It is perhaps three years ago that I heard of Christian Science, through two sisters in Germany who had found health and happiness in it. I could not at first believe the good tidings, as I had repeatedly and vainly sought for comfort in reading the Bible in days of adversity. The personality of Christ Jesus, his teaching and sacrifice, touched me profoundly, but his demands on us seemed impossible to fulfil; and as to the Old Testament, that was to me simply a book of wrath. Other creeds seemed to promise more, and even frank materialism, with its dogma of finality and the annihilation of suffering mankind, looked to me preferable to the apparently unavailing, endless struggle against the powerful old Adam.
About twelve years ago I was very ill with lung trouble, was given up by one doctor, but saved for "another ten years" by the second, a kind friend who assisted me faithfully and patiently through all the many attacks of illness which the next ten years, especially the winters, brought. Then, although I hoped for little, I thought it well to give Christian Science a trial, for if it did not help, it certainly could not hurt; so I got a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and began to read it right through. This I did repeatedly, from cover to cover.
Though I did not at once take in all the beauty and truth contained in this wonderful book, as I had so much of the old learning to throw over, so much to overcome in myself, and though it seemed to me that my task grew ever more difficult, I nevertheless derived one great benefit from this first study,—I forgot to worry over my food, and a stomach disorder which had troubled me for years, vanished; but so gradually did this happen that I only noticed it some months later. It then struck me that this was wonderful, and I knew that my reading had changed my thoughts in this direction; consequently I saw clearly that if changed thoughts could restore the digestion of an "old dyspeptic," as I called myself, then everything good was attainable by the same spiritual means. Therefore I read with greater faith, understood more easily, and wished ardently to become a better woman.
