Until I was about six years old I was a healthy, active child. Then I had an illness, and it was only after months of suffering that I recovered sufficiently to go about. From that time on I could no longer run and play as I once had done, and books became my only delight. The Bible was my favorite, and as I read the stories of how Jesus healed the sick and the lame, the wish was always with me that I had lived in Christ's time, so that he might have healed me. I united with the church on my eighteenth birthday, but very soon thereafter I was again laid upon a bed of pain, and for several weeks my life was despaired of. I slowly recovered, but I seemed to be going into a decline, and the doctor said that the only hope for me was a voyage and a change of climate. In August of 1875 I went with my brother to California, and for a time my health seemed to improve. I remained there and taught school for three years; was married there, and came to Oregon. But I was still far from well, and always taking medicine. All this time I was trying to serve God and live close to Him, according to the light I had, which I have found since coming into Science was a very dim one, for I continually dosed my family with drugs and medicines.
At that time, which was about twenty years ago, an enlargement which appeared in my right side gave me a great deal of trouble, and our family physician was unable to tell what it was. About seven years ago my health seemed to fail almost completely, and I would often be confined to my bed several days at a time. The doctor said that it would be necessary for me to undergo a surgical operation, but as I would not consent to this, he did everything he could, and finally recommended electricity, which I tried without avail. At last I seemed to be so much worse that we called another doctor, who declared, on making an examination, that the only remedy for me was to go to the operating-table. Again I refused, and went to California for a change of climate. When I returned home I seemed to be much better, but the trouble all came back again with increased violence, and though I went a second time to California, I grew worse, and life became a burden.
I may say here that on the first of these two visits to California an old friend came to see me and recommended Christian Science. I shall never forget how kindly and faithfully he explained to me the great benefit to be derived from reading the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." He gave me a copy of the Sentinel, and if it had not been lost I believe that I should have been saved a great deal of suffering. On my second visit to California he talked to me again, but I put it off till a more convenient season. After I had returned home, and while I was suffering so dreadfully that I could not rest day or night, a friend whom I had not seen for several years came to our town on a visit. She was a woman whom I had always known as an invalid and a great sufferer, but she had recently been healed in Christian Science, and I shall never forget my surprise as I looked into her face and saw that the old expression of pain and worry had given place to one of peace and joy. The thought came, "Surely, if Christian Science has done so much for her, there is yet hope for me." When she told me of the great love, peace, and harmony that was experienced by being healed in Science, I knew that my longing of years was about to be realized, for I determined at once to go to a practitioner; but, as my family wanted me to give medicine one more trial, I again consulted a physician. The doctor told me frankly that medicine would do me no good, that the only remedy for me was the operating-table. Immediately I left for Portland, Ore., not however to submit to an operation, but to consult a Christian Science practitioner. My husband left the harvesting of the grain to go with me, as I could hardly walk the short distance to the train, and I could sleep only an hour or so at night, on account of intense pain, accompanied with a high fever.
