As I lay aside the worn-out copy of Science and Health, and take up the new edition, the desire comes to thank the author for this great labor of love, and to tell just a little of what this wonderful book has done for a family of eight. Four years and a half ago, it came into our home a stranger; for living in a small town where Christian Science was little more than a name, we had never heard of it, until cue day my father, who had been reading an old Journal sent by a friend, said, "I wish I could get that book they all write about." That very week, we found the book in a friend's library. Sunday afternoon I commenced to read it. As I laid the book aside, I said to my sister, "It is just what we are looking for, it is the truth." To show how practical it is, I will tell of our first demonstration. The next morning, my sister was taken with a severe attack of neuralgia, to which she had been subject for many years. As usual our mother went to prepare some medicine, and as she closed the door, I said, "I believe we can overcome this without medicine;" and turning to the chapter on "Healing and Teaching," read and applied it to the best of my understanding. Before my mother returned, the pain was gone, greatly to the astonishment of all. This sister was afterward healed of severe heart trouble, and of so many other ills that it is useless to enumerate them, for her thought was so full of fear for herself and others that life was almost a burden. But when she learned that God had not given her the spirit of fear, "but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," one disease after another disappeared until she found herself free. When my father began reading the book, it was with the thought, that if he didn't get help, he could not live through the winter. Although he had learned many years before that physicians could not help him, he was still a slave to medicine, and had been for many years. After reading the book one week he dispensed with all remedies but Truth, and as he often tells his friends, is healthier and happier to-day, at eighty-six, than he was forty years ago. So I might continue through the family, for every one was in some degree of bondage. My husband, a traveling salesman, was healed of a severe case of pneumonia, and of astigmatism and chronic sick headaches. My mother was healed of a severe malady for which the doctor had advised an operation; and when it comes to the children, I cannot tell of the blessing it has been and is. Oh, the helplessness of a mother without it! If only all mothers knew the difference between the home where Christian Science is, and where it is not, no sacrifice would be too great for them to make in order to gain an understanding of it, for at all times, and in all ways, it is the "ever-present help."
We have had many hard-fought battles, for mortal mind had many false gods to which it clung; but I can also say that we have had many instantaneous demonstrations, which give a glimpse of what the work may be when we are able to know that there is but one Mind. I wish also to acknowledge the help derived from the study of "Miscellaneous Writings." For every word of Truth that has been spoken or written, we are most lovingly grateful, and especially to our Leader, who has revealed to us this light; a light that will indeed shine "more and more unto the perfect day."
Minneapolis, Minn.
