While reading recently the testimonies of healing in the Sentinel, the words of Mrs. Eddy came to me, that if we do not acknowledge the benefits received we are not ready for new blessings. This was a hint to me that I must testify publicly in gratitude to God for the many blessings which are mine. It was not disease which led me to Christian Science, but my striving to find a better method of healing. For eight years I had had opportunity to test the various curative methods and their effects. In all these systems of healing I was seeking for a basic law. but found that the various schools not only contradicted each other, but were self-contradictory, while one method yielded to another, and almost daily new remedies came up which displaced those of yesterday, only in their turn to give place to others, so that there is no permanent basis upon which to build.
While serving in a university clinic I heard of Christian Science and its success, but rejected the subject, as I believed it belonged to the realm of suggestion or similar methods. Shortly after this I was engaged in another line of practice, but the unsatisfactory experiences which I had in these lines induced me to try to know more of Christian Science. A few conversations with a Christian Science practitioner convinced me that it was based upon Principle, and that the conclusions reached thereby were absolutely logical. I secured a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and began to translate it with the help of a dictionary and with the assistance of the practitioner before mentioned, as I was not in the least familiar with the English language. I also began to attend the meetings, which at that time were held in a private house, where a few persons gathered who had only a slight understanding of Christian Science themselves and could not contribute much in the way of encouragement. This was in Basel, where today there are many firm adherents of Christian Science, and regular services are held in a hall.
Having been disappointed by the medical as well as by the religious systems in my search after God and peace, yet feeling that I must investigate everything thoroughly, I continued to study the Christian Science literature and attend the meetings, and I was rewarded beyond all expectation for my perseverance. It is not difficult to accept Christian Science, for it explains in a logical manner what God, man, and the universe are, how disease is healed, how all human problems have to be solved. Moreover, it teaches us to read the Bible understandingly, and the application of the truth is easy; only steadfastness, love of God and man, and self-renunciation are required. I have been wonderfully blessed through Christian Science, and have had the privilege of becoming acquainted with many persons in Berlin, Hannover, London, etc., who have been freed of troubles of every kind. I am unspeakably grateful to God for this truth, and also to Mrs. Eddy for having had the courage to write Science and Health, which refutes all material theories.
