On my return home, I gave my wife treatments. In many instances the blessing came before the treatment was finished, and often we proved that only a thought of the power of Truth was sufficient to give relief.
One Sunday morning, soon after my return, a friend called and asked if I could give him anything to relieve his wife, who, he said, had been suffering for some days with rheumatism in her shoulder, so severely that she could neither dress alone nor comb her hair. I told him that the only medicine we had in the house was Christian Science. He laughed at the idea; but before he left, he asked if I would give his wife a treatment. I told him I was very young in Science, but if she wished it, I would. He went home, but returned immediately, saying she wished me to come. Then I asked help from the fountain of Truth, and started for my first treatment to be given away from home. When I left their room fifteen minutes later, she was shaking her hand high above her head, and exclaiming, “I am all right; I am well!” That was in November, 1887, and she has had no return of the belief since.
A friend told me that his son, twelve years old, had catarrh so badly that his breath was very offensive, his throat troubled him all the time, and that he had been deaf since he had the measles. In less than three weeks [pg 419] both beliefs vanished. This was a case of absent treatment. I could give you other cases, but I think I have said enough to prove that Science and Health is not hard to understand, for my work has all been done without my ever attending class.
H. H. B., New York City
A lady, with no other instructor than “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” has demonstrated beyond many who have taken numerous lessons. Persuaded, through her reading, of the allness of God,—and the perfectness of idea,—she would know nothing else. A daughter, so badly affected by poison oak (ivy) that for weeks death was feared from blood-poisoning, had recovered with a terrible dread of that plant. As the next season's picnic time drew near, she was regretting that she dared not go again. The mother, with her new-born faith in the Science of being, said, “Certainly you can go, for nothing can harm you.” Assured by these words, the daughter went, and in her rambles fell into a mass of the dreaded plant; but trusting to the word of Truth, she thought nothing of it till one who knew of her previous trouble said, in her mother's presence, “See, her face is showing red already.” But the mother was prompt in denial and assurance. Next morning, old symptoms were out in force, but they yielded at once and finally to the positive and uncompromising hold on Truth. Another daughter, that was thought too delicate to raise, from bronchial and nervous troubles, always dosed with medicine and wrapped in flannels, now runs free and well without either of these, winter [pg 420] and summer. The mother was recently attacked by mesmerism from the church that believed she was influencing her daughter to leave. She overcame by the same unwavering trust in God, seeing Truth clearer than ever before. Her demonstrations come through no form of treatment, but by letting the Spirit bear witness,—by the positive recognition and realization of no reality but ever-present good.
The other night her husband was attacked with an old belief, similar to one that some time before had ended in a congestive chill which the doctor thought very serious, and from which he had been a long time in recovering. The wife simply recognized no reality in the belief, and, seeing only perfect being, felt no fear. She did nothing,—no “treating” in the usual sense. There is nothing to do but to understand that all is harmony, always. He felt the presence that destroys the sense of evil, and next morning—there was nothing left to recover from.
A lady, while doing some starching, thoughtlessly put her hand into the scalding starch to wring out a collar. Recalled to mortal sense by the stinging pain, she immediately realized the all-power of God. At once the pain began to subside; and as she brushed off the scalding starch, she could see the blister-swelling go down till there was but a little redness to show for the accident; absorbed in her thankfulness, she mechanically wrung out the collar with the same hand, and with no sense of pain, thus verifying the demonstration. This woman (not reading English) only knows Science as she has received it from her practitioner during the treatments received within the last month. So much has come to [pg 421] her from Spirit through her loyalty to Christ, in so far as she could understand.
A case of ulcerated tooth and neuralgic belief would only partially yield after repeated treatments, till it was discovered that the patient was antagonizing Truth by holding the thought that her old remedy, laudanum, would give relief; treated from this standpoint, relief was immediate and final.
One morning after Rev. —— had been preaching to thousands for several days, he told them that he had never felt such a sense of depression nor had so little showing of results. Some Scientists hearing this, at once saw his trouble. He had been fearlessly exposing and denouncing evil; and it had turned on him, till the mesmerism was likely to overcome him entirely, for he did not understand the seeming power. The effect of the silent word to uplift and sustain, was very manifest that evening in his preaching, and was a beautiful demonstration of Science. He probably only felt Spirit-inspiration as he had not before, without a thought as to what had broken the evil spell; but we never know the what, or when, or where, of the harvest we can sow—“God giveth the increase.”—E. H. B., Sacramento