Previous to coming into Christian Science I had had a rather remarkable religious experience, being tossed about from one denomination to another, always hoping for but never finding entire satisfaction, and finally giving myself up to close Bible study, though I was without any church connection for years.
The only knowledge I had of Christian Science was derived from newspaper reports of an adverse nature, but a number of years ago I saw a public announcement of a Christian Science lecture to be delivered in Dublin, and I determined to go and hear for myself, to find if possible what my heart so sorely needed. I learned sufficient to see the correspondence of Christian Science with our Master's teaching, and this induced me to take up a systematic study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It was long before I could understand it ; nevertheless, I believed the teaching for the works' sake, and have since had occasion to prove it by personal experience.
After my first reading of the textbook, the desire for smoking and drinking left me without effort of my own or a single regret. I knew sufficient of religion, and even of spiritual enlightenment, to understand that something higher than the ordinary religious teaching was before me, and that it required faithful practice. Six months elapsed, and one morning I was suddenly taken with a slight paralytic stroke, affecting my leg, foot, and arm, also my tongue. On the Wednesday following, the symptoms returned with greater severity, and I seemed to grow worse from day to day. I gladly availed myself of the help of a Christian Science practitioner who had kindly done his best to help me to gain an understanding of the truth on many occasions, with the result that the disease was at once arrested, and after some little time, about two months I should think, it was finally and permanently overcome. I have had no relapse. Since that time several different cases of the same malady treated by materia medica have come under my observation, but none of these people have recovered, and some have passed on.
