From my earliest recollections I was well and happy; not a wave of trouble ever passed over my mortal sense of life till I reached the age of thirteen years. About this time I was suddenly snatched from the tender care of kind parents, from my brother and sister, taken away from all trace of civilization and plunged into an Indian camp, a helpless captive among savages in whom no element of the cruel and revolting seemed lacking. To mortal sense I had lost all that lent to existence its charm, everything save reason, which was spared to me,—all was wiped out in one brief hour. In the language of the poet Longfellow, "The burden laid upon me seemed greater than I could bear." My parents and grandparents were members of an orthodox church, and from a young child I had a sincere desire to be a Christian. The instructions of my devoted mother and her teachings were to me a heavenly benediction during the dark days of my captivity among the Indians, keeping me from despair and strengthening my faith and hope in life eternal. At the hour of midnight, when the Indians were all asleep around me, I would often cry out to God, to deliver me from this awful bondage. I cried and God answered, for I was delivered.
When the name Christian Science first sounded on my ear, it was like an echo of sweet music. I was again a captive, though not among the Indians, but bound by mortal belief. The illusions of material sense had weighed me down for eighteen years beneath a burden of sorrow, disappointment, and woe. I had suffered, as but few can suffer and live, with a complication of diseases. For fourteen years I was under a doctor's care, confined to my bed for months at a time, unable to sit up or walk. I tried every remedy within my reach,—materia medica, hygiene, painful operations, etc., these were all weighed in the balances and found wanting in power to heal my diseases or to still the conflict within my consciousness.
I could not reconcile my sufferings, misfortunes, and sorrows with what I believed to be our heavenly Father's will. Up to 1888, when I turned to Christian Science, neither materia medica nor prayer was able to heal my disease or give me rest and peace; but thanks be to God for the great discovery by Mrs. Eddy of the long-lost key to the Christ-healing, I can now say that I am well and happy in the joy of spiritual understanding which I have received through the faithful study of the Bible and Science and Health, together with all our Leader's other works, and the Journal and Sentinel.
