Testimony of Healing January 27, 1923 Issue

Of my early life I will state that before I was twenty-one...

Willeve T. Merriman

Of my early life I will state that before I was twenty-one years of age I had all the bad habits of the day. I was a drunkard, and made use of profane language; also was a smoker and chewer of tobacco. As I grew older, these habits grew stronger, and life became a continuous nightmare. Hoping to improve my condition, I took the so-called cures, without good results. I was a nuisance to everybody, positively unfit for any kind of work, and a great sufferer.

I was fifty-four years old, and had, besides these bad habits, rheumatism, lumbago, gout, itch, insomnia, impaired vision, teeth trouble; and, finally, I was confined to my bed. I had given up doctors and medicine long before, and just wanted to die. My good wife, who had endured with me all these years, had faith in Christian Science. I was suffering such intense pain I declared I must have help or die; and a Christian Science practitioner was sent for. The following morning she came quietly in and asked me when I intended to read Science and Health. She advised me to read the book and said a few words that opened the door through which the light and understanding of a new life came to me. I was quiet in a few minutes; everything had changed, and I asked for Science and Health. I read forty-six pages, and was healed. I went downstairs without crutch or cane. I never took or wanted to take another drink of liquor or chew of tobacco. I smoked for a while, and then that desire left me also. I was so completely happy that I could hardly contain myself. No bad habits, no aches and pains! I breathed the pure atmosphere of liberty for the first time in my life.

I then began to wonder why everybody did not take advantage of the same salvation. I was foolish enough, after the healing, to think I knew all about Christian Science, and that I was now exempt from any material troubles forever. For the last few years I had been spending what small amount of capital I had, and funds were getting very low; so I thought the proper thing for me to do, along with my Science work, was to make a little money. I got my business outfit together, and started. But the more money I made, the more time it required to consider plans to get still more, and the less attention I paid to anything else. Finally, one morning I could not get out of bed. My limbs were badly swollen, and I was, it seemed to me, worse than ever. I just said to myself, "Now I will show what my Science can do." I used every particle of Science I understood at the time, repeating it over and over, but seemed to get worse and worse. I was suffering terribly. After about a week of the battle, I sent for the same practitioner; and what she said to me I shall never forget. She walked up to my bed smiling, and shook hands with me. I asked her, "What is the answer to this?" and the reply was, "Why don't you rise above the condition?" I said, "I don't know how."

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