It has long been in my thought to say a word of loving gratitude for all that Christian Science has done for me.
Brought up a minister's daughter, with an orthodox creed which I outlined even more severely for myself than did my parents for me, my religion was of little practical value, for I was at the same time in a most terrible bondage to fear of sickness. Not only was every ailment magnified by my own fearful thought, but every description of disease was seized upon by my morbid imagination so that for months at a time I would be tortured by the fear of some impending illness, being relieved only by a new fear coming up to take the place of the old. If it had not been that I used to the best of my ability what faith I had in God to save me from my fears, I would without doubt have soon succumbed to some disease.
I remember well at one time when a severe epidemic of diphtheria was raging in the town (I was then a young girl of sixteen), of going to my room in a state of frantic fear and seizing my Bible. It opened to the 91st Psalm and I clung to it desperately, hardly daring to believe it, until I experienced some measure of peace. However, as I had no practical basis of security, not knowing but that God in His infinite wisdom had planned some form of affliction for my chastisement, I finally began to manifest physically some of my fears and became a victim of dyspepsia. After several severe attacks there came one in which I was so weakened by pain as to be confined to my bed. After several days had elapsed and I was still no better, I felt that something must be done to get me back to my work at once; for as there was no one to take my place, my classes were being excused untaught.
