I was in very poor health for fourteen years, gradually growing worse, and for the last six years of that time was a great sufferer. The physicians whom I consulted diagnosed my case differently, seeming to be puzzled over it. As I now understand it that was not strange, for I now know my physical condition was but the expression of my perturbed mental state.
Although a church member from childhood and for many years a communicant in the Presbyterian Church, I had never found a doctrine in the orthodox denominations or among the various "isms" which I could wholly accept. Much of the time I was in great confusion and scepticism, often blaming myself that I could not accept on faith what I could not understand. I arrived at certain conclusions which afforded me comparative peace, although not in accord with the creed of my church. It seemed reasonable to me that life could not terminate in death, God being its source: that God—my concept of God—was not the author of our sufferings, and that hell, as well as heaven, was within us, but I did not discern the Science of Being back of these, to me, facts.
In March, 1894, my physician told me he could do no more for me, and that either death or the insane asylum was inevitable within a few months. In June I went to Salt Lake City, thinking only to prolong my life on account of my family. Soon after my arrival there a good Methodist friend tried to induce me to try Christian Science, saying, "I know some of those people, and I know they do cure." But I did not wish to be troubled and for several weeks resisted this friend's efforts in my behalf. What finally decided me to take Christian Science treatment was hearing Mrs. G., whom my friend and I met on the street, explain something of its teachings. In a few days after this my friend took me to see a practitioner, and to make a long story short, I left that house in about two hours just as firmly convinced that Christian Science was the Truth as I am now.
