A burning desire to express my unspeakable gratitude to...

Jenny Atkinson

A burning desire to express my unspeakable gratitude to God, also to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, for Christian Science, impels me to write these lines. Devout as a child in attending Sunday school and church, I had grown up to question God and man, because of the unloving attitude of the majority of worshipers with whom I had come in contact. Then began a series of "isms,"—atheism, spiritualism, vegetarianism, etc., none of which proved satisfactory.

I had heard of Christian Science at odd times,—heard of the healing done,—but had never conversed with a Scientist. In December, 1909, I felt I had come to the end of all things. For months I had been battling with a problem which nothing seemed to touch. Again and again I had gone out into the fields and cried aloud to God for help, but none came, till one day the words Christian Science suddenly rang in my ears, and I, who in the past had shrugged my shoulders at the mention of it, now found myself harboring the thought that if Christian Scientists can do what they claim, namely, heal, then surely they have the key to the situation, and I at once wrote to a friend who had been healed in Science for the address of a practitioner. I was in Scotland and the practitioner in London, but soon we were in communication, and on the first day of the year 1910, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy reached me.

I had visitors that day, but as soon as they left I sat down to read, and I read on into the night, and this went on for a month. At the end of the second week, while folding up the heavy deck-chair on which I had sat reading, I found my hand—between thumb and forefinger—caught in the joint of the chair. The pain was excruciating, and I only got release by pulling it out. Then came the thought of demonstrating the truth taught in Science and Health. I stood up and silently declared this truth, and the healing was instantaneous, so much so indeed that I was bewildered. At the end of five weeks from the commencement of my reading, the problem for which I had sought help was entirely removed, and though at the time it was not the answer which I had wanted, I now thank God daily for just that solution. On my return to London, four months later, friends failed to recognize me, one and all saying that I was looking ten years younger.

During August I was packing up for removal, and sustained what seemed a severe injury just under the breastbone. The blow, for the moment, made me feel sick, but I stood still, mentally declaring the truth, and in a few minutes I was at my work as if nothing had happened. During November I had an attack of acute throat and lung affection, two other members of the household also being affected. I treated them, and in two days they were well. For myself I once had to seek help, but what would in the old thought have meant six weeks in bed, was overcome in two weeks and not a day in bed.

I treated a child of three years, in my care, for an eruption on her face, and it has entirely disappeared. For some months past I have talked to her about God, have taught her the Lord's Prayer, and when she gets ruffled over anything and needs soothing she comes to me with the request, "Say 'Our Father.' " I take her in my arms and together we say it, and she is always wonderfully soothed by it. A new pair of sandals had irritated her ankle, making a nasty-looking sore, but I washed it clean and told her to ask God to help her. Next day I was about to look at it when she said, "God mended it, didn't He?" I realized then how quickly the untrammeled thought of a little child takes in the truth, and these words of our Master came to me: "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Here was this little one. to whom I was almost afraid to say anything lest she should not understand, entering into the kingdom of understanding at once.

Recently, I carelessly let an iron ladder fall on my head, while unwinding the rope that held it in place, but I at once declared the truth, and though a lump appeared from the blow, I had no inconvenience from it whatever. The physical healing, however, appears as nothing to those who know the spiritual uplifting of Christian Science. I feel that I cannot be humble enough or grateful enough for all God's blessings to His children.

Jenny Atkinson, London, England.

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Testimony of Healing

It is with a deep sense of gratitude for encouragement...

December 21, 1912

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