Science and Health was a revelation to me, and the reading of it was a joy unalloyed. Life was no longer a worried, wearisome existence, but freedom, peace, repose. Its pages were luminous with the light of Truth. "The mystery of godliness" was revealed in the effulgence of Divine Love; I was lifted up into a higher life.
In my ignorance I reached out for information in all directions, and gathered in books and pamphlets from various authors, treating, as I supposed, of Christian Science. After reading this promiscuous collection, I was, to my infinite dismay, cast down from my high estate into a veritable pit of gloom, darkness, and despair; for they had taken away my Lord, and I knew not where they had laid him. I was rudderless, drifting on the black sea of error, all the old beliefs from which I had been freed for many years took possession of me; the mental agony was intolerable. Indeed, Satan had bound me.
Though this condition was severe and continued through several months, I never gave up my reading Science and Health, if not more than a page or a paragraph each day. I was convinced it contained the pearl of great price, if my search were only deep enough to find it. Earnestly and sincerely I prayed to be lifted out of the perturbed and unhappy state into which I had fallen.
