Testimony of Healing June 26, 1909 Issue

That I have waited till now to tell of the many benefits...

Emily N. Stokes

That I have waited till now to tell of the many benefits which I have received from the study of Christian Science is not because of any lack of gratitude. I think perhaps I was waiting for some striking experience, not realizing that, whatever be the error overcome, there is "proof positive" of the saving right idea and the ever-present help in trouble.

One afternoon I was occupied with a piece of work which I was very anxious to complete on the sewingmachine before it grew too dark to see, when suddenly the machine needle was driven through one of my fingers. To mortal sense the pain was intense, and for an instant I seemed to be losing consciousness, but at once the words of the "scientific statement of being" illumined my consciousness like a benediction, and brought me to a realizing sense of the absolute truth of the statement that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (Science and Health, p. 468). I repeated every word of that immortal sentence slowly and carefully—waiting upon God. So busily occupied was I in thinking the truth, that I removed the broken needle, bound up the wound, and finished the piece of work without further trouble. I felt not the least sense of pain during this time, nor was there any soreness afterward.

I have had many proofs of the divine power to heal, and I am indeed grateful for it all, but I think perhaps the greatest benefit I have received from the study of Science and Health has come through the wonderful light which its author, our beloved Leader, has thrown upon the commandments. Before I knew anything of Christian Science I was deeply impressed by the commandments, but never understood their true meaning. I would try again and again to fit them to our way of living, and as frequently close the Bible in utter despair of their application to mankind in this day and age. I saw many enjoying the pleasures of the senses, endowed with much of worldly good, surrounded by admiring friends, and yet ignoring many of the commandments (so I thought). Not long after Science found me, I awoke to the glaring fact that I, too, had been breaking the commandments daily. I was amazed and humiliated, but also grateful to have been shown the way to keep them,—the way to life eternal.

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