AFTER being for four years an adherent of Christian Science, I wish to give my grateful testimony. I embraced this faith, upon investigation of it, because I found in it healing from the perplexities of human experience. Through Christian Science I have found that God is indeed "a very present help in trouble," and that it brings the salvation which really saves from sin, sickness, and every ill which besets mankind.
At a time of great business trouble and worry, my health, which had never been good, threatened to give way altogether; and the culmination of my troubles, the loss of a government position, resulted in nervous collapse. A sojourn at a sanitarium in Maryland did me no good, but only seemed to give further opportunity for the brooding thoughts which were driving me rapidly toward either the grave or a condition of being laid aside from my usefulness to myself or to others. I recall that at this time I would awaken in the middle of the night with the hopelessness of my condition vividly present, and then the thought would come, "Well, I can die." I do not mean that I contemplated suicide, but it seemed as if there was no place for me and no work for me to do, and that I simply should die and thus obtain rest from my troubles.
It was in this dark time that the healing in Christian Science of the wife of a friend came to my attention. I called to see this lady, who had been instantaneously healed by absent treatment when apparently at death's door, and when she told me that it was Christian Science which had cured her, I questioned her closely and eagerly, as this was the first opportunity I had ever had of talking with any one who had been benefited by it. Up to that time, on account of the bias of my education, that of an electrical engineer, I had derided Christian Science, feeling that the very connection of the words "Christian" and "Science" was an offense; therefore when I had an opportunity to speak with one who claimed to have been healed by its ministrations, I was eager to learn something about it, and I recall bringing up in the conversation all of the ignorant and malicious things I had ever heard about Mrs. Eddy and her teachings; so that, in looking back at my rudeness, I have special occasion for thanksgiving because of the spirit of patience and love and truth with which my inquiries were met.
