As a boy I was reared in a church of which the late Phillips Brooks was then rector. When I grew older, I drifted to another church and continued to worship there until after my marriage, when domestic and business cares seemed to leave but little time for church association. After a while I gave up connection with any church; but, as our family grew, we cast about for religious instruction for our boys and girls, and removing to the country, I again became a church-member. Later, when our family had reached riper years, we removed to this city, close to a church, whose members sought to have us join with them, and with success; and for a number of years I was active in the church organizations.
At this time the sudden passing on of father, mother, two sons, wife, and sister, together with many business cares and worries, had brought me to a pitiable condition. I suffered from heart affection in an aggravated form, bringing with it sleeplessness and that most distressing of complaints, stomach trouble. In a comparatively short time I became much reduced in weight and was practically without bringing with it sleeplessness and worse, many nights being spent without any sleep whatever. Something had to be done, and that soon, for I had about concluded there was no place for me on this plane.
While, as I have stated, I had spent many years in church service, I had no thought of turning to God for help, assuming that since all the knowledge exercised by several of our best physicians to meet my troubles had been without success, there could be no avenue of escape. I seemed afraid to die, for fear of the hereafter, and yet I did not want to live. None but those who have experienced sleeplessness in its worst form can appreciate in what a desperate condition I was. A change of scene was tried with but a flutter of success, since the relief lasted only for a short while.
