Testimony of Healing January 24, 1931 Issue

For many years I have read the testimonies of healing...

LAUREAME E. HAWK

For many years I have read the testimonies of healing in The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel. Through reading these experiences of others I have many times had my faith strengthened and renewed, bringing peace, encouragement, hope, healing.

I, too, have had many healings in Christian Science and should like to tell of one or two of them. About eleven years ago, immediately after a dear one had passed on, I was stricken with grief and seized with an overwhelming fear which assumed so many phases that I seemed many times to lose my reason. I was afraid to have anyone come into my room except one member of my family, who was also the practitioner. Several times, when it seemed as if I were passing on, she would so vigorously and fearlessly voice the truths I had been taught in Christian Science that my fear would vanish and peace would come. This happened many times during those dark days, but gradually the sense of God's presence and His care for me became clearer to my consciousness, and the fear and weakness disappeared until at the end of two months I was healed.

I should also like to tell of a healing of seasickness. I was taking a three weeks' ocean voyage alone and knew no one on board ship. After being out only a day we ran into a very rough and choppy sea. Immediately I felt all the symptoms of seasickness, and rushing to my cabin I literally fell into bed. My first thoughts were filled with fear, for on a previous trip of a little longer duration I had been so miserable either with seasickness or, when the sea was calm, from the effects of the attack, that the journey had been anything but a pleasure trip. On the previous trip I had been with the member of my family mentioned above and had looked to her to help me, without doing the persistent right thinking about the situation for myself that I had learned to do in Christian Science; so, of course, I did not get the help. Now I was alone, with no Christian Scientist near me, and I realized that I must lean on my own understanding of God to help me. I began by allaying my fear; for our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us that this is the way to begin our treatment. I reasoned that if God was All and All-power, He was so under every condition that might present itself; that the so-called material law of motion, no matter how violently it seemed to assert itself, could not overcome the great fact that God's law is the only law that can affect man. This truth became wonderfully clear to me as I lay there, and the feeling of nausea entirely left me, and the fear also. I was filled with rejoicing. But the sense of comfort and well-being very nearly caused me to leave my demonstration only half made. The suggestion came that the only sensible thing to do would be to stay in bed until the next day, when the storm would probably be over. I was settling down happily in this comfortable state of mortal belief when I realized that this was simply an argument of error to prevent the completion of my demonstration of God's power. So, clinging steadfastly to the truth I had declared,—my freedom from the effect of any law but God's law,—I got up and began to dress for dinner. The boat was rolling and pitching, and all the time I was fighting the suggestion that the seasickness was returning, but I knew that this was the time to maintain my demonstration. By the time I had dressed I was completely free from the difficulty and so uplifted and happy that, though I made a lurching, zigzag course to the dining room, yet I felt as though walking on air. I ate a good meal and afterwards spent an enjoyable evening reading in the lounge. The weather was rough and stormy several times after this, but I never again had the least suggestion of discomfort.

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