Testimony of Healing November 11, 1922 Issue

I was very quickly healed of a serious eye trouble through...

J. Cecil Alter with contributions from Jennie G. Alter

I was very quickly healed of a serious eye trouble through the ministrations of a Christian Science practitioner, after suffering much pain and a partial loss of the use of the eyes for several years, during which time every available specialist and every known method of treatment had been faithfully tried, though with no permanent and little temporary relief. A number of eye specialists in conference decided that there appeared to be no hope of my securing relief from the pain, or of obtaining a total correction of the difficulty with the sight.

Christian Science had previously been suggested by friends, though I had declined it as being preposterous in my case. At one time, also, before the condition of my eyes became so bad, I attended a Christian Science testimony meeting. At that meeting a testimony was given by a man who had been healed of the liquor habit, which impressed me deeply. Thus, I was finally impelled to seek a Christian Science practitioner. When I asked the practitioner if she could heal me, she replied that she could not, but that God could. I thought I knew something about God, having been a member of and a more or less active worker in a church since childhood; hence this affair was shrouded in mystery, which only deepened as the lady bowed her head in deep silence. The lady had asked me to read during the treatment; but the book lay unopened on my lap, while I struggled mentally between the apparent absurdity of such a treatment and the really pitiful desire for freedom from the pain in my eyes, and the fear of ultimate blindness. I left with a friendlier feeling toward the practitioner and her system, though I was not yet sure I would accept her invitation to return the next day for another treatment. I did go back, however, because I felt an uplift and an encouragement that I could not understand or ignore. After the second treatment the pain in my eyes ceased; and as I walked southward on the street that sunny noonday, facing the sun with bared eyes in perfect comfort, I seemed virtually to have been born again. After the third day's treatment I laid aside my glasses, my exercising prisms and other eye exercises, stopped the frequent cold water eye baths that had been believed so necessary to allay inflammation, and was able to attend to clerical work, even at night by artificial light, without the least pain or impairment of vision. Since that date I have not worn glasses or had a moment's return of the old trouble, though that was more than twelve years ago.

Another remarkable healing occurred in the spring of 1914. While passing down an abrupt mountain slope on snowshoes, carrying a rather heavy load of supplies and tools, I had quite a violent, awkward fall, in which an ankle was severely twisted and strained. After resting a few minutes, and passing part of the load to my companion, I managed to proceed, though with considerable pain and inconvenience. After a mile or so we halted at a stream-opening in the snow for lunch. When we undertook to move forward, the ankle had swelled and stiffened appreciably, and had become exceedingly painful to any motion. I then discovered that I could not touch the foot to the snow, because of the pain; much less could I wear the snowshoes and carry part of the pack. At my request, my companion went forward a mile or more to a watchman's station to telephone for Christian Science help, and for a vehicle or other conveyance. Since I could not find a comfortable resting place on the snow, I struggled forward on improvised crutches, suffering excruciating pain, particularly when the foot accidentally touched something. While I sought my very best to declare and to realize the truth, as understood in Christian Science, I made little headway, and sank down despairingly on the first dry earth reached. In the midst of the seeming storm of pain, following the act of getting down on the ground, one of the great surprises within my memory came in the sudden and complete cessation of the pain. I rose promptly from a reclining to a sitting posture to look at the boot, only to find that apparently nothing had happened on the exterior; but with the passing of the pain, I realized the blessed presence of God, and what was unmistakably the result of the effective work of the practitioner in the city, seven miles away.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Christian Science is a religion that heals, that meets...