Testimony of Healing April 1, 1922 Issue

Christian Science came to me as a direct answer to...

Colina Helen Cavenie

Christian Science came to me as a direct answer to prayer. For many years I had always read a verse or two of Scripture each morning. On one particular morning I closed the Bible and, just where I stood, prayed aloud, "O God, give me a book that will help me to understand Thy Word." A few days after this a friend called to see me; and as I was then suffering from a throat trouble, which I had had from childhood, she spoke of Christian Science. After hearing what she had to say about the healing of physical trouble, I told her that what I wished was a book that would open up the meaning of the Bible to me. My friend then said, "That is just what this book, 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' by Mrs. Eddy, is doing for all those who read it." I asked for one on loan, and before I had read many pages I saw that it was a book to be studied, not merely read; so I got a second-hand copy and in a few days began reading the Lesson-Sermon.

Shortly after this my eldest daughter, a girl of fifteen years, became very ill. I called a doctor, who said he was not at all sure of the nature of the disease; but if it turned out to be what he suspected, there was absolutely no hope of recovery, there being no known cure. At the end of two days I knew myself what the disease was. My husband had passed on shortly before with it, though he had the most skilled medical advice. Without saying anything to any one I went to the Christian Science testimony meeting and told my trouble to a lady whom I knew to be a mother and a good woman. She spoke to me so lovingly, and seemed so sure that God would heal the child, that I felt able to remain for the meeting. On reaching home I found the child quite delirious and seemingly much worse. I sent the rest of the family to bed and took my place beside the sick girl. I looked about for my book to read and found, to my great disappointment, that it had been left in another room, which I could not enter. I then sat down and began to think about God and all the things I had heard at the meeting. About two o'clock in the morning I became very sleepy, but felt I must not sleep. Just then the words came to me quite distinctly, "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" I felt that was an imperative command not to sleep. I began to think about God and man as His image and likeness, and suddenly saw how impossible it was for my child to die, for God had never made such a condition as death. In a few minutes she was sound asleep and did not awake till far on in the morning, when she was perfectly healed. The doctor called shortly after and when I told him at the door that his patient was much better, he looked so surprised that I was divinely guided not to say a word about the experience of the night. Shortly after this he stopped calling and said to me, on his last visit, "It is wonderful; of all the cases that are admitted to the hospital I have never heard of one being cured." In two weeks my daughter was able to travel forty miles by rail alone, and from that time has had good health in every respect.

After this experience I began to devour the textbook. I kept it beside me morning, noon, and night. Through the study of the second book of Samuel and the chapter on "Physiology" in the textbook I was instantaneously healed of the throat trouble mentioned. Needless to say, I am deeply grateful to God for His goodness; also, I am grateful to our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, for all her writings. I am grateful for our Manual, and value it more every day; because through obedience to it the purity of Christian Science is kept intact. Also, I am grateful that I have been able to help others; and I try each day to become worthy of being called a student of Christian Science.

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