When I first heard of Christian Science in the autumn of 1898, it found me in a state of mind which was in sore need of a radical remedy. I was practically an agnostic, dissatisfied and without real object in life. I saw little else but selfishness in human nature, my own included, and had a hearty contempt for it. A keen desire for investigation, human knowledge had been unable to satisfy; I hesitated to form a definite opinion about anything, either for or against, as I had never seen any question of importance to the welfare of humanity either thoroughly proved or disproved. The study of certain branches of natural science gave me a training of mind I am very grateful for, but it did not satisfy my heart's desire. When Christian Science was presented to me here, I began to study it without prejudice, and seemed to have no difficulty in following the line and connection of the leading arguments. I was struck at once by the wonderful logic and consistency which seemed to extend to every statement made by the author of Science and Health. I was so accustomed to find weak points in every theory that had come under my notice before, that I looked for them at once in my investigations of Christian Science. I said to myself, "Let me find one weak point in this system, and the whole structure falls to pieces." Needless to say, I never found one; if the healing was what it claimed to be, the truth of the whole was proved. When this dawned upon my consciousness, a great joy filled me; I felt instinctively that I had found what I had been searching for all these years. I had no reason to doubt the numerous cases of healing I heard and read of, for it was soon perfectly clear to me that any deviation from the Truth was fatal to the demonstration of the rules of Christian Science. But they did not fully convince me,—I must prove it to myself. So I set to work and applied it, as well as I understood, in my daily life and occupation, which was engineering at that time. It was a very hard and long struggle, but what hitherto seemed impossible, happened: gradually the forms of sin and certain inverterate physical claims which had ruled me entirely, lost their power, till I became finally their master; not until after more than a year did all doubts vanish, and firm and lasting conviction take their place. But this year had changed me completely. A wonderful sense of peace and rest and of true, permanent happiness—sensations quite unknown before—filled me; I was no longer a slave to sin; I had all my heart desired, and what a glorious outlook, the grandest object that life could offer was before me.
My gratitude to the Discoverer of Christian Science it is impossible to express in words. I am trying to prove it through devoting all my time and energy to the great Cause, which will redeem humanity.
I derived such wonderful benefit and help from the Journal and Sentinel that I cannot help acknowledging it here; these publications, together with the works of our Leader, make the library of the Scientist complete, and are an inexhaustible source of untold riches.
