Testimony of Healing May 13, 1961 Issue

I had been studying Christian Science...

Adela Vernon Scrimgeour

I had been studying Christian Science for about a year when I sailed to India with our three children to join my husband. In the Red Sea my daughter, aged five, became very ill with fever. As there were no Christian Scientists on board and as there was no wireless, I realized that I must do my own prayerful work for her. A woman who was sharing our cabin, although she knew that I was interested in Christian Science, inquired if I was going to give the child a fever mixture. I explained that I was not going to give the child medicine, but was praying for her as we are taught to do in Christian Science. This I did for a night and a day with no apparent result.

The news that the child was ill and that I was giving her no medicine was spread among the other passengers, and they began to show concern. The child was lying on the deck in the breeze, and coming up on deck that afternoon I saw the captain bending over her. I sensed that I was a mark for criticism. That night I read the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings and prayed till dawn. As it grew light I saw that the child was quite feverish and restless.

Knowing that the other woman in the cabin would soon be awake, I took my books into the bathroom so that I could go on studying undisturbed. I opened the Bible at John's Gospel, and the first words I read were these: "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (14:27). I felt that this was a direct message to me, and I had a deep feeling of joy and confidence. I knew that the child was healed even before I went back to the cabin. When I returned a short time later, I found her sitting up and the fever gone. She told me she was hungry. I dressed her, and that day she was running about with the other children, her normal self. There was no convalescence.

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