One who is "born again" testifies to the healing of a broken back

Lenola G. Herkimer

After nine years of living the healthy, exuberant, happy life of one who has truly been born again, I feel I must express in some small measure my deep gratitude for Christian Science.

At a time when I was spending about eighteen hours a day in a darkened, absolutely quiet bedroom, I had a complete physical checkup at a reputable clinic. The diagnosis was an inward goiter, tumor, heart murmur, severe adhesions of the left lung, marked iron deficiency, an asthmatic condition, almost complete collapse of the sympathetic nervous system, and a broken lower back, the result of a childhood injury. Further X rays revealed that because of this break other vertebrae had become displaced and the cartilage and spinal fluid were almost completely gone from between three vertebrae, allowing one to press constantly on the nerve leading to the legs. The continuous pain was almost unendurable. Two physicians gave no hope of help, but one well-known bone surgeon gave me slight encouragement. I clung to this hope. At the slightest provocation, such as arising from a chair or taking an uneven step, one of the hip joints would slide out, with the loss of control of one or both legs. I was warned never to bend over. One hip appeared to be half again as large as the other, and one leg was shorter than the other. Special shoes were built to assure perfect balance. I was moved to a hospital and placed in a cast. The hospital routine proved too strenuous for the weakened nerves, and I was brought home and placed in a specially constructed hospital bed, with my legs suspended in air, one of which at times bore an eight-pound weight.

A cousin in a distant city began sending me Christian Science literature. The articles in the Sentinels cheered me, but I was satisfied with my present religion and had no desire to change. After much insistence on her part, I procured a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy from a Christian Science Reading Room. Before I had completed the first chapter, I realized that this was something I had been searching for all my life. Each day I was able to read a little more than the previous day, and in six weeks I had read the textbook through. Then I sent for Sibyl Wilbur's "The Life of Mary Baker Eddy," because I wanted to know more about Mrs. Eddy. During this six weeks all symptoms of the foregoing ailments except the spinal and hip trouble disappeared, and I laid aside reading glasses. At this point I was removed from the cast, and the physician marveled at the progress. Because of my feeling of well-being and desire to be up and about long-neglected duties, evidently I did too much, for in a short time I was back in bed, in the cast, with the weights, and the warning never to attempt to stand without braces.

I had gratefully accepted the other healings, but in this case bones were involved, and I could not understand how they could be healed.

Then I called a practitioner and asked her if Christian Science could heal this condition. She assured me it would and quoted (Science and Health, p. 423), "Bones have only the substance of thought which forms them." From that moment I had no doubts whatever that this case of mental surgery could be accomplished through Christian Science. As thought progressed, I perceived the meaning of the statement (ibid., p. 508), "The only intelligence or substance of a thought, a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it." Four days after I called the practitioner, the cast was removed and I left my bed and walked outside in the yard, holding to the truths given on page 495, lines 20–24, in Science and Health. Within thirty days I resumed a normal, active life, drove our car, and even dug in the garden. I could bend over too! My hips resumed their normal shape, my legs were the same length, and I regained forty pounds of weight. The healing has been permanent, and the ensuing years have been very active and busy.

This healing inspired my husband and three children to become earnest students, with the result that we have been abundantly blessed. In our home we have witnessed healings of pneumonia, influenza, ivy poisoning, boils, scarlet fever, and the smoking habit. A brain concussion received one night was completely healed by the next morning, and the boy resumed play as usual.

I am very grateful for these proofs of God's care, but most of all I am unspeakably grateful for the growing spiritual understanding that comes from omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Mind. I give thanks to God for Mrs. Eddy and her life and for Christ Jesus, our Way-shower. For membership in The Mother Church and for all its avenues to promote the growth of the Cause of Christian Science, for our consecrated practitioners, for class instruction, and for the privilege of serving in a branch church, I am also profoundly grateful.— (Mrs.) Lenola G. Herkimer, Dallas, Texas.

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