Testimony of Healing May 11, 1929 Issue

Christian Science found me about ten years ago suffering...

Edwin L. Wickham

Christian Science found me about ten years ago suffering from heart disease, an ailment from which my father and mother had both passed on. This ailment had been troubling me for about fifteen years before I took up Christian Science. At first I did not notice it much. The doctors I consulted did not understand its nature, and their treatment gave me no relief. I tried a number of doctors and medicines, electric treatments, changes of climate and altitude; but instead of getting better I rapidly became worse. One doctor told me that I must adhere strictly to material remedies and diet, and that I should be very careful not to go out in the hot sun or get the least bit overheated, as my blood pressure was very high. He said I was liable to pass on at any time. All of these rules were strictly obeyed, but they gave me no relief and only increased my fear of the trouble. Finally, I became almost helpless and was overcome with fear. I could walk only a little way without sitting down and resting. I could not walk uphill at all, nor stay in the mountains or anywhere at a high altitude. I finally lost all faith in material means of healing of any kind. Having given doctors a fair trial without receiving any benefit, I did not believe they could do anything for me.

One day I met a friend who knew something about Christian Science. He told me he knew that a little girl who had been bitten by a rattlesnake had been healed. I thought that was wonderful. He gave me some literature to read, and in a few days I went to a town thirty-five miles away to see a Christian Science practitioner. She was very patient in listening to my long tale of grief. I had talked with her only a short time when I felt a sense of love and happiness flow into my consciousness as she told me about God and how He cares for His children, and said that man is made in His image and likeness; that all is Life and there is no death. I knew then that I had found something I had long been looking for. She told me to go to the Reading Room and get a Bible and a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, also a Christian Science Quarterly. This I did at once and began the study of Christian Science.

The healing was not instantaneous. It took over three years of earnest study and work, and strict obedience to Christian Science, as there was so much error to overcome. For over a year, every night when I would lie down to sleep it seemed as though I would never wake up. Every time I would drop off to sleep, it seemed as though I would surely pass on. But I would declare the truth and know that God was my Life; and I would often go to sleep repeating the first verse of the fourteenth chapter of John, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." About three months after I had taken up the study of Christian Science, while influenza was prevalent I was taken with the disease, and with the weak condition of my heart I had a hard problem to work out; but I am thankful to God that Christian Science pulled me through. One night, when the fever was at its height, it seemed as though I were burning up. When morning came I was very weak, but I got up from my bed and moved about the room. Suddenly I felt a sense of dizziness coming over me. I sank back on the bed, and it seemed as though the end was near. I repeated the words, "God's will be done." Suddenly my breathing became natural, the fever left, and the temperature became normal—and my strength also became normal. I arose, dressed myself, and walked half a mile and had a talk with the practitioner.

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