Testimony of Healing July 19, 1924 Issue

Before I knew of Christian Science I had been the victim...

Amelia T. Swalley

Before I knew of Christian Science I had been the victim of a railroad accident. This railroad collision took place about thirty-five miles from a large city, to which I was taken by train and there placed in a hospital, where for the following few weeks I suffered "many things of many physicians." In my family were several reputable physicians and surgeons; and in my desperation I wired our family physician, a much loved relative, to come to me. He came at once; and, although I was about one hundred and fifty miles away, took me home. I had to travel on a bed in the baggage car, and ambulances were used at both ends of the line.

A few days after reaching home I was given an anæsthetic, and a plaster cast was placed upon my body, reaching from my neck to my toes. This remained on for six months, when it was taken off and another put on the trunk of my body, in order to get an impression to be used as a model for a jacket. This jacket, which was worn to enable me to sit up in a wheel chair, was deemed necessary on account of the condition of the spine. There was concussion of every joint of the spine, with an indentation at one place, of three or four inches, that baffled all the doctors. It was the general opinion of the specialists consulted that I would have a hump on my back. This jacket was like a coat of mail. It was placed on my body while I was lying in bed; then I would be lifted out and placed in a wheel chair. I lived in this manner for about two years, constantly under medical treatment, with a physician in attendance.

About this time, a friend whom we had not seen for years came to see me, and told us of the many wonderful experiences in healing he and his family had had in Christian Science. While I did not doubt what he told me, I was not ready to give up materia medica; so I held to it for five months longer, until there seemed nothing more to do. Everything suggested by the specialists sent by the railroad company to examine me, as well as those we had consulted, had been tried; and there was nothing more to be done. Then, in my extremity, crippled and apparently hopeless, I thought again of what this friend had said regarding Christian Science, and wrote to him to see if he could make arrangements for treatments from a practitioner, whom I eventually traveled two hundred miles to see. Before starting on this journey I was examined by the doctor, who found that one leg was a fraction over two inches too short, there having been a dislocated hip on that side and a few fractures. In talking to the practitioner I asked if I must have faith in Christian Science to be helped. She answered, "Christian Science is not a faith cure;" adding, "You have expressed all the faith required in coming." I saw her close her eyes, while she did the work that healed me quickly and completely. I had ten treatments, which cost me ten dollars, after spending over ten thousand dollars on other methods of treatment.

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