Testimony of Healing August 16, 1930 Issue

My first attitude toward Christian Scientists was that of...

Jessie L. Hall

My first attitude toward Christian Scientists was that of pity, for I had been reared in a home which was proud of the long line of orthodox ministers in the family, and I considered any digression from the teachings of our church as a going out after "strange gods." In my early girlhood I became active in church work and continued in this until ill health came upon me. I tried different schools of medicine without avail, and finally resorted to an operation. This did not promise much in the way of relief, for the surgeon said, as I left the hospital: "Your back can never be strong. Keep off your feet as much as possible and do not lift anything." I could digest little food, and my condition continued to grow worse.

At this time a neighbor presented Christian Science to me in a new light. Without comment on my condition, she gave me a copy of The Christian Science Monitor. This high-class newspapaer appealed to me so strongly that I asked questions about it and was given other Christian Science literature, and later "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Through the study of this book, and with the help of a loving Christian Scientist, I very soon experienced a convincing physical healing. Since then I have had many healings, both of a physical nature and of erroneous traits of disposition. Soon after I began attending the Christian Science church I was stricken with a severe fever and lung trouble, so diagnosed by a physician who was called by a member of the family. He prescribed liquid food and an immediate change of climate, saying in my presence that I was failing very rapidly. After five weeks of this illness, with increasingly alarming symptoms, I turned wholly to Christian Science, and after eleven days of treatment by a practitioner I was completely healed. That was in 1914. Since that time I have depended wholly upon Christian Science to solve all my problems, which have been many and varied. Among illnesses healed have been rheumatism, tonsillitis, sick headaches, influenza, a chronic tendency to colds, and severely chapped hands. These were quickly met. However, one discordant condition continued about ten months. During that time I had regular treatment from a practitioner, one who had often helped me to realize freedom from discord. It was a most trying experience, there being a tumor or abscess with a continual discharge. One day at noon I asked another practitioner to take the case, and that evening there was an instantaneous healing; all at once everything connected with the discordant condition passed, and I was strong and well. That healing occurred ten years ago. Christian Science is indeed the Comforter in times of sorrow.

At one time, after an experience which had been very severe, but which had been lovingly met in Christian Science, there were still lurking in my thought suggestions of sorrow, resentment, and grief, in spite of every effort to follow our Leader's loving admonition to keep our "minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210). One day after an earnest appeal to God to enable me to rise above this condition and to blot out these torments, a thought—an angel-visitant—came, telling me to memorize poems from the Christian Science Hymnal and from the periodicals. Although I had believed for years that I was not able to commit anything to memory, yet I found, when I took each thought as presented, trying to make it my own, that I could easily memorize poems of any length. In this way my need was met, and many times since have these treasures which I have stored up "lifted me above life's trammels" and brought me peace.

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