I came to Christian Science about four years ago during the illness of my little daughter, who had been operated upon for tubercular glands of the neck. After four and a half months of medical treatment by reputable physicians the wounds did not heal. During her illness I had become broken physically, and was under a mental stress which to sense bordered on insanity; but by reading Science and Health aloud to my daughter, and putting aside every material remedy, we were healed. When this wonderful book was placed in my hands I was ignorant of what it contained. I had heard that Christian Scientists heal by prayer, and from curiosity took the. book from the loving hand of one who saw my need. At this time my mental state was so confused that I grasped little of the meaning of the words before my eyes, yet those first few pages in the chapter on Prayer had power to send ease to a troubled heart and rest to a mentality worn with suffering. I slept the first restful sleep in months.
That "divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need," as Mrs. Eddy says on page 494 of Science and Health, has been fully demonstrated in my case. Eighteen months after coming to Science I received a shock which threw me into such a state of fear and grief as seemingly to wreck my health. The disease involved the valves of the heart, and every organ of the human body seemed affected. But the trouble was purely mental. From this state of dread and fear there seemed to me at times no release but death. I had grown into the understanding that Life is God, that mortal existence is but a dream, and death meant nothing but the passing on to another dream, where our striving for a better self would continue. When this sense of weakened health and fear became excessive, a longing to leave this octopus of evil would take possession of my thought, but each time as I turned to that Love which never slumbers and knows no fear, I would become better.
About a year after the first attack of illness I stood in "the valley of the shadow of death." Here I was unafraid, and slowly to my thought Love whispered that God is ever-present Life; that there is no death. I fell asleep knowing I would live, but this did not heal the mental fear or the disease caused from it. During this time I was alone, no one having knowledge of my illness except my two small children. A few months later, after moving to another city, help was asked from a Christian Science practitioner, and slowly I began to grow stronger. The healing did not come at once; and again and again I went down into the depths of despair, but through the patient, loving work of the practitioner was helped up again. In a few months a serious attack of acute lung trouble set in, but it was overcome in about ten days. During this period it was demonstrated that God is our strength, for I was able to go to the practitioner for treatment, although to material sense it seemed an impossible thing to do.
