I wish to record as briefly as possible the reasons which led me to turn to Christian Science for physical healing, and also the reasons for my acceptance of its spiritual teachings. Five years ago last winter I had reached "man's extremity," having failed to receive any lasting benefit from the different schools of medicine, a surgical operation, strict diet, three months' sojourn in each of two sanitariums, and changes of climate extending from the coast of Maine to the mountains of Colorado. In the latter place I was literally parboiled, both inside and outside, by drinking of the, to me, nauseous mineral waters and bathing in them. This last experiment, like all the previous ones, proved futile, for, six weeks after my return home, I caught a severe cold which caused a condition of extreme relapse. I was able to take very little food, and was growing weak so alarmingly fast that I was ordered again to a sanitarium where I could be strengthened by a course of oil and salt baths.
The day the doctor pronounced this sentence, I left his office carrying several new prescriptions (marked "before and after meals, and at bedtime"), and heartbroken at the thought of so' soon again leaving my family and home in the care of servants. At that moment I met a friend whom I had not seen for many months and who was then in wretched health: but what a transformation I beheld! In reply to my question, "What have you been doing to yourself," she said, "I have been taking Christian Science treatment, and am well." I never had those prescriptions filled, for I went home, told my husband of our friend's healing, and begged to be allowed to give this new remedy a trial. I was told that, since it would take two weeks for me to get ready to go to the sanitorium, I might see what could be accomplished in that time.
The allotted time was short, but it was sufficient for God's work. I received exactly two weeks' treatment from one of Mrs. Eddy's students, whom I saw only four times. The Word which "was in the beginning" was spoken, and I was made "every whit whole," so that for more than five years I have enjoyed the glorious liberty of a child of God. My case was, to sense, a complicated one, the ailments which were destroyed being catarrh of the large intestine, indigestion, neuralgia of the face and head, rheumatism which caused a swelling and stiffness of the knee joints, astigmatism for which I had worn glasses ten years, and that seemingly terrible, inexorable lie, insomnia. From the first hour that the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." was put into my hands I became its earnest student. Slowly but surely its treasures are being revealed to me, "line upon line, precept upon precept."
