Testimony of Healing January 29, 1921 Issue

If any man is grateful for what Christian Science has...

James W. Watson

If any man is grateful for what Christian Science has done for him it is I. From a man seeking the life of another I was changed into a seeker of Truth. Mortal mind, so called, argued that I was having the worst thing done to me that any man could have done to him, and screamed: "Follow and destroy. You have truth and justice on your side. No jury on earth would convict you." Of course, looking for error I found lots of it; but, as Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 476), "Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed," which the following will prove.

All of my case was proved against my supposed enemy. Every detail was perfect. I had the evidence of his guilt in my pocket, and I did not care if I were apprehended or not after his destruction. I had no weapons but my two hands. I am a large man physically and at that time stood six feet, weighed over two hundred pounds, and had plenty of merely animal courage. I boarded the train and went to the city depot. I knew where to get off and take an elevated train to my supposed enemy's place of business. When the train stopped at the terminal I was in the rear end of the last car. As I followed the other passengers out I saw a copy of the Christian Science Sentinel lying on a seat. I picked it up and kept on walking. I do not know what I read, but I do know I walked maybe sixty or one hundred feet to a telephone booth, picked up a directory, found the word Christian Science, and the word practitioner after it. I did not know what they did, but I knew what the word "Christian" meant, so I found the telephone number of the one who I thought was the nearest to my residence, called her up, made an appointment with her for that evening, then walked out of that booth into a new world, and went about my duties, and that evening I received my first treatment in Christian Science. The first thing I was cured of was fear. I went home and slept all night, something I had not done in five months. In the morning, as usual, the first thing I started to do was take a chew of tobacco. Immediately there was such disgust for it that I threw it and a handsome leather pouch in the garbage can and have not used any chewing tobacco since.

I had not been studying Christian Science long before I had an opportunity to experience the healing of pneumonia. I worked as best I could in Science, but seemingly grew weaker all the time. The person who was supposed to be the most interested in my welfare at that time sent for a doctor, without my consent, and I sent for a practitioner, who came; but when she came she saw such evidence of opposition that she said she could not treat me under such conditions. She said, "God will lead you," and left. No sooner had she gone than the doctor said he could not come. He was told I wanted Christian Science treatment and he said he could not come but he would issue the death certificate. I sat in my chair rapidly lapsing into seeming unconsciousness, but this was what I was thinking: "The practitioner has gone, and the doctor does not want your case; what are you going to do about it? God never left you, and He will not desert you. You are being tried, but how are you going to get out of this?" All at once I recalled the practitioner's words, "God will lead you." He did; He led me into my overcoat and out into the street, where I walked a long block to a street car, transferred twice, then walked up a flight of stairs and knocked on the practitioner's door. She opened it and I went in, and each day after that I went for treatment until I was healed.

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