Testimony of Healing February 14, 1925 Issue

In 1905, I was healed of a sickness of thirteen years'...

Alma Windelbandt

In 1905, I was healed of a sickness of thirteen years' standing through Christian Science treatment. I had had attacks of an epileptic nature, which gradually grew more severe and frequent, until I had several a day. Different medical systems had been tried, but they did not give me any relief. My mother had heard of Christian Science from our relatives living in Germany, and asked my husband, who was a doctor, to let me have Christian Science treatment. In his loving solicitude for my well-being, he consented. I myself was too apathetic to have any definite wishes for or against anything, and only made the objection that it would not be fair to appeal to a religious system, as I had not had anything to do with religion since my school days. The Bible was not unknown to me, as I had been brought up by very devout parents; but I enjoyed its beauties only as I would quotations from the classics. Its teachings I considered utopian, its narratives fabulous; yet from my very childhood I had longed for a right standard for thinking and living.

I wrote to a Christian Science practitioner then living in Germany, tried to show her my mental state as fully as possible, and asked her to help me if she could. Her answer made me feel that there existed a realm of thought of which I had been entirely unaware. I began to read the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, a copy being sent me from abroad, and also took English lessons. After three weeks' treatment I had an attack, but have not had one since. This healing, marvelous as it seemed, brought with it something yet more beautiful,—a sense of freedom, of joy, and of love to all men.

Though continuing to read the textbook, I could not understand what had brought about the change in me. Yet the change was such a radical one that I felt it quite impossible to leave the question unsolved. At that period there was not a single Christian Scientist in our town, so I decided to go to the town where the practitioner lived who had helped me. I spent many happy hours with this loving and faithful follower of Christ, to whom I owe my tenderest love and gratitude; and I also made the acquaintance of many other Christian Scientists. I felt so deeply impressed by the glimpses I caught of the grandeur and beauty of Christian Science that I thought everything discordant in my life would now be easily overcome, and I returned home expecting a future full of sunshine for me and mine. But I soon discovered that this was not yet to be realized. My children, when sick, had to be treated through material medicine; and though in several cases I have had beautiful proofs of Truth's healing power, it made me suffer to see that my understanding of Christian Science was insufficient to give that mental equipoise which could make me stand firm and calm amidst all the opposing mental currents. Something was lacking in me, but I could not find out what it was. I felt unable to bear such a mental state, so I gave up the study of Christian Science and locked up all the Christian Science literature I possessed. Then followed three years of earnest investigation of different ways of life, and I learned to love many honest seekers after truth, modern and ancient. Yet how fragmentary, how narrow, were their endeavors compared with Mrs. Eddy's discovery!

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