Testimony of Healing May 5, 1923 Issue

I had given up all hope, as I was suffering from Menière's...

Philip B. Osborn

I had given up all hope, as I was suffering from Meniere's disease, or aural vertigo, one of the most distressing maladies known to medical science. Some twenty doctors had been consulted, two of whom were the world's leading specialists on this particular form of malady. Hydropathy and treatment by electricity and massage were given a trial; and various drugs recommended were also tried. Eventually I decided that nothing more could be done, though I continued to take calomel, bromide, and salts in small doses. I should like to say a word here in praise of doctors and nurses, who, in my experience, stand on a high rung of the ladder of human material effort to lighten the burden of suffering humanity. I am sincerely and deeply grateful to all those good, kind people with whom I came in contact during the period of the terrible affliction.

While I was on a visit to a farm up country, I experienced an unusually severe seizure of vertigo, which precipitated me from an elevated position on to a cement floor with great violence. My face and body were much bruised and damaged by the fall. My right eyebrow was partially knocked off. I thought my right arm was broken. When I recovered my equilibrium the above condition was apparent; and I found myself lying on a bed, with a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy placed within my reach. There was also a mirror, with which I examined my face; and with the left hand I patted the eyebrow into position. Then I took up the little book. At first I read it reluctantly, as I had always set my face against Christian Science. However, with a feeling of utter despair, I continued to read; and to my astonishment a feeling of well-being suddenly came over me. In about an hour I arose free from all pain, more particularly quite free from the usual nausea and giddiness. The right eyebrow had healed completely; and with the exception of a highly discolored and blood-stained face I was quite normal. I borrowed that little book and read it continuously. Fear prevented me from leaving the house for a couple of days; but within a month I was galloping about the farm on horseback, and was further actively engaged in laying out a water scheme on the farm.

On my return to Durban, environment and other causes appeared to interfere with my progress in Christian Science, so I consulted a Christian Science practitioner. I soon found suitable employment, though I did not think so at the time. It was to lay out a pipe line route over about ten miles of the most rugged country imaginable. I felt that the work was too big for me to begin with, but the practitioner gave me the right advice; so, soon afterwards I left for the scene of operations in a donkey wagon, with complete camping outfit. My experiences on that work, which lasted for about four months, would take a volume to describe. I was often walking along a ledge barely two feet wide, on the face of a cliff with a clean drop of two hundred feet to the winding river below; and this was particularly remarkable on account of ocular disturbances. When in town I usually walked in the streets to avoid bumping into people on the pavements. New strength was given with each day; and it was seldom the sun had risen before I had left camp. I went to work each day full of confidence and with no fear, feeling that God was present. In this manner the work was carried successfully to completion.

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