When I think of all the blessings received through the study and application of Christian Science, there comes a great desire to express my gratitude so that others may read of it. During the year 1911 I suffered from rheumatism, and tried many so-called cures without gaining relief. My joints were all swollen many times their natural size. At last I tried electrical treatment twice a week for eight months, but the pain was constant and almost unbearable. Finally, in desperation, all medicine was thrown away and I determined to try Christian Science. I did not know it was a religion, but somehow knew it healed people.
One day a lady in passing bowed to a friend who was with me, and I immediately said she had the sweetest face I ever saw. When told she was a Christian Scientist, I asked to be taken to her, but then learned that she was not a practitioner. Nevertheless I was invited to call at her home, and the next Wednesday, with a great deal of pain and suffering, I managed to get to her house, and told her how I had prayed to get well, then prayed to die, and at last stopped praying altogether. She softly answered, "My dear, you did not know how to pray." I was indignant, and told her my parents were strict Christian people and always were devout worshipers at the church to which I belonged. "But," she replied, "if you knew how to pray, why wasn't your prayer answered?" That was enough for me. She then lovingly explained that prayer in Christian Science is one of affirmation, not supplication, as I had believed. For an hour she talked to me of God as revealed in the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and I was healed.
Friday I was able to get down on my knees, something I had not done for over a year, and the next week my husband remarked that no one would suppose I had ever had rheumatism. I immediately became an earnest student of Christian Science. Now, every morning before starting my work I study the Lesson-Sermon, for I believe implicitly in this verse: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
