Part 84 (1/2)

All my griefs and sorrows are now turned to joy, and my hatred is changed to love. ”Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” I read Science and Health, and all your other books, together with the New Testament, every minute I can get.-E. B. C., Omaha, Neb.

I must add one more to your great pile of letters, to tell you what your book, ”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” has done for me and my family. More than a year ago, my husband was suffering from an injury received about a year previous, and he went to Mrs. B. for treatment. His shoulder had been fractured, his collarbone broken, and he had sustained internal injuries. Several M. D.'s had attended him, but had given him very little relief. Mrs. B. treated him a short time, and he received much benefit. He bought Science and Health. From reading it, I was cured of a belief of chronic liver complaint. I suffered so much from headaches and constipation, and other beliefs, that I seldom ever saw a well day; but, thanks to you and divine Principle, I now seldom ever have a belief of feeling badly.

November 4th, last, I was confined. I was alone, because I knew no one whose thought was in harmony with Science. I thought I could get along without help, and I did. My little girl was sleeping in the same room with me, and after the birth she called a woman who was asleep upstairs, to take care of the baby. This woman was much frightened; but, on seeing how composed I was, she got over her fright. I was sitting up in bed, holding the child, and feeling as well as I ever did in my life. I never had seen a Scientist nor been treated, but got all my ideas from Science and Health. My baby was born on Sunday morning, and I got up Monday at noon, and stayed up. I never got along so well with a baby as I did with this one.

I am very thankful for the knowledge of Science I have gained through your book. I want so much to be a Scientist; but we are very poor. My husband is a brakeman on the railroad; and I have very little education. There is comfort in the thought that, if I can't be a Scientist, my children may be.

Yours with much love, C. A. W., Lexington, Mo.

In the February _Journal_ it appears there is some one who says that ”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” is hard to understand, and who thinks she can explain it. Perhaps my experience with Science and Health may help some one who might otherwise take up this thought, and so be led away from the truth. After reading and studying it for some time, and talking to the Scientists I met in my travels, the thought came to me, ”Why not try these truths on yourself?” I did so, and to my surprise and great joy I found immediate relief. Dyspepsia (the trouble of most commercial travellers), catarrh, and many lesser beliefs, left me, so that in a short time I was a _well man_, and by no other means than trusting to the Saviour's promises as explained in Science and Health. This took place while I was travelling about the country.

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 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 cla.s.s.

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 G.o.d,-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.” a.s.sured by these words, the daughter went, and in her rambles fell into a ma.s.s 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 a.s.surance. 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 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 pract.i.tioner during the treatments received within the last month. So much has come to 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-”G.o.d giveth the increase.”-E. H. B., Sacramento

I had two German patients who were anxious to have you publish ”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” in their language. I advised them to buy it and try to read it. They commenced reading, and now can read all of Science and Health, but do not read well any other book or paper, and they do not need to. With great love.-M. H. P.

I sold three copies of ”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” to friends, not long ago. One of them, fifty years of age, said to me, ”I never had one day's sickness in my life; but after reading Science and Health I found that I was bruised and mangled, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I have been reaching after something that, before reading Science and Health, seemed to me unattainable;” and with tears in her eyes, she rejoiced in the G.o.d of her salvation. Did not Jesus say, ”If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out”?

P. L., Lexington, Ky.

For eight years I suffered terribly with my eyes; I could not read fifteen minutes without the most agonizing sick headache. Oculists called it a case of double vision, and said that the only chance for a cure lay in cutting the muscles of the eyes. This was done, but the pain was worse than before. One of the most famous oculists of New York said I would simply have to endure it for life, as it was a case of severe astigmatism.

I suffered so that my health gave way. A friend spoke to me of Christian Science, but I scoffed at the idea. Later on, in desperation, I asked her to lend me ”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” thinking I might be able to read five minutes a day in it. I opened the book at the chapter on Physiology, and began. Time pa.s.sed unnoticed: every page seemed illuminated. I said, ”This is everything or nothing; if everything, then you need no gla.s.ses.” I took off the heavy ground gla.s.ses, and went on.