Very soon after coming to live in Florence, Italy, toward the end of 1908, 1 heard of Christian Science for the first time through a friend who had borrowed a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She told me of what she read in it, at first more or less scoffingly, and then, gradually, she spoke more seriously. My outlook on life had been very gloomy for years, and the thick cloud of what might be called resigned despair, in which I seemed to be enveloped, prevented me from grasping the message of joy which Christian Science brings; but somehow it was not long before I liked both to read the book and to attend the services. I was supposed to be suffering from an uncommon, incurable disease, which occasioned sudden attacks of great pain. So severe was the pain that it was impossible to keep up, and as soon as I felt an attack approaching, I would return to my rooms as quickly as possible and go straight to bed. Usually it would be several days before I was able to be about again.
Not long after my first acquaintance with Christian Science I felt one of these attacks coming on while on my way to the Wednesday meeting, and although I should have turned back immediately had I been bound for anywhere else, I thought I would see what would be the result if I kept on. I followed the reading very attentively, though it was very much like listening to a language of which I could understand only a word here and there. My willingness to attend the service instead of submitting to the pain, must have made me more responsive to the healing spirit of Truth and Love which pervaded the meeting, for the pain gradually loosened its hold, and vanished completely before the service was over; nor has there been any return of the attacks, though according to medical opinion they were to become more frequent and more severe as time went on. In fact, it had been said that there was nothing before me but great suffering and years of invalidism.
That this terrible future has been removed from me by an understanding of man's unity with God, is but one of the many blessings which have come to me through Christian Science, and I cannot be grateful enough that Mrs. Eddy's discovery and statement of the truth taught and demonstrated by Jesus should have reached me too. I feel that the only way really to give expression to this gratitude is by daily striving to think and live more in accordance with the demands of Truth, in which endeavor, besides the daily study of the Lesson-Sermon, the regular reading of The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel is of great and valued assistance to me.— Florence, Italy
