Testimony of Healing April 6, 1918 Issue

When Christian Science was first brought to my notice...

Ruby Dodge Federle

When Christian Science was first brought to my notice in 1907, I was visiting my sister in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A Christian Scientist had lent her a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and also "Miscellaneous Writings." We both glanced through the books and were not at all antagonistic,—in fact my sister's little girl was attending the Christian Science Sunday school,—but we did not then care to read them; yet I was in great need of help, as I had not been well for years. Upon my return home I advised my friends to try Christian Science and often went to the building where the reading room was, but never seemed to have the courage to enter. In 1908 we went to Texas to live in a small town, and I sent our little daughter to the Christian Science Sunday school, although I did not attend the services myself. In the spring of 1909 I again visited my sister. Some six months before this she had turned to Christian Science to get help for her baby, who was suffering from an extreme case of skin disease. Three physicians had been tried, but the child was not healed. The healing took place three weeks after Christian Science treatment was begun. When my sister asked if I cared to accompany her when she called on the practitioner I gladly went. Words cannot express the joy I felt as a result of this visit to the practitioner and a number of others which I made before returning to my home. I forgot all about myself in my eagerness to learn more about God and man's relationship to Him.

I had never been a Bible student, although the Scriptures were constantly being discussed in the home of my parents, but through the study of Science and Health the Bible became a new book to me, and I have grown to love it. From the start I tried to put this teaching into practice, and as a result I found it never failed when rightly applied. Many healings came to me from the beginning. The constant habit of complaining about my ills left me, also chronic backache, from which I had suffered since childhood. Great comfort came when I learned to trust my little daughter to God's protection. The old sense of melancholy and weakness left me and was replaced by a peace that can be realized only by those who have experienced it.

After we had been studying Christian Science about eight months our little daughter, then five years old, was beautifully healed. She fell from a gate on which she was standing, and struck on the cement pavement. A gentleman who saw the accident called to know if she was hurt, and receiving no reply he went over to where she lay, unconscious, and brought her in to me. I was alone at the time, but I at once turned to God for help. Holding her in my arms I declared His allness and felt so confident of His presence that I placed her on the bed. I also turned to the ninety-first psalm, which strengthened me. For three hours and a half the child remained unconscious, tossing to and fro and muttering incoherently. I began to study our Lesson-Sermon for the week, and soon the child turned and smiled at me. She became greatly nauseated, but rising above the sense testimony I told her to know that her strength was in God. In a little while she went to sleep and slept all night. The next morning she was all right. There was not a mark on her body and not a pain manifested itself. This healing brought a wonderful spiritual uplift.

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