For about eleven years I had been ailing with stomach troubles and constipation, which seemed to be getting worse and worse. Vomiting spells would come over me so severe and frequent that I would be completely worn out and unable to be of any use to anybody. My whole digestive apparatus seemed to stop operating at times. I had a fear of tasting cold water, for it seemed to be a dead weight in my stomach. I went to different physicians for relief. One called the trouble congestion of the stomach, and another said the secretion of certain acids, which should not be there, was the trouble. They would give me a tonic or something which seemed to help temporarily, but after a while I would be as bad as ever. I tried patent medicines and dietetics. I tried diet without meat for a time, but later I felt I should be better if I lived mostly on meat and olive oil and let cereals alone,—all without any permanent result. Then I was examined by two osteopathic physicians, who said my spine was crooked and needed to be straightened up. I took two treatments from one of them, which seemed to make me worse than before, so I gave that up.
At that time I had a piece of work to do which I felt I should be at, but I did not have the strength or heart to try it. I told the gentleman, for whom I was to do the work that I would do it as soon as I felt a little better, but at present I felt more like crawling in a hole and dying than doing anything else. A gentleman who overheard the conversation asked me if I had ever tried Christian Science. I said I had not, but would be willing to try anything if it would give me a little life. He gave me the address of a Christian Science practitioner and told me to go down there and get well. I took his advice, and from the first treatment felt better. After taking six treatments I decided I did not need any more. In a week my bowels assumed their normal action and mentally I was given "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." This was without any faith whatever on my part.
After receiving such benefits I was naturally interested in the source of this power, and procured "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. Every spare minute of the next two or three weeks my wife and I spent in acquainting ourselves with this new-found truth, and we are still keeping at it. We are finding that such acquaintance truly brings peace—physical and mental. How good God is in giving to the world this better knowledge of Himself, for truly, to know God aright is man's sole need, and what wonder that the love of all the partakers in these great benefits goes out to Mrs. Eddy, the pure messenger through whom this light has been given to us.
