Testimony of Healing August 5, 1939 Issue

When one's life has been turned from illness to health...

Anna D. Gilbert

When one's life has been turned from illness to health, from sorrow to joy, through an understanding of God's love, as shown in Christian Science, it is fitting to return thanks, that others may be encouraged to overcome errors that seem real to them.

For twelve years prior to 1900, I was a semi-invalid, suffering from a distressed condition of the feet, protracted headaches, nausea, and insomnia. I obtained the services of the local doctors, who, though most kind, were unable to help me. I them consulted a doctor who was president of a school of medicine in Massachusetts. His verdict was that I had a weak heart. He said if I would take his medicine for two years, he thought he could help me. He gave me some medicine saying, "If this does not help you, let me know, and I will change it to something else." I took his medicine for three months, grew worse, and thought I should soon become bedfast. Then a neighbor, who was not a Christian Scientist, called, and asked me why I did not try Christian Science. She told me of a practitioner in a near-by city who had healed a woman of tuberculosis, and a man of paralysis. That gave me great courage, so I wrote to the practitioner and asked for treatment. She replied, telling me to read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. She quoted from this book (ibid., p. 261), "Look away from the body into Truth and Love." This injunction I faithfully followed, and I prayed much; but to my great disappointment I suffered more distress of body and mind. At the end of the week, I asked her to discontinue treatment, saying that I did not expect to be healed, but I did expect relief. To my surprise she wrote back, "Your symptoms are favorable." This was incomprehensible to me. A day or two later, I awoke early in the morning with a sense of joy and happiness, which no words can express. I dressed, went downstairs, and discovered that my feet did not hurt. To my astonishment and joy, every discordant illusion had gone. The past years of suffering were like a dream. It seemed like a miracle that I could literally "run, and not be weary; ... walk, and not faint."

Strange as it may seem, I did not know that I was healed, but thought that the next time I had an attack, I would write to the practitioner. Three months of health and happiness were mine before it dawned upon me that I was truly healed, and that the condition would never return.

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I came into Science about five years ago