Testimony of Healing October 16, 1909 Issue

It is with the deepest gratitude to God that I pen these...

Alfred Enfield Haynes

It is with the deepest gratitude to God that I pen these lines, in my endeavor to explain briefly what Christian Science has meant to both my wife and myself. At the close of the year 1907 my wife was in a very bad state of health; her lungs being diseased. After following the advice of two medical practitioners and receiving no benefit, she consulted a specialist upon chest diseases. Having lost her father and a brother through an affection of the lungs, she quite naturally feared a similar fate. The old thought of heredity loomed before her as well as before myself. We engaged another physician in London, who after a lengthy examination informed us that there was but little hope for my wife's recovery, as her lungs were in a very bad condition. As each day passed she became weaker, until at last she could scarcely walk more than a few yards without becoming exhausted.

At this time a dear friend of hers gave her an invitation to go and stay at her country residence in Kent. This invitation was accepted, and during the first two weeks of her stay, my wife was examined by three more physicians. One advised her to leave England and spend the winter abroad, as it would mean death to her to winter in England. Another advised her to get away at once from Kent and go to the lake district in Cumberland. The third had quite a different suggestion to offer. Their advice as to my wife taking medicine was as contradictory as their views about the climate.

At this period, when nothing but despair stared us in the face, my cousin, who was interested in Christian Science, told me of the wonderful healings that were going on daily through the practice of Christian Science. At these I marveled, and could not at first believe that such things were possible. At that time I was not at all favorably disposed to Christian Science, in fact on previous occasions I had ridiculed it. My cousin, however, explained to me the outline of the teachings, and then I started to read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." After some nine hours' careful study I became convinced that what I had criticized as being Christian Science was merely my narrow-minded opinion of it. I soon found, upon reading carefully, that the teachings were far different from what I had imagined them to be. The first passage I read in Science and Health (the first sentence of the Preface) arrested my attention: "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings." I thought over these words, and soon came to the conclusion that we must lean upon God only.

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