In 1870, in the city of St. Louis, a party of lawyers were discussing the questions of the day. I was a child among them, unheedful of their conversation; but my ear caught one thing. They said that a new theory was being advanced by a woman in Boston. They then stated this theory as clearly, perhaps, as could be done under the circumstances. That little group I have never seen since that year, but all through the years following, the question would come up, What has become of that "woman in Boston?" I can now plainly trace the growth of the seed of Truth, and see again and again where it yielded a blossom.
At one time I was an admirer of Ingersoll. I did not believe in the Bible, or in Jesus, so I thought I could not pray. But the lessons of life were bitter and hard, and, in an extreme hour of despair this thought came to me: I exist: I have intelligence: since I am a creature I must have a Creator, and the creature and Creator cannot be separated." I appealed for help to this unknown God, but I would not say "In the name of Jesus." I would not read the Bible and would not go to church.
After months of appealing for light I found myself studying the Bible with absorbing interest. I could ask "in His name"' then, though not really knowing what it meant. Nothing but Christian Science could give the understanding of Jesus' relation to God and man.
