One of the very interesting parts of the Journal is the notes from the field. I have been waiting for a favorable opportunity to report my own seemingly miraculous healing of a chronic illness, which had lasted for thirty years, and which the doctors had given up as hopeless and beyond relief.
I had heard something of Christian Science through the garbled reports in newspapers, and had concluded that it might do for weak-minded people who were not able to distinguish between sickness and hysterics, but that it could have no beneficial effect in downright sickness. Friends advised me to try it, but I declined to follow their advice in what seemed to me so ridiculous and foolish.
As a last resort I started for Chicago in September of 1893, hoping to engage the services of some eminent specialist that would afford relief, and incidentally attend the World's Fair. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity," and His opportunity came to me in the way I least expected. On my way through Iowa an elderly lady boarded the train, whom I afterwards learned was Mrs. D—, one of Mrs. Eddy's students, and was seated in the section with me. I engaged her in conversation and upon learning that she was a Scientist I began plying her with questions, after the manner of a rigid cross-examination. She responded so pleasantly and frankly that within an hour I had solicited her treatment and paid the advance fee, notwithstanding she was a total stranger. The week following I attended the meeting of Scientists at the Congress of Religions, where I received great inspiration. In a few weeks I was healed and became a student of the Science.
