Christian Science came to me five years ago, after many years of ill health interspersed with severe attacks of illness. This trouble had been brought on by a fall, which resulted in intense spinal suffering, with death hovering near. My sufferings were so great that, though proud and ambitious, I wanted to die while my life was yet scarce begun.
During a lull between severe attacks, I was one day in the hills, enjoying the glory and promise of an early spring. The sky had never seemed so beautiful; the sunlight glittered on the snow; the pines murmured a responsive melody to the wind's low call; the bluebirds darted back and forth like messengers of joy. I was alone with my sad thoughts,—a dread of the suffering I felt coming on, and the fear that the next attack would end in death. Then I began to question how I could wish for death when this day was so beautiful, with the answering thought that I could be relieved from suffering and come into the conscious presence of God. Conscious presence! How those words took hold of me. I looked again upon that beautiful day. Every part of its glory seemed to speak of the presence of God, just as in a friend's house the objects we look upon all speak of the loved one's presence and we are conscious of our friend's nearness.
Then came another question, Does not everything around whisper of the presence of God? The snow gleaming in its whiteness was indicative of His purity; the joyous birds sang of divine goodness; the sky's protecting arch of blue told me surely that God is Love. With hushed breath, and eyes filled with tears of joy and wonder, I gazed across the valley to the snowy range stretching from north to south in majestic grandeur. The eternal hills more than all else spoke again in the words of the prophet, "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever."
