Like most people, I came into Christian Science through the door of suffering. I had been troubled with lumbago and sciatica for several years, but at this time I was very ill, being in bed a great deal and all the time in pain and suffering. I was treated by our best local doctors, who could not help me, and I was sent to a hospital in San Francisco where there was a board of seven doctors,—the best in the city. Their diagnosis of my case was the same as that of my home doctors. They gave me great quantities of medicine and put large blisters on me, which were as hard to bear as the disease. After I had endured all kinds of baths, and a vibrating machine, they resorted to the electric chair, until they saw that I was getting no better; then the Swedish movement was tried. I was greatly discouraged when, after all this, they told me that I must go farther south, to a dryer climate, but I went down where the climate was very dry, and bathed in the hot springs for a month,—still I was not healed. I came home, and was a great deal worse.
It was at this time, when all looked dark, when my resources were exhausted, when I was in debt, and with a family to support which had never known want before, when I knew not what to do or where to turn for help, that God's messenger came. One of my neighbors asked my little boy why I did not try Christian Science. He told me of it. I had heard of Christian Scientists, but only as cranks and fanatics, who were ridiculed by many, yet I knew my neighbor to be of very high standing, so I sent for her to come over and tell me about it. When she told me how it had healed her, I said, "I know you tell the truth, and it is what I want." She sent for a practitioner, who came in about two hours and talked to me and gave me treatment. I saw a light shining out of her face such as I had not seen before, and it seemed sure that I was going to get well. In six days from that time I went to work. I am a brakeman, and my run takes me over a high range of mountains where the weather changes three or four times a trip, and where materia medica said it was impossible for me to live; but I started out in the night over this mountain, in rain, hail, and snow, and never lost another day on account of this disease. I was also healed of catarrh of fifteen years' standing. This occurred over a year ago, and I have made some good demonstrations for myself and family since, for which I am thankful to God, as I now know there is a God and that He is Life, Truth, and Love,—an ever-present help in time of trouble. I know that sin, sickness, and death are found to be unreal as we realize man's true relation to God. I am so glad I know this, and thankful to God, also to Mrs. Eddy.— Ashland, Ore.
