Testimony of Healing September 22, 1934 Issue

It is now over seven years since my introduction to...

Robert Dickinson Norton with contributions from Doris Emily Norton

It is now over seven years since my introduction to Christian Science, and I am increasingly grateful for all that it has meant to me during that period. I had served overseas in the World War, and came home very much the worse in health on account of my experiences. My lungs and stomach were particularly affected by a severe bout with pneumonic influenza contracted in France; and I underwent several operations before being sent home on a hospital ship. After receiving my discharge on account of physical unfitness, I had a year of semi-invalidism at home, and eventually resumed my work as a bank officer. From then until 1926 I was continually harassed by illness. I had to give up my work a number of times, necessitating absences from my post varying from two or three weeks to two or three months. I was under several members of the medical profession, including one specialist, and also tried herbalists, systems of dieting, and exercising. In fact, most of my time seemed to be taken up with searching out fresh remedies, so that as fast as one failed I had some other on hand to take its place. This was a very unhappy period for me, as previously my constitution had been very robust; and in the end I began to despair of ever properly regaining my health.

Eventually I heard of Christian Science, and the very next day I visited a practitioner whose name had been given to me. In about fifteen minutes he gave me sufficient of the truth to make me want much more, and I left him with the feeling that here at last was what I was really needing. I forthwith borrowed a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" from the local Reading Room, and began to study. In a fortnight I had returned it and purchased a copy for myself. The improvement was immediate. In a few weeks I had discarded the material means of help that I had been leaning upon for so long. The textbook speedily supplied me with the means to break the mesmerism of belief which had held me, and it set my feet happily upon the path of Christian Science. Since that time, that is, during the past seven years, I have not missed a single day from my work on account of sickness, which is in sharp contrast to the preceding experience. I have had other problems to meet, but I rejoice in the knowledge that Truth held to is always sufficient to meet every claim of error that may confront us. Not only has Christian Science brought physical healing, but in destroying faults of character it has given me a joy in living which was unknown to me previously.

It affords me a great deal of pleasure to offer this testimony as to the efficacy of Christian Science, and in doing it, my heart goes out in gratitude first and foremost to its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy; for I recognize that it was her spirituality, her unselfed love for mankind, and her singleness of purpose, that enabled Truth to reach and rescue me. I am also thankful to the student of this Science who gave me my initial contact with it, for after this lapse of years I know that I then received a correct presentation of its fundamentals. For the uninterrupted flow of literature from our Publishing House, including that great international newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor; for class instruction; for church membership, and all the manifold activities of the Christian Science movement, I am profoundly grateful.—Robert Dickinson Norton, Forest Gardens, Adelaide, South Australia.

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