As a child I suffered severely during the winter months from colds in the throat and nose, and this condition became worse as the years passed. In 1893 I learned of Christian Science, and it appealed to me as a religion, but it did not seem possible for me to be healed, since I was supposed to have chronic nasal catarrh. For about two years thereafter, however, I was free from this trouble, and then suddenly it came upon me with renewed force, attacking me periodically, with symptoms of inflamed throat, asthma, coughing, hay-fever, dull feeling in the head, noises in the ears, and impaired hearing in my left ear.
At that time I was engaged in a very slavish business, which allowed me scarcely any retirement for Christian Science study; nor did it allow me any of the physical comforts which would tend to mitigate my sufferings. On several occasions I was prevailed upon to consult specialists, but all promised me relief only, while one physician who knew of my interest in Christian Science told me that people afflicted as I was became worse each year as they grew older, and advised me to hold on to Christian Science and get all the help possible from it.
I met the crisis eleven years ago at midnight. All day I had suffered greatly, although for nearly eighteen hours I had been using every available moment to think as Christian Science teaches or to repeat a Bible verse; it seemed to me that I had exhausted all I knew of either the Bible or Science and Health, and all I could think of was the Scripture verse, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." This comforted me so much that I had not the slightest fear, but clung to the thought that God is my life.
