Testimony of Healing February 1, 1930 Issue

Christian Science has done much for me

Jeannette Estell Maltby

Christian Science has done much for me. It has been a present help in many difficult human situations. Through the study of it I have become happier, more contented, and more useful. Fear, disease, resentment, envy, and other mortal mind beliefs have on many occasions been destroyed by the application of the truth as taught in Christian Science.

Some seven or eight years ago I was stricken with rheumatism. As the condition continued to grow worse, I asked for help in Christian Science. After some days of treatment with no apparent improvement, I changed practitioners, wiring for absent treatment. This treatment, supplemented by many hours of continuous daily reading on my part, extended over a period of about two weeks. During this time the physical symptoms became more and more pronounced, but a mental condition of depression and joylessness was gradually changed to one of hope and joy. One reason for this mental change was the fact that I had begun to search for good. The first practitioner had pointed out to me a lack of gratitude in my thought and had suggested that I count my blessings. This quest for good was most earnest. I learned to recognize and appreciate the tiniest manifestations of good. One of the first outpourings of gratitude came to me when I realized that the sick bed and I had been strangers; that I had enjoyed years of splendid, uninterrupted activity. Another occasion of gratitude was afforded by the arrival of a roll of Christian Science lectures from a friend in California. At the beginning of the attack of rheumatism I had desired copies of the full reports of lectures. As the friend who sent these lectures did not know of my condition, the incident was to me the direct proof of the activity of divine Love. Other mail bringing invitations for the summer vacation helped to lighten the sense of gloom, and more joy and gratitude flowed into my consciousness.

One Saturday night as I reached hymn 240, for I had been reading the Hymnal through, a great sense of pain swept over me. I could not seem to find any position that was comfortable. Although I did not realize that this aggravated condition might be a favorable symptom, as Mrs. Eddy states on page 422 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," I had no fear. I was grateful that I was not under the care of a physician, for a hypodermic would have been the only recourse, and I was certain that being put to sleep at this time would not have helped the situation. Starting to read the first verse of hymn 240, I reached the lines:

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