Words are wholly inadequate to tell of the darkness from which I have been rescued, or of my gratitude for deliverance. It is now three years since I began to study Christian Science. For two years previous to that time, I was in a most wretched condition, having broken down after years of teaching. I had never been well in my life, but had been able, by the exercise of a strong will and from seeming necessity, to go on with my work for twelve years. At this time my physical and mental endurance were exhausted, and I was obliged to ask for leave of absence in order to seek some kind of relief. My difficulties, according to physicians, were nervous prostration and a severe digestive trouble. During this two years' search for health through material means, I never sat at the table with other people, except on two or three special occasions and then not to eat what others did. I lived mostly on milk and hot water, trying various foods, but always with such results that I was glad to return to my milk-and-water diet. I did all the disagreeable things usually prescribed for such difficulties, including washing out my stomach with warm water daily, and sometimes several times a day. I tried every material remedy of which I had any knowledge, and gave each one a thorough trial, being determined that if I did not find a cure it should be from no lack of effort on 'my part. I had daily visits from a physician for six or seven months; change of location and altitude; massage, etc.
At last, when nothing remained to be tried but Christian Science, I went to a friend who had often talked to me about it, and asked for treatment. She worked faithfully and patiently for me, and in a short time I was able to take up my work again. I have been working ever since. What I eat, when I eat, or where or how, are things to which I give absolutely no thought. I am able to eat anything with no bad results whatever.
I do not wish it to be understood that this is all that Christian Science has done for me. The physical healing was merely my introduction to the great truth that is daily freeing me from the innumerable fears and false beliefs to which I, in common with the whole world, have always been in bondage. It is answering all my questions about the meaning and purpose of life which previous study only served to make more unanswerable. It is making it possible for me to understand and make practical the teachings of the Bible. It is teaching me how to overcome that which is wrong in my own thought, which I have always known to be wrong but which I knew no way of correcting. It is also uncovering hitherto unrecognized errors of thought, and teaching me the possibility of their destruction. Even if the physical healing were all, I should still have cause for much gratitude to God, and to Mrs. Eddy. Christian Science is elevating the world's thought to that altitude which will enable mankind to realize the kingdom of heaven at hand.— Los Angeles, Cal.
