I feel it a duty as well as a pleasure to testily to the wonderful regenerating power of Christian Science. My attention was first called to Christian Science in 1887, when my wife was healed of a very severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism through Christian Science treatment, after having been under the care of a physician for several weeks without being helped in the least. This proof of the power of Christian Science, however, left no permanent impression upon either my wife or myself, and it was not until 1895, when she was again healed, this time of astigmatism, that she began the study of Christian Science.
At that time I did not believe in anything unless it could be cognized by the material senses. I was rather more of an agnostic, however, than an infidel. I looked upon religion as a cloak to cover the misdeeds of those no better than myself. My business had caused me to travel a great deal, especially over the Pacific coast, and I had about all the vices that could be picked up, such as the liquor and tobacco habit, profanity, and a sort of "don't care" mental state. I believed that some power had brought me here without my consent, and that the same power would take me from this earth without my will or consent, and that if there was a hereafter this power would take care of me; if there was no hereafter it meant oblivion.
In this deplorable state of mind I was sent by the railroad company to a lonely signal station on the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and my wife put a Bible and a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, in my grip. It is almost needless to add that these two books soon became my constant companions, and language fails to express the joy and peace that came to me as the light gradually came into my consciousness, showing me that God is man's Life, ever-present and all-powerful.
