I well remember, when a child, lying in my mother's arms and listening delightedly to the story of Moses; and such a deep impression did it make upon my thought that though only seven or eight, it awakened a longing desire for the knowledge of the God of the Hebrews, a God that would hear and immediately and visibly answer prayer.
A few years later, my father read of a certain person in Boston who was teaching that "all is Mind and all disease has a mental origin." This statement, together with the ridicule and criticism it awakened, was a seed sown in my child-thought which, as I grew to womanhood, sprang up and often led me to endeavor to overcome through mind.
I was not strong as a child, and owing to a serious illness during my academic course was obliged to leave school. This experience led me to decide that my life should be devoted to the relief of suffering.
The way soon opened for me to enter a hospital training school, and after completing that course I entered a medical college, from which I graduated in the spring of 1897.
During this time Christian Science had been brought, incidentally, to my notice, but I thought I was too busy to give it any attention.
The July following my graduation, having located in a Western town, I was called to the bedside of one who had been a sufferer for years, under the care of many physicians, and who was near to death. I requested a consultation with a surgeon of the highest standing, and my hopes were most expectant, as I earnestly prayed God to bless the effort I was making to restore this woman to health. To my great disappointment, the consultation brought me little light on the case, and within a few days the woman passed away.
It was then that I desired and sought as never before that the healing Truth possessed by Jesus and his disciples might be revealed to me. I thought of faith healing, Christian Science, and many other methods of which I had heard, and my heart's supreme desire was that I might find that healing Principle which was capable of a perfect demonstration.
About three weeks after, a Scientist came to my office and brought me the first clear apprehension of the meaning of Christian Science, and his words were as sparkling water to thirsty lips.
This was my acceptance of Christian Science, and when the "little book" was loaned me to read, I found I had nothing to oppose. I saw clearly that divine Mind must be the only cause and that, therefore, evil must be unreal. Little did I apprehend, however, what the proving of this would mean.
In about three weeks' time, during which I had been almost constantly reading, thinking, and making little demonstrations for myself, I was granted a most convincing proof of the glorious Truth of Christian Science. I was called by one of the professors of my Alma Mater to care for a woman who, he said, would in all probability die, as her claim was a most serious one. The first day I visited the patient twice, and at 9 P.M. was again hurriedly called. On reaching her side, I found her but semi-conscious, and with a scarcely perceptible pulse. I performed the material duties faithfully, and then sat down by her bed and closed my eyes to the mental image of the disease which was so clearly outlined in my thought, declaring the perfect reflection of a perfect God. The patient soon rallied, and was out of danger when I went home at eleven. I continued this treatment, and within a few days she was about the house, assisting in the care of her child.
After the patient was discharged, I received a letter from the professor instructing me how I should treat the case, and his astonishment on learning of her convalescence can be imagined.
This experience was conclusive evidence to me that I had found that for which I had been searching since childhood, an all-present, all-powerful, all-answering God.
In less than three months, I decided to give up all I possessed for this, the pearl of greatest price, and yet I gave up nothing, for I soon saw that all I sacrificed was "without form and void," while that which I gained is resplendent with all beauty and grace.
At the end of the most successful month of my practice, with a bright worldly prospect in view, I closed my office and began to demonstrate my way and supply in Science.
I would say to those who may think their lot most difficult, and that it is impossible for them to take the first step, know that divine Love will bear you up in His hands, and enable you to accomplish that for which you are called.
The mountains of fear which threatened to overwhelm me, my doubt and despair in not knowing which way to turn or how to disentangle myself from the web of materia medica which had been woven about me, seemingly alone and in strange paths,—all these disappeared as naturally and quietly as dew before the sun, for the Truth was constantly shining from afar in the midst of all the tumult of my thought.
My heart rejoices more and more, and is most grateful to the faithful Scientist whose radiant life illumined my path, and it is constantly thankful to our dear Leader for the pure transparency of her thought which enabled her to reveal to human consciousness the One Creator and the One Creation.
Now the tuning and the tension,
Wailing minors, discord strong;
Afterward the grand ascension
Of the Alleluia Song.
Now the training, strange and lowly,
Unexplained and tedious now;
Afterward the service holy,
And the Master's "Enter thou!"
