Testimony of Healing February 28, 1931 Issue

The saying that "man's extremity is God's opportunity"...

Ernest A. Barbeau

The saying that "man's extremity is God's opportunity" was never more completely or gloriously demonstrated than in my case nearly fourteen years ago. The unfailing availability of the healing Christ was first made manifest to me in the hour of my darkest extremity, when, after two months and a half of the most agonizing suffering from inflammatory rheumatism, my life was despaired of. Up to this point, courage and a natural human desire to live seemed to be about my only remaining assets. The attending medical specialist had frankly told me that he was powerless to help me. He was most loving and kind, yet professionally honest in his diagnosis that I was hopelessly incurable from a medical point of view.

The disease came upon me very suddenly and with great violence. It confined me to bed on the day our government declared war on Germany. Everyone seemed to be in a mental frenzy, and the very atmosphere on all sides appeared permeated with uncertainty and nervous emotion. Aggravating the situation still further, my wife had for several months been in delicate health, and our finances were at an extremely low ebb. Chaos seemed to engulf us, and despair clutched at our hearts. My suffering was intense, and after nine weeks of the worst imaginable agony, throughout which my wife faithfully nursed me day and night, we both almost reached the extremity of our endurance. I continued to grow worse; the disease was said to have affected the functioning of some of my organs and was threatening the heart.

At this juncture Christian Science was suggested by a friend of the family, who recommended the reading of Christian Science literature as a means of acquainting ourselves with the subject, in the hope that it might bring some measure of relief. The consulting of a practitioner was likewise recommended. We knew nothing whatever about Christian Science, except that we were familiar with its name, having heard it referred to humorously on the stage and otherwise.

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