Thanksgiving Day, 1900, was a day to be remembered, not as in the old thought, but of thankfulness to God for the new life which came to me through Christian Science.
Four years last June I was treated by a Christian Scientist practitioner for stomach trouble, and was healed.
I was reared a Presbyterian, and had no thought of ever giving up my religion, as I believed it was the only way to eternal Life; words cannot tell the mental and physical suffering I went through, before I was willing to give up the old life for the new. Two days before Thanksgiving, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" was handed me to read. As soon as I began to read the book I felt that in some way I was being helped and spiritually uplifted. I wanted to read all the time. I was so hungry and thirsty for this new life that I stayed at home all day Thanksgiving and read. In the afternoon while reading, I grasped the thought that "God is Life," and life is not dependent on nerves and matter; that if I would let Spirit, Mind, have control, the body could not talk to me, saying I had weak nerves, for I seemed to be a very nervous woman. I also suffered from astigmatism, and had to wear glasses all the time, because as soon as I took them off I suffered from headache. I had to have my glasses changed once a year, and then I had very slight satisfaction. I could read only a little while at a time, and could not sew or read at night. But while reading on Thanksgiving Day, in the afternoon, the thought came to me, You do not need glasses, your eyes are healed. I stopped; I had never experienced anything like this before, there seemed to be a brightness in the room that I had never seen, and I thought, Are my eyes really healed? I lifted up the glasses to see if I could read. I could see very clearly. I was afraid to take them off lest I should get the headache, and I decided if I could leave them off next morning without getting the headache, then I should know I was healed. In the morning I forgot all about the glasses. Pen cannot write the joy that came to me, for I knew I was healed.
