As to a court of last resort, I appealed to Christian Science for relief from a broken home, a broken heart, and a broken purse, and found it abundantly efficacious in each and all. Even more, for I learned that the Bible promises are not empty, neither having expired with a dispensation now ended, nor simply intended for a future existence.
Through the use of a narcotic to allay a stubborn and annoying cough, the supposed after effect of acute lung trouble, my wife became dependent upon stimulants, with the invariable result. I placed her in an institution designed to cure these appetites, and she was released shortly afterward as cured. Apparently the appetite had gone and she looked well, but there was something lacking which I had loved, and in its place was something that I did not understand. I had always been optimistic in temperament, however, and was gradually adapting myself to conditions as they were, when I found that the appetite had not been cured but simply changed in form. She was placed in the sanitarium again. This time the president of the institution told me that she would never be the same woman; that the second treatment seemed to destroy those finer qualities which we so love; in fact, he said the finer the nature the more disastrous was the effect.
About twenty years ago I joined a church and took an active interest in Y. M. C. A. work, but after a few years it seemed to lose its appeal. I became associated in business with men not in the least religious. They seemed to be care-free and to enjoy life; they got returns, such as they were, on their investment, while my life appeared empty. I knew that there must be a Supreme Being, law, or nature which governed all, but this seemed inconsistent with the visible fact, and nothing in what I read or heard reconciled this inconsistency. I severed my connection with the church and cast my lot unreservedly with the other side, though not, without severe twinges of conscience. It was not because I thought it was right, but because it did seem to be the more consistent course. During the next fifteen years I used tobacco continuously and drank steadily. There were times when I drank to excess, and these became more frequent during the latter two years.
