"ARE we truly grateful for the blessings already bestowed upon us, if we are not endeavoring to share them with others?" After reading this sentence in an editorial in the Journal for February,1913, I reflected for a few moments and compared my state of health of a few years ago and of today. Three years ago, before coming into Christian Science, I was a physical and mental wreck. Today I am a strong, healthy, and happy man.
At the age of about seven years I went through a severe attack of scarlet fever, followed by muscular rheumatism. Before that time I was a healthy child, but afterward I was more or less in poor health for about thirty years, until I took up the study of Christian Science. Rheumatism and a chronic bronchial cough were my steady companions all this time (I was not admitted to the German military service, and for three years I received the lowest mark for physical condition anybody can get). I took every treatment known to materia medica, besides hot and cold water cures, massage, and electric treatment. I studied hypnotism and so-called mental science, seeking relief through these agencies, but finding none.
My condition grew worse year after year. The state of my ears was pitiful. They discharged continually day and night for thirty years. I had one abscess after another, and at the least change of weather I could neither wash nor touch my ears for pain. One physician said that they were the most sensitive ears he had ever seen in all his practice. With the approach of the summer heat my health gave way completely, and I often had fainting spells. My sense of hearing was finally gone. What that means for a music teacher nobody can realize. At a musical festival, where a chorus of several hundred trained voices sang, I could at rare moments barely distinguish a sound. I could not hear myself or my pupils play or sing, and I often wished I might fall asleep, never to wake again.
