Testimony of Healing January 1, 1927 ISSUE

When the subject of Christian Science was first brought...

Jean Herbert

When the subject of Christian Science was first brought to my attention, about six years ago, I thought that I took a great interest in it, as I loved to investigate points in metaphysics; and the book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy seemed to me to give a defensible and consistent explanation of the Bible. But at that time I only perceived the letter of Christian Science and completely overlooked its spirit; so that it remained for me an interesting theory, probably true, but without my seeing any need for its practical application.

It was several years later that I was led to seek for something more in it. At that time I had to face an unusually grave problem, which human means seemed totally inadequate to solve. I remembered the name of a practitioner of whom I had heard years before, and I sought her help. She guided my first steps on the way from sense to Soul with devoted and untiring effort; and every time I saw her she revealed a new and to me unsuspected aspect of my problem, and gave me a rich supply of food for thought. The demonstration became apparent only after eighteen months' work, during which the mornings of confidence and hope were separated by fewer and fewer evenings of weariness and doubt.

The feeling of anxiety was first to leave me, as soon as I understood our Leader's injunction: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149, 150 ). Then, as faults and mistakes were one by one discovered and fought until overcome, there grew confidence, assurance, faith, and finally the desire that His will, not mine, should be done. I am grateful that I had to wait such a long time before the demonstration was made, as during all those months I had to make a detailed inventory of all that needed correction and humbly undertake the work of correcting.

While that work was proceeding, I obtained numerous other healings in my character, my family, my friendships, my business, often without even seeking them, as well as physical healings. So it was that a condition for which, according to French and British physicians, a surgical operation was the only remedy, disappeared overnight, leaving no trace. Glasses, which I had worn for over twenty years, I was also able to put aside completely, although eye specialists had declared that I could never do without them, that every second year I should have to get stronger lenses, and that within ten or fifteen years I should have to wear two pairs. The smoking habit and the wine-drinking habit also disappeared without any special effort on my part. A feeling of insecurity in business was destroyed by the always verified certainty that I should have in due time the necessary resources to meet my liabilities.

To Mrs. Eddy, whose life of consecration and self-denial gave us again the teachings of Christ Jesus, I have a deep gratitude, which I hope to show by endeavoring to follow her teachings. I appreciate highly the privilege of being able to attend the services of a branch church, to send one of my children to the Sunday school, and to receive through our periodicals those messages which always seem to have immediate application to the problems on which we may be at work. I hope that I shall be able to extend to others the invaluable help which I have received from those friends who brought me to Christian Science and helped me to progress in its study.—Jean Herbert, Paris, France.

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