My healing was considered wonderful by those who knew me. Seemingly possessed of an appetite for liquor, a temper at times apparently ungovernable, suffering from an abscess on the thigh which the best doctor in Detroit could not cure after two years of persistent effort, chronic catarrh of twenty-five years' standing, and the climax capped by an attack of what was pronounced typhoid-pneumonia, I considered myself "down and out" mentally, physically, and financially. However, the gentlemen with whom I was associated as an editor and financial writer three years ago were both Christian Scientists, and insensibly the beauty of their lives, the cleanliness of their morals, and their cheerfulness and patience under the most trying circumstances, made an indelible impression upon my consciousness.
One morning, after a night of delirium from what was termed an almost fatally high state of fever, I told my wife I was going down-town. She, believing I was dangerously ill, endeavored to persuade me to stay at home. I however went to the office and asked my employer to direct me to a Christian Science practitioner, as aside from the physical benefits I expected to receive, if the mental condition of the friends referred to was the result of Christian Science, then I wanted it. After seeing the practitioner I went back to work, and later arrived home weak but confident. There was a return of fever, but it was dissipated after the practitioner was called by telephone. I went to bed, broke into a profuse perspiration, and after a slight touch of delirium, sank into a sound slumber from which I awoke in the morning refreshed.
In less than seven days I was entirely well. The abscess, the discharge from which was very great, was completely healed, and there did not remain even a scar to remind me of it. The catarrh was gone; the appetite for stimulants dropped from me like a discarded mantle; the fever was overcome, and I stepped forth whole and clean. I had borrowed a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I started to read it with dim understanding but with a hunger for the truth: but soon afterward I bought a copy, feeling I did not wish to deprive some one else for a moment of its helpful influence. Shortly after this, divine Principle opened the way for me to come to Grand Rapids, where I became a member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, and afterward of The Mother Church at Boston.
