When I first began the study of Christian Science it was...

When I first began the study of Christian Science it was not with a view to physical healing, for I was accustomed to accept as inevitable a general ill health which was not extreme enough to interfere seriously with work, but was a constant discomfort. Heavy colds, lasting sometimes six weeks, which resulted in doctors' visits and warnings to beware of tuberculosis, had been lifelong and had become increasingly severe. A symptom of the dreaded disease which is usually considered cause for alarm was immediately healed by treatment from a relative who had just begun the study of Christian Science. Later, as the result of one treatment from a practitioner, I became convinced of the existence of God, and the reading for the first time of the New Testament narratives brought a revelation of the truth of Christian Science which became from that moment the one great interest of life, my outlook being transformed. What struck me very particularly was that after that one treatment in which God became a reality to me, the habit of smoking, acquired as the result of a doctor's advice to smoke one cigarette a day for indigestion, left me. Naturally I had not kept to one cigarette a day, but had grown to smoke more than I thought was good for me, and my efforts to stop by means of will power had been unavailing. The practitioner did not know that I smoked until I told him the next day that the desire had left me. I was very conscious that the change came hand in hand with a peace I had never known before. I have never since had the least temptation to smoke and my idea of what constitutes pleasure has completely changed.

I had often tried to read the New Testament, being frequently urged to do so by friends who were anxious that I should not miss its literary beauty, but I could not read it even in that way. Every time I came to a healing I rebelled against reading a narrative purporting to be true but which seemed to conflict with experience and of whose truth I had no evidence. Christian Science told of healings which it was possible to investigate and this I still wished to do, even after I had had the truly wonderful experience of reading the gospels for the first time in the light of Christian Science. I got from a medical man a list of diseases which he assured me I would never find healed by Christian Science. With his list I approached Christian Scientists and they helped me to get in touch with people who had been healed of these very diseases. The investigation made it very clear to me that there was sufficient evidence that healings of incurable disease occurred through Christian Science now, as they did in Jesus' time. At the same time I was beginning to discover that a much more satisfactory way of gaining evidence was to learn to do the healing work one's self. I also received proof when the first of the dreaded colds to appear was healed overnight. My teeth, which had been very poor, became exceptionally good, and though I continued to visit the dentist, the intervals became longer and longer and there was very little or no work to be done when I did go. A slight deafness in one ear, which increased, was followed by the appearance of a painful lump in my throat, and fear became acute. I asked a practitioner for help, and about half an hour later the lump disappeared and, to my great joy, the hearing began to improve and continued to do so until it was normal. I have had much to be grateful for since I first opened "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and have received much help from the testimonies of others in the periodicals. I am grateful for all of the activities which Mrs. Eddy instituted and perhaps especially so for the periodicals, which, besides giving one a sense of fellowship with members of a world-wide interest, often throw the light of understanding on the solution of the problems of life which are common to all.

(Miss) Igerna B. J. Sollas, Oxford, England.

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Testimony of Healing
Through the study of Christian Science and the aid of...
August 27, 1921
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