In June, 1906, my husband, who had been under medical care since the previous January, for an injury received at that time, was taken with fever, together with stomach and bowel trouble; but it was not until August that he consented to go to Kansas City, Mo., to seek healing through Christian Science. I accompanied him, and when the first treatment had so remarkably reduced these ailments, we knew the way to divine Truth had been uncovered for us, and that our future development would be measured by our application to the study of this, to us, new and wonderful teaching.
Knowing this, and also that during the fall and winter I should be in an out-of-the-way Utah town, where there were no Christian Scientists, I provided myself with nearly all of Mrs. Eddy's books and whatever tracts, leaflets, and pamphlets I could find in the Christian Science Reading Rooms at Salt Lake City. During the winter I was thirty miles from the nearest telephone and over one hundred miles from other Scientists, and it seemed as if I was never before so tempted in the same length of time; but in the end I was led to be thankful for the struggles I had to make to overcome throat, kidney, and rheumatic trouble, as they drove me to read and reread Science and Health, also the Bible, as explained by that wonderful "Key to the Scriptures," and "Miscellaneous Writings," in my desire to know how to deny and silence these errors.
Long before I began the study of Science and Health, I had lost all faith in materia medica; but if I had believed in it, the mountain divide between northwestern Utah and Idaho lay between me and the nearest doctor, forty five miles away. At that season of the year (February) the snow was very deep, and even when the roads were at their best a doctor's fee for each visit to this Utah oasis was fifty dollars. I was the principal of a graded school, and at the time of my last and worst attack of illness there were still sixty days to teach in order to complete the term, and I needed the salary as well as the healing. At times I seemed helpless, and as I had formerly been strong and active, this condition would have frightened me but for the fact that I knew people who, through Christian Science, had been brought out of much worse conditions than mine, and who were now perfectly well. I knew that in thousands of cases before mine the truth had been proven better, surer, more comforting and healing than any doctor or medicine, and that what the knowledge gained from Science and Health had done for others, it could and would do for me.
I had not then grasped much of our dear Leader's meaning, for her literary style had so fascinated me from the first that I read for the purpose of gratifying a craving for the beautiful in literature as well as to learn this Science, and I had gained much more of the letter than of the spirit. Mortal mind demanded a science that should begin with easily understood fundamentals in the first part of the book, and from them lead up, page by page, to the higher demonstrations. I was not ready to grasp the fact that "the term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, inclusive of man"(Science and Health, p. 128).
In this condition and with these surroundings there was no way out of this jungle of pain and at times seeming helplessness, but through the knowledge given in our textbook, where our Leader has blazed the way by explaining the spiritual meaning of the Bible and reteaching the gospel taught and practised by Christ Jesus centuries ago. Thursday, Feb. 21, I could not walk home from school; but the next day being Friday and a holiday, I had four nights and three days for work in Christian Science, and if ever any one studied diligently, I did during that time, and I could note constant improvement. I knew I lacked a clear understanding of the allness of God and the nothingness of matter, but I found strength and comfort and encouragement in this passage from our text-book: "When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path"(Science and Health, p. 254).
Whatever else was not clear to my thought, I did know that I must begin, as rightly as my understanding would permit, and the continuing, urged on by my necessities, naturally followed. Returning to my work on Monday morning, I did not miss an hour from my duties, and in one week I had lost all consciousness of pain and lameness. I was spared all further suffering, and was so speedily and entirely healed that I have been perfectly well ever since.
My heart overflows with gratitude for the patient love and sacrifices of our dear Leader, who, after she had discovered the Principle of the Christ-healing, undaunted by difficulties, unselfishly devoted herself to the work of teaching this truth scientifically to all; thus making her discovery available for the healing of the nations, and bringing nearer that glorious day when "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." That Mrs. Eddy is to-day loved and honored by unnumbered thousands, but proves, as one has said, that "he who doth give of his best, of that best is the certainest user."
Salt Lake City, Utah.
