I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for the blessings and spiritual uplifting which I have received through Christian Science. I was brought up in the teachings of another church, but at about the age of twenty I became dissatisfied with religion of any kind, and suddenly turned away from God altogether. I became an infidel, having no belief in a Supreme Being, and wondered how people who appeared to be intelligent and educated could believe in one. In this mental state I existed for a period of nearly ten years; anything in the line of religion I refused to listen to, until finally the first rays of light began to dawn upon me, and Christian Science was explained to me. I listened with intense interest, and it seemed that right from the start I received an inkling of its meaning. The "still small voice" of Truth spoke to me, and I understood that there is a God after all, but far different from the one I had tried to serve in boyhood days. I now understand that God is ever present and not afar off, as I once believed.
As my understanding of God as Life, Truth, and Love increases, I find myself a better man, morally, mentally, physically, and spiritually, and I thank God from the depths of my heart for the blessings which I have received. Among these is the relief both from sin and from physical ailments, of which I possessed a plenty. I used quite a little medicine for kidney trouble, but received no benefit. I am now free from disease of any kind, and sin, sickness, and death have no terror for me as they used to. I understand them to be unreal and temporal. In my daily travels, which are mostly underground, I depend upon the words of the twenty-third Psalm, as spiritually interpreted on page 578of Science and Health, for my safety. I know that "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for [Love] is with me." The relief I have received in my mental condition is really something wonderful, and I now realize the meaning of the word "heaven," as Mrs. Eddy explains it in Science and Health (p. 587), where it is defined as "harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul."
My gratitude to God for all the blessings bestowed on me, also to our dear Leader, Mrs. Eddy, for her work in revealing this truth, is something which words cannot express, but with my little understanding of the truth I am firmly endeavoring to seek "the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," and not the things of the world. Once more I would give thanks to God for Christian Science. — Breckenridge, Col.
