It is doubtless true that those who have been relieved through Christian Science of long-standing physical suffering have a feeling of gratitude for Christian Science that others may not appreciate. My entrance into Christian Science was through another door. It came to me at the very threshold of serious thought, as the scientific solution of this puzzle and problem of human life. Far from suffering the diseases and accidents common to children, my childhood was bright and happy. My lines had indeed fallen in pleasant places,— God was good without my knowing it. I had the privilege of the public Schools of Boston and Cambridge, and a five years' period of study at the first university of our land. As I progressed, the puzzles of human life began to loom upon my horizon. The world involved paradoxes that I could not accept, much less explain. The mixture of highest good and lowest evil seemed to exist on every hand.
I was brought up in a so-called liberal faith, surely an optimistic faith, yet I was not satisfied, and as I saw my fellow-students interested in various sorts of religious and philanthropic work, I longed for a strong faith to take possession of me, even though it were a blind faith. Christian Science came to me in answer to that desire, bringing not only a strong faith but also the scientific explanation of spiritual reality, which is the necessary foundation for abiding, satisfying faith. It also brought me exemption from my fears.
Physical help came too, for the mental, moral, and physical are as one in their last analysis, and no human being is exempt from the need of physical help. A catarrh of the head and throat that had been growing worse with years, together with an increasing liability to severe colds, subsided to the vanishing-point upon my becoming a Christian Scientist. For almost four years I had worn glasses for reading and study, not because of defective eyesight, but because of dull headaches which reading brought on. I laid aside the glasses, and the necessity for their use disappeared likewise. For the mental, moral, and physical benefits of Christian Science, I am grateful.
