Testimony of Healing July 14, 1934 Issue

The first Christian Science healing which I witnessed was...

Alberta N. Burton

The first Christian Science healing which I witnessed was that of softening of the brain, with complications from chronic alcoholism and extreme drug addiction. The sufferer had been unconscious for more than twenty-four hours when several physicians in conference said there might never be a return to consciousness. They held no hope of recovery, and said that not more than two weeks of life remained. On the earnest recommendation of a friend a Christian Science practitioner was sent for, although no faith was held in that method of healing, but simply the feeling that anything should be tried which held out hope. The practitioner remained for three hours, and in the morning the patient awakened, healed.

It was very difficult for me to see that what had appeared so real was only illusion, and still more difficult to understand that Life is eternally harmonious, recognizable and demonstrable in human lives. But as I had been ill for a number of years, and was utterly weary of suffering and trouble, I began to study this Science, with the Bible, hoping for relief. The Bible had been a closed book to me for ten years, as I could not reconcile myself to the concept of God which had been taught me—a God who, "in His inscrutable wisdom," was said to send ills and disasters upon the children of men, and expected them to love Him for it. I approached the study in a doubting state of thought, which made the way unnecessarily long and hard for me. Many times I decided to give it up, but there remained the marvelous healing which I had seen, and so I had to go on. Gradually I forgot that I was seeking physical healing, and only sought persistently for the God who is Love, the God whom I could understand and love, an ever present help and comfort.

This continued for about a year, with encouraging progress. Jesus' saying, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life," helped me constantly in the study of the Bible and Science and Health. One day my attention was arrested by the absence of certain physical symptoms which had been very troublesome, and on looking back I could not remember having experienced them for several months, then a further examination showed that I was healed. Two years before, I had been told by the most eminent surgical authority that I could not possibly live for more than two years; heart lesion, nephritis, tumor, and ascending paralysis of the colon had been the verdict after three very severe operations. The two years were up, and I was well. I do not know when the healing occurred, but it has stood for over twenty-seven years, the result of a longing to know God, and the finding of Him as our Father-Mother, all-creative, ever present Love, through the teachings of Christian Science.

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