Testimony of Healing December 29, 1917 Issue

In January, 1906, I turned to Christian Science for healing

Emily Sheppard

In January, 1906, I turned to Christian Science for healing. For five years I had been suffering acutely from a serious kidney trouble, as well as from a great number of other physical ills. The lungs were declared to be the only organs of the body which were in a normal condition. The doctors said there was no hope of a cure; that so long as I lived I must suffer. I do not remember ever being free from heart trouble, and in 1893 the doctors said I was suffering from organic heart disease. My life had become a great misery to me. The only recreation left was reading, so when my eyes became very weak and painful, I did indeed feel that God had "forgotten to be gracious." Every material means was tried, but only a little temporary help was received and my condition grew steadily worse. Christian Science had been proposed to me on different occasions during four years, but it was the one thing I was unwilling to try, and when I finally turned to it, giving up all material remedies and methods, I seemed to make very little progress. I used to search the Sentinels for testimonies of slow healing.

I see now that self-righteousness was the cloud which hindered my recognition and realization of man's oneness with Truth and Love. I had never been what the world calls wicked, and I did not see that sarcasm, scorn, contempt, harsh criticism and condemnation of my neighbors, were breaking the commands "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour;" or that these errors effectually shut out harmony and the privilege of loving God supremely and my neighbor as myself. I was slow to learn that physical conditions are only effects of the human mind, the manifestation of belief; as we read in Matthew, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."

I was, however, earnestly searching for a right understanding, and the teachings of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, awakened in me a sincere desire for rightness, for purity and honesty of thought. The recognition of God as the only source of life gradually dawned. Thus I was freed from disease and have remained so these many years. My eyes were most beautifully and quickly healed. As my desire to express love in the only true way becomes more earnest, strength, activity, and happiness are proportionately manifested.

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