AN incident of more than passing moment has called to my attention the fact that, although I have often spoken of my healing at the Wednesday evening meetings, I have never given my testimony to the world through the channel afforded for that purpose by our Leader's foresight, namely, our periodicals.
The particular epoch in my career which has to do with my healing through Christian Science requires somewhat of a preface. I was converted at the time of the great Moody and Sankey revival meetings in Philadelphia, and soon thereafter—all too soon, I think—my pastor proposed that I should prepare for the ministry. I had no educational basis, no funds with which to pursue the academic, collegiate and theological courses deemed necessary, no ambition to be a preacher, and not the slightest suspicion of a "call." I was, nevertheless, assured and reassured upon every point, and finally, having yielded my own judgment to that of my elders, undertook to get ready for my college entrance examinations by studying at night, at noon and other odd moments, and reciting to the parson at his home evenings.
Soon a gentleman who heard of my endeavors, guessed at my struggles, and invited me to a seat in his school. He offered me yet further help in the shape of a janitorship, which I accepted, but at the end of that school year I had a breakdown and could not take the entrance examinations. When the academy opened in the fall I reentered, this time to get ready for sophomore examinations, but in April I again went to pieces, and so completely that the doctors who attended me gave the most hopeless verdict possible. They said that after at least a full year's rest, I might take up some sort of light work; but though they mercifully refrained from telling me how few my days on earth were apt to be, they made this statement to others.
