardt

Searching for that which might help me to realize my early ideals of character, on reaching majority I turned from the orthodox church with disappointed hopes. In a small way I found guidance for right living in the writigns of a few ancient philosophers and modern essayists, but my first reading of Christian Science literature persuaded me that it contained all for which I had been seeking in so many other directions.

Having read a copy of the Sentinel, I soon afterward bought the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and persistently read it. To find a teaching which not only pointed the way to the highest idealism by casting off the evil thoughts and actions to which mortals are prone, but which also taught that this process of correction heals disease, was indeed sweet to me; but the weeding out of the errors of the human mind and the overcoming of physical ailments was slow and ofttimes discouraging work.

Physical healing was first sought for a very painful back, which became much worse after six months' reading of the textbook. I laid the book aside for a short time, but soon resumed the reading of it, and after a while the trouble disappeared entirely. When I had been studying for about three years, stomach disorder and catarrh of the head also left me. I had been of a very nervous temperament from childhoo, although the symptoms attendant upon this ailment had been largely controlled by human effort. In 1906 I received an appointment to teach in the schools of Portland, Oregon, and it was during two years of teaching there that the nervous condition assumed its worst form. Some help was received from practitioners, but I was told to continue to read the textbook and put its teachings into practice as much as I could. Healing was slowly but permanently established, and whereas formerly I had been annoved by every passing disturbance, I am now able to abide in "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding." A painful trouble with two toes, one on each foot, was overcome as I became conscious of the infinitude of God, good, and the nothingness of evil.

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