Two years ago I knew nothing of Christian Science. My mother had been under the care of physicians for ten years or more. No two of them had ever agreed as to her trouble. She went from bad to worse. The time came when she seemingly could neither continue to use drugs nor do without them. She turned to Christian Science and to-day is enjoying better health than she has known for ten years. About this time I commenced to investigate Christian Science. Although an unbeliever, I was looking for the truth. The time came not long afterward when I could learn from experience (the best teacher the world has ever known) the value of Christian Science. Suffering with prostration, the result of overwork, and with a mental condition for which there seemed to be no relief this side of the grave, I, too, turned to Christian Science, feeling that unless these conditions could be changed, I had no further desire to live. I shall not soon forget the first treatment I had. On leaving the practitioner's office I felt that I had entered a new world, and had left my cares behind; but I have since learned that it is necessary for me to work out my own salvation. Month after month of treatment followed, the nervous prostration seeming to yield, but the mental condition at times seemed to be as bad, or worse than ever. But through the understanding of one who is devoting her life to the demonstration of God's truth for others, this was finally overcome. I have noticed a return of this trouble but once since the treatment ceased, several months ago, and my understanding of Truth was then sufficient to overcome it.
I have yet to read a reasonable argument against Christian Science. It appeals to the reason as no other religion can possibly do, since it is able to furnish the evidence of its truth which has heretofore been missing, the evidence for which the agnostic has been asking,— proof that the Bible is the word of God.
An objection made by a prominent clergyman is to the effect that in accepting Christian Science as a means of physical healing we "abandon the accumulated wisdom of centuries." Is this true? What does the "accumulated wisdom of centuries" teach us but to make the best use of forces at our command. If I am suffering with a disease supposed to be incurable and have exhausted every means of healing of which I know, without result, and am told that my case is hopeless, and then am led to try Christian Science as a last resort and am perfectly and permanently healed, can it be said that I have abandoned the "accumulated wisdom of centuries"? On the contrary, is it not true that I have made the best use of a force at my command? As this has been the experience of thousands who are now Christian Scientists, and as these facts presumably are known to him, how can our good friend make such a statement as that given above?
