In January, 1905, after practising the exacting profession of dentistry for seven years, I broke down physically and mentally. In those seven years I had degenerated from an athlete to a wreck. At this point Christian Science was recommended but was not accepted. Like many others, I had to travel the long road of faith in material means, hope and despair, before I was ready to accept the truth. This earnest search for health in many directions was pursued, and it embraced practically all the modern methods, including mineral baths, electricity, dieting, and exercise. I knew too well the treacherous and uncertain action of drugs to temporize with them
Two of the best nerve specialists in the middle West, each a professor or. the faculty of a medical school of approved standing, were consulted, also one of the best medical men in that part of the country. The neurologists each drew up a diet list, and it may be interesting to note that what one approved the other disapproved. One recommended a certain drug in small doses; the other said that if I were a layman he would prescribe drugs, not that he would expect any resulting benefit, however, except the suggestion of help which I would get at each administration. The medical man made his diagnosis by sending me to a hospital for five days, where a varied diet was offered, also a liberal use of the stomach pump, as well as the usual microscopical tests of the body fluids, etc., all this concluding with a very careful physical examination. He then told me that he did not know what the trouble was, but advised me to go home and take as good care of myself as I could.
During this time the physical suffering and mental anguish seemed unbearable, and as a means of escape, the temptation to end it all was deliberately considered. In spite of this, the thought would come to me occasionally, that at some time, somewhere, somehow, I would be healed; that it was not a part of God's plan that I should suffer.
