Chapter XII. Testimonials
Letters From Those Healed By Reading “Science And Health With Key To The Scriptures”
The Editor of The Christian Science Journal (Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, Boston, Mass.) holds the original of most of the letters that authenticate these.
It is something more than a year and a half since I was cured of a complication of diseases through reading “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”
Becoming at an early age disgusted with drugs, I learned hygiene, and practised it faithfully for over twenty years; then I began to lose all faith in its efficacy, became greatly discouraged, and, as I had never been cured of a single ailment, I rapidly grew worse in health. Hearing of this, a dear sister brought me Science and Health. Her admonition was, “Now read it, E——; I have heard that just the reading of that book has been known to heal the sick.”
I had read to, and through, the chapter on Healing and Teaching,[8] and was so deeply interested that I began reading that blessed chapter over again,—when I found I was cured of my dyspepsia, that I could use my strength in lifting without feeling the old distressing pain in my side, and also that the pain in the kidneys only came on [pg 402] at night, waking me out of sleep. Then I began my first conscious treatments: of course I followed no formula, and I needed none. A cry for help, knowing it would be answered; precious texts from the Bible, which had already become like a new book to me; sweet assurance of faith by the witnessing Spirit; strong logical conclusions, learned from Science and Health: what a wealth of material! Before finishing the book, all tendency to my old aches and pains had left me, and I have been a strong, healthy woman ever since.
My first demonstration with another than myself was also before I had finished my first reading. My husband was cured of the belief of bilious fever by not over ten minutes' treatment; the fever and pain in head and limbs disappearing in that instantaneous way as soon as I could summon sufficient courage to offer my services in this, to us, new but glorious work. He slept soundly that night (the treatment was given about 10 a. m.), and ate and worked as usual the next day, with no symptoms of a relapse then or afterward. That was in March, 1888; in the following August I met in one of our Rocky Mountain berry patches a lady who complained so bitterly that I felt compelled to offer her treatment. Her words, when I visited her at her home during Christmas week, will give some idea of the result:—
“Yes, I am doing three women's work,—attending to my own and my son's housework, and caring for his wife and new-born babe; but I am equal to it, when I think of all the Lord has done for me! Why, Mrs. S., I was cured with that first treatment you gave me, I know; because I went out to gather berries that day and was caught in a drenching shower,—and for ten years before [pg 403] I could not bear the least exposure without suffering from those dreadful headaches I told you about, and from dysentery,—but that day I had neither. I had once been laid out for dead,—lying there perfectly conscious, hearing my friends grieving over me,—but I did not want to come to, I suffered so. No, I never have any of those ailments. I am a well, hearty woman,—and that is not all. I had been seeking religion for more than twenty years, but I never knew how Christians felt till I told you I was cured that day on the camp-ground.”