I CAN hardly remember the time when I first began to think of making preparation, whereby I might sometime enter into the "Kingdom of Heaven," a place, a locality, far away, in the realms of illimitable space, among the beautiful constellations and planets, which brighten our night-world. And this thought of a home "beyond the stars," was strengthened and intensified as I grew older by reading a little work on astronomy, in which the writer stated it as his opinion, that in the center of the vast planetary world, was the throne of God, and the home of the redeemed. And so, whenever I took my walks abroad in the evening, my eyes and thoughts were lifted skyward, to my "home in heaven." And sometimes, in my admiration of the grandly beautiful stellar world, my future home, I longed to lay the body down, that I might at once enter into this "home in heaven." I also took great delight in contemplation of the mansion prepared for me, and often read over a computation, which I cherished with such care, that I pasted it in my Bible, entitled, "The Dimensions of Heaven," based on the twenty-first chapter of Revelation. The computer, after an almost endless array of figures, concluded by saying that if there were a hundred worlds like this, with an equal number of inhabitants, and they stood, or existed for a thousand centuries, there would yet be more than a hundred rooms, sixteen feet square for each person; so I comforted myself with the thought of a roomy mansion. And now, after all these years, trying to look beyond the stars to find heaven, I am finding it here and now.
Words are poor channels through which to express my unbounded gratitude to dear Mrs. Eddy, for the knowledge of this Christ-way, which has dawned upon me and is filling my consciousness with a peace which passeth human understanding. With my first glimmerings of this "walk with God," I thought I was entering into a place of rest from all great trials; that all such were in the past. Experience has taught me that there are more battles than rest. Yet every battle has been followed by a victory so complete that my mouth has been filled with praise, and these words of Isaiah verified: "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."
My loving father, knowing my earnest desire for a more spiritual life, opened the way for a short sojourn in Southern California, where I was providentially led to look into Christian Science. Before leaving California I took a course of lessons from one of Mrs. Eddy's students. I have nearly all the books written by Mrs. Eddy. Through the study of them I have been able to overcome false claims of many years' duration. I wonder how I lived before this blessed knowledge came to me.
