I give my testimony with the hope that a personal experience of healing through individual effort and the reading of Science and Health, may be of help to some sufferer who perchance is "toiling along the weary way" of illusion, disease, and fear, with "painful step and slow."
From early girlhood my trend of thought has been along reformatory and educational lines. The first work of this character I engaged in was teaching the alphabet to contraband negroes who took refuge in my home town. With years and ever-developing opportunity the field of my labors expanded, until my entire time was devoted to work among children and youths. As time went on, closer study of my Bible convinced me that there was a serious lack in my work, for as I went from place to place, meeting with the young men and women, I found that their enthusiasm and zeal depended largely upon my personal presence. This state of affairs revealed to me that my basis for work was not that given by the Master, and I became sorrowful and restless. My prayers for guidance did not bring to me a way out of the dilemma, and with heavy heart and condemnation of self, of prevailing methods, and chagrin born of unfruitful effort, I labored on, hoping that each day would bring the answer to my prayer.
From childhood I had been regarded as frail and delicate, and now as I look back over the years I can mark a steady breaking down in health, dating from the time that the truth forced itself upon me; namely, that my work lacked the element of vitality and permanence. I finally fell under the bondage of a disease, the cure of which is unknown to medical science, and I was consequently condemned to death by the attending physicians. As I stood thus beside an open grave, shuddering with fear, hopeless and despairing, a lady called one day who, when she saw my pitiful plight, advised me to read a certain book, which she said "would quiet my thought and possibly bring some degree of peace." The book was Science and Health. When I began reading it I did not know that it would heal, my only hope was to find an answer to my oft-repeated question, "Why do not the teachings of Jesus bear practical fruits to-day?"
