It is now a number of years since Christian Science was brought to my notice as a possible escape from the invalidism of many years. Through this long period of suffering, a nature, always practically inclined, had grown into regarding nearly every phase of this many-sided mortal existence from the aspect of pathos and sadness. I saw that the sunniest day had its twilight and darkness; joy and sorrow, mirth and sadness, pleasure and pain, went hand in hand toward that dreaded blank of the unknown. There was no respect of persons; rich and poor, the prattling child, the hopeful youth, the old man, were indiscriminately blotted out like a candle flame, leaving only the great, cold gulf of silence behind. This was the common round of life. Thus poetry, the expression of harmony and beauty, had become to me little more than the expression of discord.
I remember one day, walking along the street with my friend who had introduced the subject to me, deep in one of our discussions of Christian Science, when the Scientific statement of the utter and absolute unreality of matter was presented to me, and a glimmer of what I thought it meant struck my material consciousness like a cold wave. No matter, none at all! and there passed before my thought, like a swift dream, what this elimination would mean. I saw my world pass away with its sweet flowers and loved landscapes; no more stars at night, no sea or sky—nothing there at all; these material bodies, our earth-life, the loves and joys and sorrows, the struggles, triumphs, and defeats of men, the wars of history with their heroic sacrifice and valor—history itself—all nothing, dreams, illusions, a mockery!—and I turned to my friend with the remark, "Why, Christian Science takes all the poetry out of life."
A year or two passed. I had come to Christian Science for physical help as a last resort, and had clung to it. Mine was a case of slow healing; and as time passed on, and the conception of what Christian Science really was dawned upon my awakening thought, the vision of my world changed. Once more I saw its material forms and symbols pass away as the unrealities of a dream; no more withered flowers and rotten trees, no blighted beauty and dismantled landscapes; no sick and crippled bodies, no heart-broken, and widowed children of men—all gone with the mockery of matter. And as it passed I caught the mental vision of God's world, with its sweet, fresh, enduring beauty; its men and women as the children of Love, unchangeably happy and harmonious, doing the will of the Father, and I said, "Christian Science puts all the poetry into life."
