The Detroit Tribune

A Wonderful Christian Science Healing

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After attacks of pleurisy, pneumonia, and asthma my lungs were in a weakened condition. I endeavored to find a suitable climate, but at each place I was told: "You cannot stay here. You should go somewhere else." When this had been told me for the third time, my hopes were at their lowest ebb. I could not sleep lying down, but had to sit up near a fire all night, and I had to take quantities of medicine to relieve my coughing. At this point my sister in London, who is a student of Christian Science, wrote me a letter which said: "Dear brother, you are in trouble. I am posting you a Christian Science Sentinel. Read it."

I duly did so, and it so impressed me that I said to my wife, "I must get a copy of a book called 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy." To my utter astonishment she replied, "I have had a copy of it for over twenty years, but I do not understand it." She gave it to me, and I started to read it at once. When I got near the end of the chapter on Prayer, I was very much impressed by these words on pages 12 and 13: "In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as 'a very present help in trouble.'" At ten o'clock in the evening my wife went to bed and left me before the fire in the sitting room, where I sat thinking over the words from Science and Health, "All may avail themselves of God." Then, as honestly and humbly as I knew how, I earnestly prayed to God to help me. While doing this I fell asleep and awoke at five the next morning. As the fire was out, I relighted it. Then I fell asleep again and awakened at eight. The thought flashed through my mind, "If you were sincere in your prayer to God for help, what are you doing here? Get up and dress." This I did and then went into the kitchen for breakfast, to the alarm of my wife.

My sister had advised me to consult a practitioner; so I went to a Christian Science Reading Room, where I was given names and addresses of nearby practitioners. I went to one at once, and as a result of that visit I returned home uplifted and free.

The practitioner had asked me to have complete reliance on God and to put aside all material methods. However, about three weeks after my healing, a doctor who had previously attended me called. He said that he had come to give me an injection of a serum which he had ordered prepared for me and which had just come. I refused to have the injection, but the suggestion came, "You have to pay for it anyway; so why not keep it on hand until you are sure you are cured?" I heeded the suggestion and put the bottle of serum in the refrigerator. After I went to bed that night I awoke fighting for breath and feeling as if I were passing on. As I lay there in bed the thought came to me: "Why have you turned away from God? Did you not ask Him to help you? And now you have turned from Him." I saw that I had forsaken God; so I got out of bed, took the bottle, and buried it and its contents. Then I went to bed again and slept like a child. The difficulty never returned.

Six months after this healing I was using my glasses to read the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly. The angel thought came to me, "Do you really need glasses to read God's Word?" Instantly I answered, "Since I am really the reflection of God, my sight is perfect." The glasses were laid aside and were not used again.

I have been blessed by becoming a member of The Mother Church and have found unspeakable happiness in seeing how a Christian Science Society grows when all members are united in love. My prayer is that I may be a messenger of God and take divine Love to others as it was brought to me through God's grace.

Arthur Herbert Carlton, Richmond, Natal, South Africa.