The lines I am penning to-day are the grateful testimony...

Madelaine Portron

The lines I am penning to-day are the grateful testimony of one whose life has been transformed by Christian Science, and to whom a new concept of God has been revealed. I have received so many blessings from this teaching that I long to see it spread everywhere. My childhood and my youth were not, however, devoid of religion. I am the daughter of a Protestant minister and was brought up without any undue formalism in a deeply religious home. I was myself a believer, but later, when I reached the age when one thinks for oneself, many doubts came to me, many questions rose up to confront me and remained unanswered. I had given up reading the Bible, as I did not understand it, and I seldom prayed, being under the impression that I did not know how to pray.

At length trials came to me, long and very painful, and in my distress I asked God why He allowed those who had not done anything deserving misfortune to go on suffering. Nothing, however, touched my trust in God, which in spite of all remained intact, deep and vital; so when nearly two years ago I heard Christian Science mentioned for the first time, I at once had the impression that that which I had long been expecting had been sent to me.

I was at this time working beyond my strength at hospital work, further complicated by my own personal duties. I was depressed by the sadness of the war, and was on the way to becoming a nervous wreck. The immediate effect of the appearing of Christian Science in my life was to quiet entirely my mental distress and to remove the extreme and painful sense of physical fatigue which haunted me. This happened even before I had begun to study, since all I knew of this religion was what I had been able to glean from a few talks with some one who had been ill but was healed, and the reading of three pamphlets translated into French.

Shortly after this I went to see an earnest Christian Scientist who ever since has been my friend. She has helped me effectually over all hard places, and has also directed me kindly under difficult circumstances. Thanks to her help many errors have already disappeared to make place for truth. Thanks also to her, I have been able to know better the admirable Founder of Christian Science, of whom I was ignorant owing to my not knowing English.

As I belonged to the healthy class I was not able to furnish the spectacle of a sudden and miraculous healing, but tenacious and troublesome woes have disappeared; painful disorders from cold and damp, to which I was subject during six months of every year, have ceased to trouble me, whereas various sorts of baths had been of no avail. Finally, great physical strength, endurance, and balance have been given me, such as I had never known before. I work with joy, with eagerness, at all which seems to me good and useful, and am never hindered by fatigue, for my strength is always equal to my ever increasing tasks.

But the moral healing I owe to Christian Science is much greater and more precious than the physical healing. I was sad, troubled, anxious, and Christian Science has brought me joy, peace, and trust; I was a prey to doubt, and it has given me sure convictions; I was attacked by fear of every kind, about myself and about those I love, but this truth has reassured me and shown me that naught can touch those who with a firm hope seek their refuge in God.

All through my life I tried honestly to get rid of my faults and of my bad feelings, of my unkindness, but always without avail. That which I was not able to attain through the human will was attained through Truth, and the enemy is now fleeing and is being conquered. Christian Science is with me always, even in the smallest details of daily life, and obstacles, worries, and difficulties disappear as darkness before light, through the faith and trust it gives us.

I am only at the beginning of my luminous path; other joys, other wonders, are awaiting me farther along the road, and my firm hope cannot be disappointed. At every step forward in this new way, at every victory over evil, my thought goes to our beloved and revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who has taught me to know God and His Christ. She remains ever present among her followers, and the results of her fruitful sacrifice are multiplying from day to day. My voice will not cease from proclaiming all my life long the gratitude which fills my heart.

Madelaine Portron, Deux-Sevres, France.

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Testimony of Healing

The testimonies of benefits received through the teachings...

December 15, 1917

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