When Christian Science came to me through a niece who had been healed after exhausting the aid of materia medica, I was suffering from a number of diseases. Some were pronounced incurable, and I dreaded a second operation. At that time I was an active church-member and knew nothing of Christian Science except through criticisms of it from the press and the pulpit; but I finally yielded to the persistence of my niece and consented to have absent treatment. My healing was a convincing proof of the truth of Christian Science, though I confess with shame my tardiness in giving up material beliefs and obediently searching for the truth that promises and gives freedom. Church relationship, personality, and family ties all appeared as "lions" on the way.
Though I read the Sentinels and Journals as they came regularly, I carefully hid them from my family and associates. Then in 1899, about four years after my first healing, I fell on the ice and injured an arm severely. After the bone was set the suffering was intense, while arm and hand were swollen to an alarming degree and blood-poisoning was feared. I again applied to the Christian Science practitioner, and the healing was instantaneous. Then at last I determined to give up all for Christ, Truth, and in so doing found I had nothing to lose except my belief in the unreal.
On Nov. 26, 1913, I fell down a flight of stairs, breaking the arm at the wrist so that the bones protruded through the flesh. When I was picked up the thought of serious spinal injury was suggested, but as I was with Scientists, they acted for me. The laws of Missouri demand a surgeon to set bones, but a Christian Science practitioner also was called. Two days later, though the surgeon had declared I could not be moved, I walked several blocks to a car, rode sixty-five miles by train home, and a surgeon there removed the splints three days later. He seemed to think it was a wonderful success in bone setting. The back was not so quickly adjusted, but in less than four weeks I was able to go about freely. Today, at seventy-four years of age, I am as active on foot as ever.
