For almost five years I was obsessed with the belief that...

For almost five years I was obsessed with the belief that it was impossible for me ever to stand before an audience and give a testimony; but I have been healed, and fear and timidity no longer hold me in bondage. I am now able to give and do give testimonies without experiencing any difficulty whatsoever, and now wish to write one for publication, with the hope that some one will be benefited, as I have been by reading the testimonies of others. The truth as taught in Christian Science has shown me how to become a better man mentally, morally, spiritually, and consequently a better man physically. I have received many healings and blessings, but will not attempt to enumerate them all. My first healing was of a seeming estrangement between my daughter and me. I thought that she should be the first to make an effort to bring about harmony, but I had not been reading Christian Science so very long before I was very plainly shown that it was I and not she who should be the first to make the effort to straighten out this unhappy condition; and in just the time that was required for a letter to travel some twelve hundred miles, and for the answer to come back, was the proof given that there never had been any estrangement, except in my erring thoughts.

Through the teachings of Christian Science I have been healed of as bad a case of alcoholism as it is perhaps possible for a human being to be afflicted with. I was a drunkard for over twenty years. I was also healed of the excessive use of tobacco, both chewing and smoking, to which I had been a slave for over thirty years. A little over a year ago I was confined to my bed by an attack of Spanish influenza, but with my limited knowledge of Christian Science I was able to overcome it in about three days and a half. I was out of the house and about my business on the fourth morning.

About three weeks later my landlord came to my room and found me in a semiconscious condition. He sent for a doctor instead of a Christian Science practitioner. I made no remonstrance, but allowed the doctor to go ahead with his diagnosis. He told me that I was a very sick man and that I had valvular leakage of the heart, and insisted that I be sent to a hospital, which I absolutely refused to consent to. I will have to admit, however, that he did arouse some fear, as I did not know what valvular leakage of the heart meant. On the morning of the fourth day I was sufficiently aroused to realize that I was far, far away from the teachings of Christian Science. I wanted to read, and reaching over to the table by my bedside I picked up a Christian Science pamphlet, read it, and applied the truth contained in it, had all the medicine removed, and requested the nurse to give me some more substantial food than that she had been giving me. She reluctantly obeyed and said that I should continue to take the medicine, and was disturbed over what she thought would be the consequence. I was now able to begin to think rightly, to think health thoughts instead of sick thoughts, to think as Christian Science has taught me to think, the result being that I was able to be out of bed, out of the room, and out of the house in three days more,—all this in spite of the death sentence that the doctor had pronounced upon me; for he had told the landlord and his wife, also the nurse, that he did not expect me to live. Is it any wonder that we are so grateful to our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, for giving us "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and that we are more than thankful to God and His Christ for these healings, and for all the blessings that come to every honest and sincere student of Christian Science?—Leslie L. Lee, San Francisco, California.