Testimony of Healing February 16, 1935 Issue

I have great cause to be grateful for Christian Science,...

Emma D. Bolling

I have great cause to be grateful for Christian Science, for it raised me as "from the dead." For several years I had been dissatisfied with the teachings of the orthodox church of which I was a member, but could find no answer to all my doubts and questions. In my work as a school-teacher, I was finally led into constant companionship with a student of Christian Science. I did not realize how much this association meant to me until the summer of 1928, when I lost faith in other friends, and worry, together with financial troubles, threw me into the depths of despair. In my despondency I lost all desire to live, but along with the desire to die there was a belief that suicide was the unpardonable sin, and that it was punishable by eternal burning in hell. This belief led me to get the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," from the library, in order to find Mrs. Eddy's explanation of "death" and "hell," for I knew my Science friend did not believe in either death or hell as I did. I read all I could find on these subjects, but I could not understand or accept the explanations. However, I realized that this religion promised a better solution to my problems than any other, and I asked a practitioner for help. I went to my home in a small town and continued to study, but sank into a pit of self-condemnation, hatred, and despair.

My family became alarmed over my condition and insisted upon having a physician, who diagnosed the case as a nervous breakdown and advised a year of complete rest. As I grew worse, it was decided that I should be placed in a private sanatorium for mental cases. I knew that my family could not do this without great worry and sacrifice, and in my desire to relieve them of this responsibility I drank a deadly poison. Just as I was losing consciousness a brother found me and called a physician. They worked with me from seven in the morning until one o'clock, when the doctor left, saying I could not live. But contrary to his prediction, I did live, only to begin planning to complete the job as soon as possible.

While I was in this condition my Science friend reached me by a long-distance telephone message and assured me that this condition was all a dream, and told me to come at once, as my job was waiting for me. The assurance and encouragement that emanted from her enabled me to pack my things and take the next train to the city, the first thing I had done alone for myself in weeks. The next day, Saturday, we went to see the practitioner, who had stopped working for me when she knew I had turned to physicians for help. She began to help me again, and the healing was instantaneous. The following week I returned to my position as teacher in the city schools, and there has been no return of the trouble.

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