Testimony of Healing October 19, 1935 Issue

My very earliest memories are of stories of the Bible, but...

GENEVIEVE THOMAS WHEELER

My very earliest memories are of stories of the Bible, but as I approached the age of nine, there came a realization that our lives did not follow the life of Jesus, for I was ill and under the doctor's care much of the time. So many things seemed wrong with the world that a depressed sense grew upon me, along with increasing frailty of body. After a few years I learned that a relative had been healed of an incurable disease through Christian Science treatment. Never can I tell of the hope brought by those letters which told of the freedom and joy of the dear one so long considered an invalid. Very soon after her healing I visited in the home of this relative for seven months. A week's treatment in Christian Science healed me of chronic catarrh. Headaches were also banished, so that I was able to lay aside glasses which I had been told should be worn until I was fifty years old. They have never been worn since. The tranquil, glad sense that I had had in very early childhood returned.

Going back to my native city in 1899, I found it barren indeed, for there was no Christian Science organization there, and my otherwise loving mother did all she could to discourage my growth in this new-old religion. She was the daughter of a surgeon and physician, and believed that she was saving me from a religious fad. After two years of silent brooding I succumbed to four months of almost fatal illness. Three doctors gave different verdicts as to the cause of the prostration. When it seemed that I could no longer live, with difficulty I wrote for Christian Science help. Immediately the doctors in consultation dismissed themselves by sending me to Colorado. The climate did not help me, but I gained my religious freedom at that time. Much of my healing has come about through my understanding that God constitutes the true and only environment.

In 1904 I had the privilege of helping to establish the first Christian Science church in my native city. While I was still very young, church board work came to me. The last severe struggle with illness occurred when a group of friends planned to hear a Christian Science lecture in a neighboring city. There was every temptation to believe that I was too ill to attend, but I went, and returned with a very comfortable, happy sense of well-being.

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