Testimony of Healing September 28, 1918 Issue

After reading in the Sentinel of June 15 the editorial...

Charles C. Oram with contributions from Grace C. Oram

After reading in the Sentinel of June 15 the editorial entitled "Living Witnesses," I can no longer refrain from sending my testimony with a grateful heart, hoping that some "weary wanderers, athirst in the desert" (Science and Health, p. 570), may read it and take courage, and know that there is yet a way out of bondage open to them.

Born of devout Christian parents and brought up in a Christian home, I became early dissatisfied with the inconsistencies of the Christian religion; and leaving home at an early age I soon drifted away from all church affiliation and its influence. When Christian Science found me it seemed to me that I was at the end of everything. For years drink had been gradually getting the better of me, and the periods of dissipation, followed by bitter remorse, became more frequent, until there seemed nothing left for me but a drunkard's or a suicide's grave. After a period of dissipation I returned home, heartsick and weary with the battle, determined to put an end to the whole thing by self-destruction, when the thought came to me that I had often said I would some day look into Christian Science, because the few Scientists I had known expressed health and happiness to a marked degree. I asked my wife if she would attend a Christian Science meeting with me and she consented; so we looked in a newspaper to find out where the services were held, for up to that time I had not seen a bit of Christian Science literature and knew nothing of the teaching.

We attended a Wednesday evening meeting, and saturated as I was with liquor and tobacco, I shall never forget the impression it made on me. The subject for the evening was prayer, and when I heard read from the desk: "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer," and, "The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer" (Science and Health, pp. 1 and 4), I thought that if this were true I would begin to pray that very night. After the meeting a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy was lent to me. I took it home with a heart full of hope and renewed courage, and before I had read the first chapter I knew I had found the truth for which I had been thirsting. The appetite for liquor left me while I was reading the textbook, without any effort on my part beyond a sincere desire to know the truth which makes free; and I was entirely healed of the tobacco habit three months later with my first physical healing. I had been an inveterate smoker for twenty-five years.

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