Testimony of Healing March 17, 1923 Issue

In the Preface of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"...

Lillian A. Munson

In the Preface of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we read (p. vii): "A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer has accomplished." Mrs. Eddy was the Discoverer and Founder, the pioneer, of Christian Science; and our Christian Science practitioners are walking in her footsteps in hewing the way through the mortal beliefs and fears of their patients.

I should like to tell of the first Christian Science treatments I ever received. They were absent treatments, given by a practitioner whom I had never seen. I had always been sickly, and emaciated to a marked degree; and I wanted health. When the practitioner wrote to me to purchase Science and Health and read it, I reluctantly did so; but when she asked me to obtain a Christian Science Quarterly and study the Lesson-Sermons, I revolted. I did not understand. I thought I just wanted to be healed; I did not want to be a Christian Scientist. In a material way I was enjoying life; and I did not want to be purified, spiritualized. When a month had passed, and I had received no outward physical healing from the work done, I wrote her a short, crisp letter and dismissed her, with no word of thanks. I had spent twenty-five great big dollars and had received no return, as I supposed. To me, in those days, dollars and cents were substance, instead of mere symbols of God's love and care. But her work had been well done; for, years afterwards, when I had diligently and honestly taken up the study of Christian Science, I received health in a large measure and an almost instantaneous healing. Some time after this healing I unexpectedly met this practitioner, for the first time, at the home of a mutual friend in another part of the state; and, oh, how happy I was to have this opportunity to express to her my deep gratitude for the wonderful work she had done for me! She it was who hewed the way, blazed the trail, for the light to enter the consciousness of one very mortally minded woman; for she had healed me spiritually and the physical healing followed when I was willing to do my part.

The last sentence of the paragraph quoted above, "Future ages must declare what the pioneer has accomplished," were prophetic; for we are declaring in our Wednesday evening testimony meetings, and in the testimonies given in our periodicals, what our beloved Leader has accomplished. We are very grateful to her for her faithful study of the Bible, and that she so unselfishly gave the result, Science and Health, to the world that all might demonstrate the teachings of the great Way-shower, Jesus the Christ. And this healing work is all done to the praise, honor, and glory of God.

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