When my attention was first called to Christian Science, now about ten years ago, I was in a state of nervous exhaustion as the result of long illness and a surgical operation. I had also many other ailments, some of them chronic, which are usually supposed to accompany this state of health. Although it was with reluctance that I consented to take Christian Science treatment, I received immediate benefit; and the first strong impression made by the explanation of the truth has never left me. I felt convinced that Christian Science is the truth. Notwithstanding this good start, my case seemed to be brought out slowly; and at length, yielding to the pressure of strong opposition, I let go for a time. I could not, however, forget the Master's promise, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Again and again these words came to me in hours of discomfort and suffering. About a year after this I was staying with some relatives in a distant State, still in search of health, when the resolution suddenly came to me, "I will stick to Christian Science at whatever cost." One of my relatives in the house was a physician, and I had been induced to take some treatment from him. When I told him my decision with regard to Christian Science, he very kindly but firmly said he did not wish to treat me any longer. The reason he gave, that because I had no faith in his medicine or methods he could do me no good, seemed to me quite sufficient, and I was grateful for his frankness.
The resolution on my part—to stick to Christian Science—proved to be "the highway in the desert" which led to my salvation from the ills that had troubled me for more than two years, and from other ills of much longer standing. I returned to Baltimore in the fall, and though that is now nearly nine years ago, I have never in that time been obliged to leave my home in search of health. Formerly I could remain there but a few weeks trying to attend to the every-day duties of life, before my strength would seem to give out entirely. Gradually, through Christian Science treatment and the study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," every one of the ailments has disappeared. I have found great help from systematic study of how to apply the Principle of Christian Science, and have joined The Mother Church in Boston and one of the branch churches in Baltimore.
For each step higher I feel more and more gratitude, and never so much as now a deep appreciation of our Leader's worth. Only in our faithfulness to the Cause can we in a measure prove to her that we have somewhat grasped that which she has so labored to set before the world—the omnipotence and the omnipresence of God, and the application of this knowledge through the understanding of Christ, Truth.
