Testimony of Healing October 1, 1921 Issue

I had always been interested in religious doctrines; and...

Conrad Bernhard, Jr.

I had always been interested in religious doctrines; and when I procured a copy of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, it was for the purpose of learning from its pages the doctrines of Christian Science. In this I was not disappointed; and as a reward for studious investigation there was gradually revealed to me an illuminating exposition of the truth of being, which both astonished and delighted me, and which resulted in a complete reversal of all previous beliefs about God and His universe, including man. Eager for further knowledge I later applied for and received class instruction, which was almost immediately followed by what I look back upon as my first real test of Christian Science healing. Two weeks after the adjournment of the class, on the first day of the week, I became seriously ill. The symptoms were those of pneumonia, accompanied by a complication which resulted in a disfigurement of the face. I thoughtfully reflected, and looked upon the experience as an opportunity to demonstrate the power of Christian Science treatment to heal disease. I thought: "If I, who am a mere beginner in the study of Christian Science, can by its application overcome this disease, then it will prove that any one who is sincere can do the same thing by the same means; for I certainly am not in any way different from my fellows."

The desire to make this demonstration was communicated to my wife, who was also a student of Christian Science; and she agreed not to help unless requested to do so. With the Bible and Science and Health always at hand for reference and study, I began my mental work. I first reflected upon the mental nature of disease, and strove to realize that the divine Mind could not be responsible for it, and endeavored to see that because all causation is mental, then all effect must be mental, that the only real cause and creator is the divine Mind, and that the divine Mind is God, and consequently good; therefore, since the only real cause was wholly good it could not produce an effect that was evil. This seeming disease was evil, hence its mental cause must be unreal, because the only real cause is the divine Mind, which is wholly good and All-in-all. And certainly if the cause was proved unreal it was logical to conclude that the effect must also be unreal. Through this course of argument it ultimately became clear that this disease could exist only in mortal thought, and that its cure could be effected by purifying thought, by purging it of all disease images, and mentally viewing man as the perfect idea, or image, of perfect, all-creating Mind. This view I held to tenaciously. By this simple process of reasoning, the disease was overcome in five days, and business was resumed as usual on the sixth day. This result was not alone a victory over disease; it also proved to the writer, without the shadow of a doubt, that Christian Science treatment does heal disease; and it further proved that any one who faithfully studies and applies it can meet with the same successful results. As I look back upon this first experience of proving the goodness and might of God, as manifested through Christian Science, I am moved to exclaim with the psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name."

Conrad Bernhard, Jr., Violetville, Maryland.

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