Testimony of Healing November 26, 1927 Issue

When I was a very small child my grandmother taught...

Mildred M. Davenport

When I was a very small child my grandmother taught me the "scientific statement of being," the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy (pp. 468, 16, 17), and the twenty-third psalm. She also inclucated in my thought a loving appreciation of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy. During my first year at school I was taken ill with smallpox, which seemed prevalent there. A Christian Science pratitioner was called, and in ten days I was back in school. As I had not been vaccinated and had had no medical attention, the school authorities insisted upon vaccination before I could reenter. When my mother told the health board physician that I had just recovered from smallpox and could not, according to his theory, be again subject to it, and that vaccination would therefore be unnecessary, he insisted upon an examination to see if I really had had it. The examination revealed nothing upon which he could base a conclusion, as the disease had left no trace. To comply with the state law regarding vaccination during so-called epidemics, I was vaccinated, but the wound healed in a few days and all traces disappeared.

Removing to another city, in the years that followed I seemed to be separated from the channel through which this teaching had come to me, and my thought drifted away from it until I took up the study of psychology while preparing myself to teach in the public schools. I spent many confused and weary hours trying to reconcile its hopeless inconsistencies, and began to contrast them with something that seemed to have been lying dormant in my thought, something that was based on Principle, which I soon recognized as the long unused but still available truth I had been taught in Christian Science. I felt that this teaching must be correct, but did not yet rely upon it for healing. However, there came a period of three years of semi-invalidism, much of the time spent in bed; and practically all of the time I was taking liquid diets. I began to study the Bible, and read it diligently for some time. Meanwhile I was under the care of various physicians. The last decree was that an operation was necessary, and, while I was lying in the hospital trying to recover from this, suffering intensely, I realized that "what God cannot do, man need not attempt" (Science and Health, p. 231). I asked that my copy of Science and Health be brought to me and that a practitioner be called. The next day after treatment was begun I got up and walked, though the nurse assured me in alarm that I could not do so; and I did not return to my bed again. I discontinued taking medicine, began to eat solid food without fear, and was overjoyed to find that it no longer caused me to suffer. A week from that day I left the hospital, weighing seventy-two pounds, and in six weeks I weighed one hundred pounds.

The truth about God and man's relation to Him as taught in Christian Science has continued to strengthen, sustain, and supply me in the years that have followed, and has restored me to useful activity. For the physical healings—the "signs following"—I am deeply grateful; but I am more grateful for Mrs. Eddy's revelation of God as divine Principle, through the understanding of which we are enabled to give a reason for all things, including that hope which is spoken of by Peter. For all the activities of The Mother Church; for class instruction from a loyal teacher; and for the privilege of working daily for our Cause in its mission of overcoming ignorance of God, I am most grateful.

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