I first became interested in Christian Science by reading a criticism of it which made me wish to know what it really was. I had a friend that I knew was interested in its teaching, so I went to her and asked to borrow a copy of Science and Health. She gladly loaned it to me, and as I was going on a camping trip for a few weeks, she said I might take it with me. From the first I was deeply interested, one page drawing me on to another,—there seemed no place where I wanted to stop. I took up no other reading for six weeks; I did not even look at a daily paper, for all the time I could possibly give to reading was devoted to Science and Health, and when not reading, I was constantly thinking about it.
I had been studying the book for about two weeks when my little boy awoke one night crying with the toothache. My first thought was that I had nothing to give him, for being away from home, I had none of the usual remedies at hand; but almost immediately came the counter thought that I had my remedy always with me, for God is "a very present help in trouble," and the Christ said, "Lo, I am with you alway." I fully accepted the promise, and soon the little boy went back into a peaceful sleep, all pain gone. This was my first proving of the truth that makes one free, but since then I have been able to prove it in many ways.
Once, when I was suffering and had fever, I thought I would not go to church, but would stay at home and try to make myself comfortable. Then a better thought came. I went to church, and during the singing of the hymn the pain and fever all left me, and I went home free and joyous. I had found my comfort in a better way than coddling myself at home. Another time I awoke in the night suffering intense pain. As best I could while suffering so, I tried to fill my mind with the words of truth from our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, dwelling on different passages with which I had proved the healing power of truth; but the pain continued and I could not drive it away. At last, however, there came relief, as I meditated upon the words of truth, and I went peacefully to sleep, resting in divine Truth. I became as a little child, and though seemingly worn out with the battle between the sense of pain and the consciousness of Truth, the latter prevailed.
