HUMAN nature is much the same the world over, and the hope that my story may encourage others to investigate Christian Science prompts me to make mention of the experiences which awakened my own interest in it. My wife had been brought u among very religious people, with a strong tendency to "High Church," but at the time of which I speak she had practically lost all faith in religion, so much so that she said she could not tell the children anything about God, nor teach them the Bible, because she did not believe in it herself. This troubled me a good deal, remembering as I did bow much of what I knew of the Bible, of God, and of religion in general, had been learned in early years from my mother, and I thought it would be terrible if my children should never learn anything of the kind from their mother. When my wife came back, full of enthusiasm, from her first Christian Science meeting, I certainly never thought of its having any bearing on this point; in fact I did not seriously associate it in any way with religion, so slow are we to expect or look for any good outside the recognized channels. Afterward I found that through Christian Science my wife had gained such a practical understanding of the all-protecting power and presence of God, that she could hardly help imparting it to her children, and it was a joy to her to teach them.
Being so delighted herself with the Christian Science meetings, my wife was naturally anxious that I should go too; which I accordingly did,—once,—but I considered the service extremely dull and uninteresting and was not favorably impressed by the people. Both of the Readers were women, the congregation was made up chiefly of women; in fact the whole affair seemed comparatively harmless, and I was relieved to find there was no long-haired oily gentleman leading the flock. I took no further interest in the subject, and in talking it over with my wife's relatives we decided that Christian Science was a fad, and that she would soon get over it. She nevertheless continued to go to the meetings, and became more and more interested.
In those early days, however, I was not at all pleased with the "outward and visible" effects of Christian Science, either on my wife or on her health. Having been much "run down," she had, with the object of building herself up, been taking various wines and tonics, but on becoming interested in Christian Science she immediately gave up taking these, with—as I thought—bad results. Not only did she look less well, but from having been amusing and chatty, she became almost silent and self-absorbed. This, as it afterward appeared, was from fear of "talking error"! Worst of all, she had ceased to consult me, and used to take all her problems to her practitioner for solution (I hope all young wives ardently devoted to Christian Science will take warning). These experiences did not tend to make me feel at all drawn toward Christian Science, and although I met some of the Scientists and heard wonderful stories of healing, they seemed too far removed from my own experience to warrant acceptance, and I was more inclined to regard them as evidence of ignorance, or of inaccurate observation on the part of people not "scientifically" trained, rather than as proofs of healing.
