For many years before learning of the sustaining power...

Etta Goldrick

For many years before learning of the sustaining power of Truth I had been singing about "standing on the promises," but it was not until I became a Christian Scientist that I began really to stand on the promises about which I had been singing for so long. Up to that time daily reading of the Bible had filled my thought with Scriptural promises of protection, health, abundance, and all good things. Since then daily study of the Bible, together with "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, has brought into my life practical proof of these promises. For twenty years it has been my privilege to stand on the perpetual availability of the Word of God.

Three years ago I slipped on water unknowingly spilled on the kitchen linoleum. As I fell, I declared aloud the presence and power of God and the unreality of everything unlike divine Love. I was unable to stand or to walk, but I did try to lift my thought away from every mental picture of broken bones. When I reached the telephone to call the practitioner the bell was ringing, bringing a social call from and old friend, a Christian Science nurse. I told her of my experience, made my way back to the kitchen to close the outside door, which had blown open, and retraced my path to my bedroom and the telephone. As the practitioner had left home and not yet arrived at her office I gave up trying to reach her and lay down on my bed to work as best I could to clear my thought. Three hours later, when a member of my family returned home, the practitioner was called and Christian Science treatment was begun.

As it seemed wise to do so, a physician was called, but he was reluctant to make an examination except at a hospital. However, he called a colleague, who came almost immediately to the house with a portable X-ray machine. Both physicians spoke disparagingly to my family of my recovery because of my age, but the family refused to accept such suggestions.

The fall occurred about ten o' clock in the morning. At four-thirty, when the practitioner stopped to see me, the physician telephoned that the X ray showed a fractured hip perfectly set. Said he, "You Christian Scientists did all the good work before we were called in." Then he added that in his opinion it would be cruel to bandage the limb or to put it in a cast, as he felt the healing was truly in God's hands.

The nurse, to whom I have referred, came to stay with me. Through the loving work of the practitioner I was able, six weeks from the day I fell, to walk out of my house, enter an automobile, and ride several miles to fulfill an obligation which necessitated the climbing up and down of several flights of stairs. Within a short time I discarded the cane used on that occasion, having held constantly to this citation from Science and Health (p. 393): "Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good."

Recently a hemorrhage of the nose which began in the late afternoon continued with only slight interruptions until the following day. At three o'clock in the morning my son called the practitioner who had helped me before, and so effectively was the healing work done that that same evening I was able to join my family at dinner, and to resume my place in the household without traces of weakness.

My gratitude for Christian Science knows no bounds. When I recall the blessings which have attended its study and its application I can rejoice with the Psalmist: "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."—(Mrs.) Etta Goldrick, Bedford, Ohio.

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Testimony of Healing

I wish to express my appreciation for Christian Science

November 6, 1937

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