Testimony of Healing September 10, 1949 Issue

When Christian Science was...

Edna Elithe Clark

When Christian Science was brought to my attention more than twenty-six years ago, I was visiting a doctor's office four times a week and submitting to very painful treatments. All my life I had been a regular visitor to a doctor.

Thus I was most grateful when a follow teacher said to me, "You must be ready for Christian Science." I was receiving no benefits from the doctor's treatments, and they had been of three years' duration. That night the words, "Must be ready." came to me as a command. The next day I inquired of her concerning the method of healing in Christian Science, and she invited me to listen to a Christian Science lecture to be broadcast that coming Sunday. In those days there was more static on the radio than words, but I did grasp the story of the little girl who wanted sugar and upon putting her hand in the sugar bowl and grasping a handful found she was unable to remove her hand. After a time she loosened her hold and discovered she might have the sugar simply by permitting it to pour out.

The next morning I gave up all material dependence and asked a Christian Science practitioner for treatment. She handed me The Christian Science Monitor to read while she treated me. I devoured the news in this paper, because it was so constructive and I had longed for such a newspaper in my teaching of social studies. I gave her a year's subscription, and before the week was over I had subscribed for all the literature, as I was so hungry for Truth. The following Sunday I attended a church service, and all I brought away was the thought given in Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer that Christian Science would "feed the famished affections" (Science and Health, p. 17). Indeed, Christian Science has done that for me and has proved many times that "divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (ibid., p. 494). As my thought was purified, the physical difficulty for which I came for healing was wiped out of my consciousness, and my body functioned naturally.