Testimony of Healing October 10, 1925 Issue

I should like to express my gratitude for all the good that...

Annie van Noppen

I should like to express my gratitude for all the good that Christian Science has done for me. Before I knew anything of this wonderful truth my life was so full of sickness, sorrow, and pain that I often wondered what I lived for. At one time it seemed as if the climax had come. I had come home from the hospital weak and broken down. My baby had passed on, and my husband had been home for months crippled with inflammatory rheumatism. At that time a minister from the neighborhood called. He said he had heard how the Lord had visited us! He wanted to comfort me and tell me it was all for my own good—to make a better Christian of me. This seemed so ridiculous; I could not understand such a God. If I in my imperfect love would rather carry all the burdens of my dear ones than see them suffer, how could God, the perfect One, send me all this trouble?

That night I prayed as I never prayed before to God to send me light so that I could understand His Word. This prayer was answered about a year later. At that time I was so weak that I had to lie down most of the time. The worst of my troubles seemed to be an ulcerated stomach. I was on a diet most of the time and suffered terribly. A dear friend who witnessed an attack said she thought she knew of something that would help me. It was a little book that she wanted me to read. This book was "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I could not express in words what I felt when I read this book. It was like finding cool water and shade after being for days in a dry and hot desert. I could not immediately understand all of it, but two facts stood out most clearly: first, that God is not the author of sin, sickness, and death, hence does not send it; secondly, that Christian Science teaches not of a man-made God, but of a God-made man. Through the daily study of this wonderful book I began to gain in strength day by day. And, above all, I felt so much happier. But the stomach trouble seemed hard to overcome, so I went to a practitioner for help. There I was lovingly told to leave the past alone and learn to live one day at a time. It seemed so hard for me to stop grieving over the loss of my children, but I was shown how I could have, in a higher sense, spiritual children, that is, give birth to beautiful thoughts to help heal and bless the world. I gained a better understanding about life as eternal, without beginning or end. All those thoughts helped me much; and by doing more for others and forgetting self, I began to be very happy. Before I realized it, I was singing instead of sighing when I worked. Soon I could eat whatever was put on the table.

Through the omnipotent power of God, as revealed by Christian Science, I have seen my husband lifted from his apparent deathbed, after the doctor had given up all hope. This was during the influenza epidemic. The doctor proclaimed this healing a miracle; but we know that "with God all things are possible."

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