Many years ago I turned to Christian Science for physical healing. At that time I had been ill for several months under the care of four of the best physicians in the city. Each one had told me that he had done all he could, that nothing remained for me to do but to have an operation. I came from the office of the last doctor one Sunday morning. His verdict had been the same as the others, and he advised me to go into the hospital at once for the operation. I returned to my room discouraged and full of fear. A little later a friend, a Christian Scientist, came in on her way home from church. I told her what the doctors had said. She looked at me and said, "It is a lie; you can be healed and not go out of this room, and I know it." Be healed and not go out of that room! It did not seem possible, but she had spoken with such conviction that her assurance gave me a ray of light, a gleam of hope. I asked her to write down the name of a Christian Science practitioner, which she did.

After she had gone I arose to my feet and said aloud: "I do not know one thing about Christian Science, but if there is anything in it that has helped anybody, I am going to have it. I have been in the hospital twice. I know what it means; and when I went before, I had my sister and her home to return to. Now I do not have her and I cannot go." My sister, with whom my son and I had lived for many years, had passed on a few months before, and we were then boarding with strangers. A little later my son, then a young man, came in. I told him what the doctor had said; after that I told him what my friend had said, and I asked, "What shall I do?" I have always been so grateful for his reply, "Try it, Mother." I sent for the practitioner.

During his second visit he said: "Tomorrow night there will be a testimony meeting down in the club house. You go, and don't ride." His order seemed severe, for I had not walked that distance in many months.

The next night, when the time came for me to go to the meeting, it looked as though we were to have a heavy shower, and I thought that I should be much better off in my room than at the meeting. Instantly I heard myself saying aloud: "If the doctor had told me to get a bottle of medicine filled, I would do it. The practitioner has told me to go this meeting, and I am going." When I reached the corner of the street and saw the club house in the distance. I wondered if I could make it. Before I realized it. I was entering the building.

It was an extremely hot night in July, and I was amazed to see the room filled with people. I went in and sat down. My next strong impression came when the congregation repeated the Lord's Prayer. I had never heard the Lord's Prayer repeated with so much deliberation and sincerity as it is in Christian Science services. The Scriptural reading was from the eleventh chapter of John, which records Jesus' raising of Lazarus from the grave. When the Reader came to the fourth verse, which reads, "When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby," I felt that those words were intended for me. I had thought I was going to die, but now I knew that my sickness was not "unto death."

I went out of the meeting and back to my room not thinking of distance or effort. I was healed. Some time after that the woman with whom we were boarding said to me: "At the time that practitioner came to you, I had never seen anyone go onto the street in the condition you were in. My husband and I had talked it over and said you had come into our home to die. You were creeping over our stairs, but in less than two weeks you were running over them and singing." This healing has been permanent.

On page 217 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "When you have once conquered a diseased condition of the body through Mind, that condition never recurs, and you have won a point in Science." I have proved that statement to be true. When I was a young girl I had an abscessed ear. My father employed different doctors, but it was several months before the abscess healed. Then it proved to be only temporary relief, for during many years the condition manifested itself intermittently. I was told at one time that it was a chronic condition and that the eardrum was two thirds destroyed. About nineteen years ago, after a longer period of relief than usual, I awakened one morning to find that an abscess had broken and discharged during the night. The condition continued for some time. Then on a Friday I telephoned to a practitioner and asked for help. She requested that I call her again on Monday. When I called her on Monday, it was to tell her that the healing had been instantaneous. There had been no discharge from the ear since talking with her the previous Friday, and there never has been from that day until now, proving that "when you have once conquered a diseased condition of the body through Mind, that condition never recurs."

I have had many beautiful physical healings through Christian Science. I am grateful to God for each and every one, and even more grateful for the healing of sorrow. All of these healings have come through the teachings of Christian Science as given us by Mary Baker Eddy.— (Mrs.) Luella Adelia Clough, Clearwater, Florida.