It has been a matter of self-reproach to me that I have...
It has been a matter of self-reproach to me that I have neglected public acknowledgment of the blessings which have been brought to me through Christian Science. It has been many years since I experienced my first healing, but it was only the loaves and fishes that I cared for then, and my gratitude went no farther than the admission that I had been helped. I was first healed, in two weeks, of a so-called chronic bowel ailment, said to be hereditary.
When my mother, in despair of any permanent help from medicine, arranged for treatment for me, she was not interested in Science, but she felt that nothing else would help me. With the arrogance of youth and my ignorance of Christian Science, I felt rather disgraced, and used to take the back streets to reach the practitioner's house. If, perchance, I met an acquaintance when I was about to enter, I walked on by, and after that first healing, I returned to Christian Science only when material remedies failed me. Once, after suffering agonies with a rheumatic affection, I sent for the practitioner, and experienced blessed and almost instantaneous relief.
For a year prior to my marriage, I had been unable to use my eyes to read, and this was a great deprivation to me. Two different eye specialists, one in my own city and one in another state, pronounced my trouble one which, combined with other difficulties, would make the use of glasses necessary for all time. Tumors formed on the inside of the lids, one following another within a few months, and both were removed by the knife. Finally, after giving glasses a trial, and becoming worse all the time, I went to Kansas City and consulted an oculist who was said to be the best one west of Chicago. At that time another tumor had appeared, which he said must be removed by an operation. He pronounced the same sentence upon me that the other two had, and fitted me with glasses, which he said I should have to wear always, and at all times. I was to return to him in a few weeks for the operation, but before the time came, I had turned again to Christian Science, and the same kind practitioner, who had been so patient with my ignorance, treated me. The tumor disappeared within a week, and I laid aside my glasses, never to resume them. That was about sixteen years ago, and my eyes have had constant, hard use, without any ill effects since then. It would seem that this would have made me a Christian Scientist, but though I bought the text-book, Science and Health, I was still clad in the garments of worldliness, and could not seem to understand it. I soon stopped trying to understand, often asserting that though I had been healed, I could never become interested in Christian Science.
Something over three years ago, when in trouble, Christian Science was brought again to my notice by some dear friends in Chicago. I had been called there by the illness of my mother, and after coming home, I turned to the textbook with all the hunger of an unsatisfied consciousness; and then, because my need was so great and my longing for the understanding of Truth commensurate with my need, the precious light came to me. Since then I have had some beautiful answers to prayer, after learning how to pray aright, as taught by that priceless volume, Science and Health. Soon after I began to study, and before I dreamed of standing alone upon my spiritual understanding. I had a wonderful demonstration of God's power and love. Our second boy, then eight years old, was taken ill with what the doctor thought would develop into a fever. As my husband was at that time not a believer in Science, and I not yet firmly grounded, our fear overcame us, and we turned to material remedies. For several weeks the boy continued about the same, but finally the conditions became more serious, and half a dozen new kinds of medicine were prescribed.
That noon my husband said, "This child has been sick for three weeks, growing worse all the time. Tomorrow you must take him to Topeka [our former home] to see Dr.—[our old physician]." After my husband had gone back to his office, I decided to give the truth that saves a chance to do so. I talked to my boy, explaining as well as I could about Christian Science, and that I was going to discard the medicine and trust God, knowing that He was all-powerful to save. Then I began to work. The child was drowsy with the fever, and soon dropped off to sleep. I treated him for an hour, and with inspired confidence, for I realized the presence of divine Love as I never had before. At the end of the hour he awakened, all trace of the fever gone, and got up and dressed and went out on the front porch, where for a time he watched his brother and some other boys playing ball, something he had not taken any interest in for over three weeks. When his father came home, he was taking part in the game. That night he ate a hearty meal, for the first time in weeks, and by morning the swelling and other symptoms of illness had entirely disappeared.
This is but one of many healings which have been vouchsafed us, and we have been helped not only physically and financially, but, best of all, spiritually. When I first began the daily study of the Lesson-Sermon, I did not know where any book in the Bible was, though I had been a church-member for years. But the Bible was opened for me, and in a very short time I became familiar with it. Last summer my fourth child was born under Christian Science treatment, and it was a wonderful demonstration, followed by others still more wonderful. The baby was born with defective vision, but the nurse discovered the error, called the practitioner's attention to it, and it was overcome in a very short time. The child's eyes, from having been dreadful to look upon, have become so beautiful and clear that they attract attention wherever he goes, and his sight is perfect. Last winter my little daughter was healed of acute lung trouble in a few hours' time. In fact, every false material claim has been met and overcome by Truth, whenever and wherever it has appeared.
My gratitude to God for His manifold blessings, and my love for His faithful messenger, Mrs. Eddy, whose apprehension of Scriptural truth has brought security, peace of mind, harmony, and spiritual enlightenment to so many thousands, is greater than I can express.
Myra Williams Jarrell, Holton, Kan.
