Testimony of Healing December 26, 1925 Issue

On reading a recent issue of the Christian Science Sentinel...

Charles William Sargent

On reading a recent issue of the Christian Science Sentinel of the wonderful healing experienced by a friend in a distant city (whom I have not met in many years), I felt a great desire to write to her personally and rejoice with her over this, another proof of the power of divine Love, when applied as taught in Christian Science; but finally I concluded that it would be much better to send in my own token of gratitude, and thereby reach all of the friendly ones who are reading the Sentinel each week, so that we may all rejoice together.

As a sinner who realizes more and more the reforming power of a deep faith in God, I can truthfully say that I have been led in a way that I knew not, and in that way I have gathered enough understanding to keep me from day to day. Although I did not seek Christian Science through any conscious need of physical healing, I have found that the perusal of Mrs. Eddy's writings has never failed to give me a greater sense of well-being, or of being well. For almost half a century the various beliefs that seek to attach themselves to a healthy sinner influenced almost entirely all my actions; consequently, I seemed to be in a hardened condition. But when "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy was lent me by a passing acquaintance (whom I have since regarded as a very sincere friend), the hardness at once began to be dissolved, and for the first time in years my face was wet with tears of gratitude. The belief in the power of alcohol, which had held me for many years, was destroyed in less than a month's time without any conscious effort of my own. The dormant faculty of reason became so active through the reading of Science and Health that I was able to realize quite clearly that alcohol had no intelligence and was not able to make me either sick or well.

During the same time, while I was working with a heavy ax one day, the thumb of my left hand was severely wounded, the nail being completely split. I understood nothing about how to proceed in Christian Science, but my entire thought had been occupied by what I had read in Science and Health, and I was at once helped by the statement on page 1: "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer." I wrapped a handkerchief loosely about the hand and continued working as best I could. The pain, which had seemed intense, at once disappeared; and in about twenty minutes, there being a pleasant glowing feeling in the place where the wound had been, I removed the handkerchief, and found, to my great joy but not surprise, that "the earnest expectation of the creature" had been realized, for the two parts of the nail had drawn closely together. The next morning I was awakened by a sense of pain, and found that a blck spot had made its appearance during the night. The temptation to think of infection at once presented itself, only to be met by a firm and emphatic denial on my part. When I arrived at my place of employment the black spot, together with the pain, had disappeared.

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