Testimony of Healing February 11, 1933 Issue

From birth I suffered from indigestion and constipation

Bernice Mead Spoo

From birth I suffered from indigestion and constipation. These, together with repeated attacks of diphtheria, pneumonia, and tonsillitis, kept me in a depleted condition. When about fourteen years old I started to have continual colds. A little later hay fever developed, then asthma.

Forced to remain indoors while my associates romped outside, I became a rather serious student for one of my age, preferring Confucius and Marcus Aurelius to the light gift books which were showered upon me through sympathy. Although my environment was deeply religious it did not answer the many complex questions that constantly came to my thought. Therefore gradually I became first a cynic, then an agnostic. To improve my health, every known remedy was thoroughly tested: medicine, climate, altitude, diet, baths, osteopathy, and serums. Because of the asthma, it became a common occurrence for me to sit up weeks at a time because I could not breathe lying down.

One evening, feeling particularly restless and desperate, I asked that a Christian Science practitioner be called, much in the spirit of a lark, hoping it might break the awful monotony. Like Naaman, I expected her to come to me. Instead, she offered to give me an absent treatment, which to me was a huge joke. The next day she asked for an interview, during which I told her I had no faith in Christian Science or in anything else. She quietly replied, " 'We never need to despair of an honest heart,' " which I learned later is a quotation from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 8). I also told her that if in taking treatments I was becoming obligated to join her church, I did not wish to continue. She assured me I should never be urged to join.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

From birth I suffered from indigestion and constipation

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access