Testimony of Healing June 6, 1936 Issue

In the spring of 1910, I was suffering from a disease...

Anne Chaffee Ryder

In the spring of 1910, I was suffering from a disease which the physician said had reached the incurable stage. If this was told me, it made no impression on me. I was absorbed in the care of my little daughter, then about two and a half years old, and thankful whenever there came a brief respite from the severe pain. My sister, who lived in another city, had become interested in Christian Science through help on a financial problem, and she offered my mother the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Before my mother had read very far in the book, she went to the Reading Room and purchased a copy to send to me, for she knew of my hopeless condition. When the book came I was enduring an attack of tonsillitis, a disease from which I had suffered at times for many years. I was not under a doctor's care, partly because I had no money to pay for treatment, and partly because I felt there was no help for me. I knew the tonsillitis would wear off as it had before. The other condition did not concern me. My precious mother had asked me to read this book, so I obeyed.

It seemed a queer book and did not greatly interest me until I came to this sentence on page 14: "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints." It now seems strange to me that it was the first and not the last part of the sentence which struck me. I went on reading, now with rapt attention. For perhaps a week I read earnestly, all I could. At the end of that time I suddenly realized that the tonsillitis was gone, that the pain was no more, and that I was sleeping normally. I tried to remember when I had last felt the pain, and then I recalled my sensation after reading the sentence quoted above. I decided that I must have been healed in that moment. Out of sheer gratitude to God, I began to try to be good. Through my reading and rejoicing, one very dear to me was completely and instantaneously healed of the liquor habit. Then came the test. In less than a year and a half, my husband, my only child, and my mother passed on. Only Christian Science saved me from insanity and suicide. The temptation was present for several years, until I learned that "Love is the liberator" (Science and Health, p. 225). All my needs have been met, and I know now that I shall not lack anything.

Once again tonsillitis tried to overwhelm me, but when I saw what it was, I rose up with the thought that I could not again have tonsillitis, for I had been healed of that. And never since that time have I had any suggestion of that disease. I have been healed of sick headaches, of sprains, of torn ligaments, of constipation, of heart trouble, of the need for wearing glasses, and of pleurisy. The last-named healing came after several hours of apparently fruitless work, when I turned away from the material evidence and began to rejoice. About three years ago I was healed of all the symptoms of tuberculosis, through the patient and loving aid of a practitioner. This error seemed to come from a false sense of substance entertained for another. Persistent colds have been overcome as I have filled my thought with rejoicing instead of resentment. Many other physical healings, as well as protection, guidance, and comfort, have come to me through the study of Christian Science. I rejoice that many faults of character are being left behind.

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