I HAVE now been in Christian Science for something over five years, and most of that time have been active in the church work. I came to it a broken-down man, overcome by the cares of business and the burdens of disease. I sought the help of a practitioner solely for physical relief, with a very slight understanding or appreciation of what Christian Science is or the extent of its power for good. I applied for help in a state of hopelessness, mentally, and with only enough faith in it to give it a trial. I was suffering from a disease of the stomach of many years' standing, which during the previous year had taken on an acute form, giving me great and constant pain and headache day and night, and causing extreme nervousness. I had lost thirty pounds in flesh within the year, and strength correspondingly, until I was almost incapacitated for business. I had sought relief of many doctors of various schools, but with no better result than temporary surcease from pain, and generally not even that. I thought myself to be in desperate straits.
Christian Science gave me almost, if not quite, immediate relief. It relieved my mental condition, eased the pain and suffering, and filled me with hope. My healing was slow. I came up out of the depths of disease, suffering, and despair into the blessed sense of health, hope, and peace, much as I had gone down, steadily but surely. It was four months, or thereabouts, before I was able to say I was healed, and about a year before I fully regained the flesh and strength I had lost. But I have always congratulated myself that my healing was slow. It gave me the opportunity I so much needed, and the incentive to study Christian Science, which I did earnestly, eagerly. It possessed my mind with a better, a higher understanding of God and His goodness, and filled me with a sense of trust in Him that was genuine and sincere; it relieved me, in a great measure, of the burdens of fear, distrust, doubt, and worry that had oppressed me.
In addition to the one trouble about which I was most concerned, I had others of less moment. As the result of a severe attack of lung trouble, nearly thirty years before, there was supposed to be an adhesion; and I had frequent colds, which caused me much pain in my side, as a result of this condition. After coming into Christian Science I rarely had a cold, and for the last three years or more I have had none at all, and the pain in the side from which I suffered so much has entirely disappeared, greatly to my relief. In my business Christian Science has done much for me in the way of relieving me from its worries and distractions, thus making my burden much lighter.
