Testimony of Healing December 9, 1933 Issue

I wish to join the thousands of happy witnesses to the...

Mattie D. Lanpher

I wish to join the thousands of happy witnesses to the healing efficacy of Christian Science. Ten years ago I was almost without faith in God and was very fearful. I prayed earnestly, however, that I might not lose the remaining spark of faith. I spent about a year in this distressing mental condition. At the end of that time it seemed best to change our residence, which took me to a place against which I almost daily rebelled. Seemingly I could not be reconciled. I have since felt sure, however, that it was an answer to my prayer, for there God gave me a Christian Science friend who lovingly directed my thoughts aright after lending me a copy of Science and Health. I had timidly asked this friend what Christian Science was, if there was a book to study, and how one learned of it. The next morning she brought it to me. I could not have told why I wanted the book; I did not know what I expected to find in it, but when I opened at the Preface and began to read I was spellbound. I left it only to do the light housework I was scarcely able to do at that time. I literally devoured its contents; read and reread the chapter on Prayer, until my views on the subject were completely and permanently transformed. When I first began reading, I would become exhausted after preparing and clearing away each meal. Every step required an effort. The second day my step was lighter and I found myself hurrying to finish the work in order to get back to the book. In a month I was attending to the household normally.

During this period I was also healed of a rectal trouble which had made it impossible for me to sit except on a pillow, and even then I had to lean to one side of the chair. The freedom thus gained seemed no less than a miracle, and I was happy and grateful. While reading I would frequently turn to my mother and exclaim, "Mother, you should read this book," and would tell her something of what I was reading. She was ailing with a peculiar malady of which no one about us seemed to have heard. She would sit before a warm fire with a heavy shawl over her head and shoulders saying she could not get warm, though not a vestige of cold was present. Soon she would become drowsy and retire, sometimes as early as three o'clock in the afternoon. This condition continued for about three weeks, when one day she said, "I cannot stand this any longer; what shall I do, send for a doctor or read that book?" I told her to read the book. She read it and was healed.

Two years previous to my introduction to Christian Science I had submitted to a major operation which resulted in bimonthly hemorrhages. The suffering was very great at times. When the attacks of pain came, whether day or night, I turned to my book, rarely reading more than half or three quarters of an hour until the pain would subside. Within a few months I was healed. I soon learned to use our textbook with the Bible in the study of the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly. From the day I first opened the textbook all trust in material remedies left me. One of my first demonstrations was the healing of a burn caused by grasping the handle of a cooking utensil which had been directly over the fire. This was very early in my experience, and for a second only my thought was directed to a salve which the other members of the family used on such occasions, but instantly the thought came that I was a Christian Scientist; and I was sure that I believed what my book said. By the time this was thought out I ventured to look at my hand. There were several seared places, but no blisters or soreness. How grateful I was for this proof!

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