Testimony of Healing May 24, 1924 Issue

The truth of one of the promises in the Bible which...

Catherine Smith Densmore

The truth of one of the promises in the Bible which reads, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear," was proved to me in a most beautiful and instantaneous healing which I experienced a few years ago. I had been for many years a victim of nervousness in its varied forms, and had "suffered many things of many physicians." Mental and physical science, the Emmanuel movement, and other systems, were investigated more or less actively; but I grew worse, until suddenly I was stricken with an acute attack of neuritis. Two physicians were called, who did all they could to relieve me, opiates being administered to mitigate the suffering. At the end of a week, as I grew no better, one of the physicians told me that it would be impossible for me to continue my business for at least a year. He also told me of the penalty should I attempt to do so. I remember thinking that I did not believe a good God would allow me to plan an entire season's work and then suddenly deprive me of the ability to do this work; and as I thought more deeply, I began to realize that the year of so-called inactivity might be the most profitable one I ever spent, could I but find in that year a God whom I could really understand. I grew quite joyous as I planned that year's work, and resolved to live the Golden Rule under all circumstances and cherish no malice or resentment; and as I planned, the "angel of his presence" flooded my consciousness. I picked up a book which had been placed near me by my daughter, who had recently begun the study of Christian Science. This book was "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy, and it opened at the article, "One Cause and Effect" (p. 21), where our beloved Leader tells of her own healing. I read this article, then the verse in the Bible (Matthew 9:2) which had so illumined her understanding that she was instantaneously lifted from a deathbed; and something seemed to whisper to me that I too was free. I was too much filled with fear to believe this could be true, as I knew nothing of just how the law of God, good, operates; but God did direct me most wonderfully to dismiss my physician, and to call a practitioner. How difficult it seemed for me to credit what she told me,—that without any help from her God's work was done and I was really healed, and that there was every reason in the world for me to return to my work the next morning and as early as I needed to go! Every argument I presented was instantly destroyed by her pure understanding of God's love for His dear children. Surely this experience proved that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

I am so very grateful for the untiring work of the practitioners, and I ask daily for an increasing sense of gratitude that I may better understand God's love. I am grateful for membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church and for the inestimable privilege of class instruction; and as this teaching unfolds I am increasingly grateful for the pure, noble woman, Mrs. Eddy, who through her unselfed love for humanity has given us this unvarying, definite law of God, good, established by Christ Jesus, the Way-shower.

(Mrs.) Catherine Smith Densmore, Toledo, Ohio.

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