Testimony of Healing September 9, 1939 Issue

In the year 1930 I married a Christian Scientist

Alexander L. Riley with contributions from Louella M. Riley

In the year 1930 I married a Christian Scientist. I tried in every way possible to persuade her to give up her religion, which I thought was fallacious. However, she clung faithfully to it, and in the fall of 1933 I began to read The Christian Science Monitor. One evening I found myself catching cold. My wife said to me, "If you will read the Lesson-Sermon for this week in the Christian Science Quarterly you won't have any cold in the morning." She then showed me how to read it, and, sure enough, in the morning I had no sign of a cold. That was my first healing in Christian Science.

A short while after this our baby girl of about six months became ill. She was feverish, and we both became quite fearful. My wife said: "We had better call either a practitioner or a doctor. Which do you want?" I told her to call the practitioner, which she did. The relief came so quickly that I was startled. In about fifteen minutes our baby was better, and in the morning all signs of the fever had left. This awakened me to the fact that there was something in Christian Science after all. I began to study its teachings in earnest, going to lectures and church services, and visiting the downtown Reading Rooms each day to read the Lesson-Sermon.

For twenty-five years I had been an inveterate smoker, always having either a cigar or a pipe in my mouth during my waking hours. One evening, I was reading Science and Health by our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. I was smoking a cigar at the time. Putting the precious book down about midnight, I told my wife that I had just smoked my last cigar. I was completely healed that night, after reading what our Leader has to say on the subject in Science and Health (p. 407), "Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no creature except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting." That occurred on December 13, 1933, just a short while after I had started the study of Christian Science. Many other false traits and habits soon left me, such as drinking beer, gambling, and using profane language. Thanks to a testimony given at a Wednesday evening meeting I attended, I was healed of the desire for coffee and tea, of which I had been a veritable slave since early childhood. We have had many other healings in our home since I took up the study of Christian Science.

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