OUR revered Leader says, "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii.). Personally I can say that truer words were never uttered. To me have come blessings which were scarcely dreamed of, and hardly hoped for, twelve months ago; and these blessings have come since my first reading of the prophetic words above quoted. Briefly stated, I was for fifteen years afflicted with an internal trouble, the cure of which was declared by eminent physicians to be beyond hope or medical help, save by a surgical operation. My age precluded this, and so I simply made up my mind to be as comfortable as possible, bearing this, besides a long-standing hernia, in a spirit of resignation and cheerfulness.
Less than a year ago my wife and I became interested in Christian Science through attending a Sunday and a Wednesday evening service in First Church of Christ, Scientist, of this city. On Sunday the Lesson-Sermon seemed to be peculiarly restful and inspiring, while the testimonies on Wednesday evening were a revelation indeed. After we had attended these meetings only a short time we seemed to have found a spiritual home where the element of fear entered not. In the mean time our children, residing in another city, had accepted Christian Science as their faith, and it seemed as though divine Love was leading us by silken cords to where we must lay aside the sympathies and bonds of half a century of "old thought," and take into our hearts and lives the helpful, hopeful, upreaching ministries of love and peace which are revealed in Mrs. Eddy's life and writings. It was not long before my faith was strong enough to ask the help of a practitioner, and in less than three weeks the fifteen-year internal trouble had vanished. I also threw away my truss, which doctors had informed me I must wear or my life would be endangered. I likewise dispensed with the use of a flannel band.
To-day, with the record of more than seventy-two mortal years, I am enjoying better health than I have known in forty years past. Am I thankful to our tender, loving Father, God, for these blessings? Am I thankful to that inspired, heaven-blessed woman who has brought us to see the power of Truth, in the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"? Am I thankful for having been brought so close to divine Love and the heart of the "great Physician" that my sense of disease vanished? Am I thankful that I can lie down at night, and rise up in the morning and meet all that each day brings to me, without the slightest thought of fear or anxiety? I do not think that Christian Scientists need my answer to these questions!
