Few can have had more reason for coming to Christian Science than I had, and yet after my previous experiences I might never have taken it up but for its name. When Christian Science was mentioned to me, rather more than two years ago, not having previously heard anything about it, the name gave the suggestion that it might be the very thing which had once seemed possible, in the vague hopes, the undefined feelings awakened by the Gospel words, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," etc.; but those promises had faded away into the limbo of improbabilities, leaving a sad and stranded condition of thought towards the Scriptures. I felt, however, that a system of cure so named might be tried for my many ailments, in spite of the fact that I had spent fourteen years in prosecuting various medical systems and hygienic courses of treatment, without permanent benefit, and in spite also of having had it declared to me by prominent physicians that my case was incurable.
While serving as first lieutenant in a battleship in the British navy a state of disease had come upon me, obscure in its symptoms, refractory to treatment, painful and paralyzing in its results. I kept at work till I fell down and had to be carried to my bed. The disease was acute for three years, then came a chronic stage, during which there were several periods of easement, apparently under the influence of new cures. Finally, the symptoms again became acute, leaving me helpless, much crippled, and in a continual state of suffering. I tried thirty doctors, and loyally followed their recommendations, and had also been to baths and hospitals. The symptoms were classed as gout, rheumatism, etc., carried in their Latin appellations to their limit, and variously treated; joints were crippled and contorted, the chest fixed, and bones rigid; nerve diseases, proceeding in a downward course from neuralgia to paralysis; stomach troubles of many kinds, internal hemorrhage, bad hemorrhoids; skin disease of very irritating form: heart weakness, eye trouble, and constant insomnia from pain and restlessness.
My last interview with doctors was one that required preparation and arrangement. My attending doctor was to take me to London for consultation with two of the leading professionals. So with doctor and nurse I went through my final interviews, and was pronounced incurable,—told not to trouble myself further with medicines, or diet, or anything, as the opinion seemed to be that I should not long be bothered by anything. I actually felt quite relieved to think that I need not trouble about these cure regimes any more.
