The first time my attention was called to Christian Science with sufficient definiteness to interest me was in September, 1897. I was then urged by a friend, who had been instantaneously healed of two severe claims of long standing, to attend the services of First Church, then meeting in the Auditorium.
I attended the Sunday service and also the Friday evening meeting on the west side. I was much interested in what I heard, especially at the testimony meeting.
On October 23 I purchased a copy of Science and Health and began to read. This was, to me, the crucial test of the value of Science and Health, for, eleven years before this, I had broken down very suddenly from a sense of severe study while taking a college course. During these eleven years I had suffered constantly from depression that neither materia medica nor travel could cure or relieve, excepting temporarily, and that prevented me from reading even the newspapers to any extent or doing any work that required concentration of thought.
