My Dear Mr. and Mrs. B.: — I wish you could have been at our meeting last night. There were between thirty and forty present. No time was wasted, and sometimes two would rise at the same time. Papa is at home, and was there. He told of a man in his territory to whom he loaned a Journal a number of months ago. The man was station agent, and while waiting for a train, in conversation, the subject of Christian Science came up. The man said his wife was not strong, and papa offered him a copy of the Journal, which he took, and said he would return it when papa came round there again in thirty days. At the end of that time the man said his wife had read the Journal through, and had let one of her friends take it. Papa left him another one, and he inquired about Science and Health, but said he would not order it then. The next time papa saw him he was ready to order Science and Health, and just before coming home, papa saw him after an absence of sixty days. He has subscribed for the Journal, his wife has been to Beloit for treatment and is healed, and the man himself is as enthusiastic on the subject as can be. He insisted that papa should go home with him to dinner and meet his wife, which he did. He said that he would now confess that when he accepted the first Journal he did so with the firm intention of fighting it, but lie soon became so much interested that he did not want to oppose it at all. He is a member of the Christian Church, and appears to have always been a church "standby," who could be called on for any place, and has even preached when there was a vacancy. He was called on in Sunday School a few weeks ago to explain the text, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." He said he talked for some time, and afterwards people asked what in the world was the matter with Mr. N., as they had never heard him talk in that way before. He said his explanation was entirely different from what he would have given a few months ago, and the only way in which he could account for his change in the way of looking at things was from his study of Science and Health and the Journal.
Another instance of seed-sowing was the case of a druggist to whom papa sold goods. He said one day that his wife had been to the hospital twice to have a tumor removed, and he feared she would have to go again. Of course papa suggested that they try Christian Science, but the man sneered at the idea. A short time later he took his wife back to Kansas City to the hospital, but the doctors would not undertake the operation, as they said it would certainly prove fatal. The next time papa saw the man he told him about it, and said that his wife stayed there three weeks, and took treatment, and came home perfectly well. A few weeks ago that man met with an accident by which he was so severely burned that he passed away after a few hours. On the train a short time after, papa chanced to be in the same seat with the minister who preached the funeral sermon. In the course of the conversation about it the minister said the ways of the Lord were past finding out, it certainly seemed strange that, just as the wife was cured and everything pointed to happiness for them, the Lord, in his wisdom should see fit to take him away in that manner. Papa then said, "I understand that she was healed by Christian Science." At this remark the preacher waxed indignant, and began to denounce Christian Science and Mrs. Eddy in scathing terms. Papa replied to his onslaught that he thought his (the preacher's) own words drew rather a strong parallel, for, according to his own statement, the Christian Science devil had healed a sick woman, while an orthodox God burned up her husband.—
