IT is with joy. and a sense of obligation to help all who may read these lines, that I give expression to the gratitude and love I feel for Christian Science, — for its Founder. Mrs. Eddy, its Church of Christ, Scientist, and its workers in every land, those faithful, loving sentinels who are bringing Truth and Love to the consciousness of weary, suffering humanity. Over five years ago I was healed of a severe attack of lung trouble, in spite of a strong desire to die rather than meet a number of calamities which hovered over me. — a black cloud of horrors which seemed about to annihilate every hope of future peace and happiness. I will say, too, that my healing was in spite of an expressed conviction that Christian Science had no virtue nor truth in it.
So wonderful was the release from intense pain, fever, etc., besides the dispelling of the enveloping gloom, that I was literally shocked out of an attitude of violent antagonism toward Christian Science, and in meekness and humility I have since sat at the Master's feet, seeking to know the divine will, and follow in his footsteps, even though the way be steep and rugged. My every struggle for a clear understanding of Truth and an increased love for others has been rewarded more abundantly than I deserve.
Since that, to me, memorable season of spiritual awakening. Christian Science has been my "queen of life" (Science and Health, p. 451), and I have never known a desire for good to go unrewarded at God's throne. To make a list of the various ailments that have been banished from my consciousness since that time were vain, inasmuch as the real gold of my experience has been and is the new birth which is taking place in my consciousness, giving me an abiding sense of the ever-present fatherhood and motherhood of God; the brotherhood and sisterhood of man made in the image and likeness of God, — a mental attitude which -has drawn to me the friendship and love of God's children, turning the barrenness of a selfish life into a fertile garden spot wherein the fruits of spiritual joy and peace and true happiness bud, blossom, and ripen.
