Testimony of Healing August 28, 1926 Issue

At the time I took up the study of Christian Science my...

Eleanor B. Mason

At the time I took up the study of Christian Science my condition was in every way deplorable. Five years of college and university life, followed by a short but severe illness, had left me in a state of extreme nervous prostration. I had always been considered as lacking in endurance, and the abandon with which I pursued athletics and the many social activities which one finds at a girls' college, in addition to the strict academic requirements, proved to be the undoing of the material sense of health which years of careful oversight at home had seemed to build up. I was forced to give up all thought of entering a profession, for which I had prepared myself, and to return home a burden and disappointment to myself and others.

Then began the long, disheartening search for health. There was always the hop that a change of climate or a different form of treatment would start me on the upward path, and always the bitter disappointment. I may say here that the doctors did their best to help me, and that I appreciate their kindly thought and many acts of friendliness at that time. The outcome was that after three years of constant doctoring I found myself not only useless, but in such a nervous state that each moment was physically and mentally well-nigh unendurable. In the meantime my father had passed on very suddenly, and this sorrow aggravated my condition.

Although Christian Science had been presented to me a few times during these years I did not accept it, for I felt that it would make me a patient sufferer, but would not heal me. To me religion and resignation meant the same thing, and, far from being resigned, I felt only bitterness and impatience. While I was in this mental and physical state my mother, who was very dear to me and who alone was left to me of my family, was stricken with what is known to the medical profession as an incurable disease. But "man's extremity is God's opportunity." In my despair I turned absolutely from a view of life which could permit and call natural such trials, and took up Christian Science, which I knew taught the exact opposite of what I had believed and been taught all my previous life. I have never had occasion to regret this decision for one moment. The way has seemed difficult at times, but through the most kind, most wise, and always patient guidance of a consecrated practitioner I have been helped along the path leading to the "new heaven" and the "new earth," and have been enabled to recover all in the way of good that I had seemingly lost, and to gain much more. Besides having been restored to complete mental and bodily health, for the last five years I have led a useful and active life, and my entire outlook on life is happier. I can say with a deep sense of gratitude that "I know that my redeemer liveth," and not only my redeemer, but the redeemer of all mankind from every ill. Indeed, it means much to me to know that all can be helped equally through the truth of Christian Science, for the thought of the many people who seemed to be hopelessly handicapped for life's struggle had always weighed on me.

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