I have often been asked, "What brought you to Christian Science?" My reply was, "I once believed that it was misery; now I know it was Love." Brought up in a home where love and harmony reigned, and where there was always perfect confidence between us,—my father, mother, and myself (my six brothers and two sisters had passed on in infancy),—there was only one prayer in my heart after my father and mother had passed from my sight, and that prayer was for death. Instead of death came the glad gospel of Life and Love,—here, now,—for Christian Science is showing me the fatherhood and motherhood of God, and the sisterhood and brotherhood of Love's unbroken family circle.
For a long time after I began to study Christian Science I could not go to those who were in sorrow, because my own mental picture of grief overwhelmed me; but I knew that some time I would be able to do this, and after three months of very earnest work I realized that man as God's image and likeness never knows sorrow. It was indeed wonderful to find that the sad mental picture had faded away. Then I wanted to be more conscious of joy in my work, and one night as I was praying for joy. I fell asleep. In the morning my waking thought was, "In thy presence is fulness of joy." I told the experience to a fellow-student of Christian Science, and she instantly replied, in the Master's words, "And your joy no man taketh from you."
My beloved mother had always laid great stress on the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and I did pray to do this, but I only realized a very, very little of the answer to my prayer till, through the reflection of Love by other students of Christian Science, the error was uncovered. I had been afraid to love even while I prayed that I might love,—afraid of the sense of separation. When in God's own way the uncovering, and thereby the destruction, of the fear was tempered with mercy and love, I rejoiced with exceeding joy, because Christian Science had opened my thought to the sweet influences of divine Love, and had kept it open.
