Having spent the greater part of my life from 1902 to...

Charles P. Gough

Having spent the greater part of my life from 1902 to 1913 behind prison bars, I feel that I have a message of interest to my fellow men. In 1902 I was sentenced to serve three months in the county jail of a large western city, and the day of my release I was rearrested, and sentenced to serve two years in the state penitentiary. Leaving this institution at the expiration of my term, broken in health through having had bronchitis, typhoid pneumonia, and other ailments, I was seemingly driven again to resort to swindling, or what is legally known as "obtaining money under false pretenses," the charge on which I had already been sentenced twice.

I had been at liberty only about four months when I was again arrested, in a southern state, and sentenced to a county prision road gang, where I was compelled to wear a ball and chain, and to break rocks as punishment. At this time pleurisy developed. Through the loving help of a friend I was freed from the place and sent to my home in Massachusetts, where I remained but a few months when the desire to resort to my old ways of obtaining money returned. I was soon back in prison for a two-year term. All of this sentence was spent in the prison hospital, where I underwent an operation for what is known as an advanced condition of pleurisy, being in bed about five months. I left this place in a very much weakened condition. I was fortunate enough to get work which enabled me to lead an honest life for several years, but the old desire to defraud led me to my former dishonest practices, with the result that I spent a ninety-day sentence in the county prison of a southwestern state.

Finally, in 1913, while I was in the hospital ward of the Utah State Prison, being confined for forgery, some one called my attention to the Christian Science literature so kindly placed there by the distribution workers of Salt Lake City, advising me to read it. I read the selected articles, and they seemed so sincere and fair in their statements that I determined to learn more of the religious beliefs of the people who could write such articles. I already possessed a Bible and was furnished a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, through the kindness of a gentleman doing the work of reader at the Christian Science services in the prison. I read this volume six times and also studied the Lesson-Sermons, read the Sentinel, Journal, and Monitor, as well as every pamphlet and book on the subject that was printed or sold by The Christian Science Publishing Society. About six hours daily were spent in this way, just because I enjoyed it all and could not seem to get enough of it. I had no idea that I would be healed or helped by this study, but I was pardoned when my term was about half over, in spite of the fact that I was thousands of miles from home and seemingly had no one to help me. I know that "the sunlight ... glances into the prison-cell," also that "Love is the liberator" (Science and Health, pp. 516, 225), as Mrs. Eddy tells us.

For the past few years I have not been tempted to resort to the old methods of getting money, but all my financial needs are being met just to the extent that I apply the rules of right thinking and living, as outlined in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, and have availed myself of the articles printed in the periodicals. Instead of being troubled by high altitudes and damp climate, or having difficulty in eating certain foods, I have made several trips from coast to coast of the United States without suffering any inconvenience whatsoever, in spite of the doctor's statement as far back as 1911 that the left lung was badly affected and the right lung slightly affected, and that it would be advisable for me to live in California, if I wished to get well. The above-mentioned results were all obtained without the aid of a practitioner, but through the diligent study of the Bible and Science and Health with the aid of the Lesson-Sermons.

I am very grateful that there was one woman so unselfish and loving as to devote her entire life to the study of the Bible, and then to set forth the rules of right thinking and living in such a simple and concise way that anyone who sincerely applies the teachings of Science and Health can overcome any and all disagreeable conditions that may arise. I wish to thank all those who contribute the various articles, testimonies, and so forth, to the Christian Science periodicals, as they are thus helping me in my progress onward and upward. To me the Sentinel, Journal, and Monitor are part of the munitions of our warfare, and through the truth they give out we are protected from evil in any form.

I especially wish to thank the members of the distribution committee through whom the Sentinel that first led me to study Christian Science was placed in my hands.

Charles P. Gough, Denver, Col.

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Testimony of Healing

Words are inadequate to express the gratitude I owe...

June 1, 1918

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