No one has more reason to be grateful to the Giver of all good and perfect gifts, and to the Founder of Christian Science, than myself, and when I read of the many who have assimilated the beauties of this wonderful Science by quietly and peacefully reading Mrs. Eddy's works, t is a matter of regret to me that I should have to come in "under the rod."
For the past two years I had reason to believe that cancer of the breast was developing, and having a horror of operations, I made up my mind to keep silence and die a natural death. Last December I read a magazine article which gave a most complete description of the malady from beginning to end. It was a counterpart of my experience, and it stated that in the beginning of the third year the disease would prove fatal. I resolved to know the worst, and went to see a well-known surgeon, who made a careful examination and substantiated my opinion as formed after reading the above-mentioned article. He said, "Get into a hospital within forty-eight hours; remember that every twenty-four is an added danger. If you survive the double operation, the X-rays will finish the cure of the more recent development, but there will be a recurrence of the other within two months, when a second operation will be necessary, and if you survive this, it may prolong your life a few years."
The doctor and his wife were old friends of mine, and his voice shook with emotion as he talked with me, and he was at a loss to account for the calmness with which I took his startling message. But I had a hope of something better. Upon reaching home I wrote to my sister in Boston, who had been healed of the same malady in California, about three years ago, telling her just what the doctor had told me, and this letter reached her on Christmas day. She immediately sent me a telegram to say she was coming, and she added these cheering words, "Merry Christmas, Ada! Fear nothing, for God is with you." Beautiful! Yes, who wouldn't have a renewal of faith with such encouragement?
