In the year 1899, Christian Science was offered to me by a dear friend, but I could not then seem to place myself under treatment. I did, however, attempt the reading of Science and Health, which was done as a duty instead of from a love of Truth. I went to church with the friend occasionally, and could plainly see that she had something which I had not, a peace of mind, health, and contentment which she did not manifest in the former years of our acquaintance.
In September of 1900, she moved away from the house where we were boarding, and I then gradually left off my reading and in a short while placed the book away in the book-case, thinking that Christian Science might be good for some, but that it could not heal me.
I do not think that it was more than three or four weeks after this until I seemed to grow sick in both body and mind; I went from one doctor to another until I had tested all the material means that I cared to, and I was growing worse all the time. One of the fears which the doctors had instilled into my thought was that of being poisoned by inhaling the fumes of natural gas, which is used very much here for heating and lighting our homes and places of business. In the store where I am employed there are four of these little open fires and there is an offensive smell rising all the time. This fear of poisoning, added to many other ills, was driving me almost to desperation. For weeks I went to work hardly able to hold up my head and I carried three and four kinds of medicine with me, but this had an end, as all error will.
