For eighteen years I was addicted to the use of morphine and liquor and went through all the suffering attendant on those habits, but with less than two months of Christian Science treatment I was completely healed, and have since had further opportunity to prove that Truth is indeed able to save to the uttermost. In Science and Health (p. 449) Mrs. Eddy tells us that "a grain of Christian Science does wonders for mortals, so omnipotent is Truth," and I have had the most convincing proof of this statement. On July 23, 1916, while riding a motor-cycle, an automobile crashed into me. As I went down under its wheels the truth which came to my consciousness kept me mentally alert enough to direct those who came to my assistance where to take me. Upon arrival at the home of a Christian Science practitioner it was found that she had gone out for the day. I then directed that I be taken to the home of another Scientist, which was done. When I had been placed on a bed it was found that four physicians were in the party that accompanied me, two of whom had assisted in getting me from under the machine. I asked that a practitioner from my own town, ten miles distant, be summoned, and with the help of the Scientist to whose home I had been taken, the truth was immediately declared.
One of the physicians, however, proceeded to make an examination, at the conclusion of which he declared that I must be taken to a hospital, X-rayed, and possibly operated upon. During his examination and diagnosis, and while he was making these statements, there constantly came to me Scriptural verses and promises, also statements from Science and Health, which enabled me mentally to deny every one of the assertions voiced by the kind-hearted and well-intentioned physician. When the Christian Science practitioner arrived, I had to decide whether I would go to the hospital or have Christian Science treatment. The decision was, however, made quickly, and as the physicians departed, one of them shook his head and said I was making a grave mistake.
I can but be extremely grateful when I stop to think that two and a half years of study of Christian Science had equipped me with a knowledge of Life as Life really is, which enabled me to stand firm in the face of medical opinion and diagnosis based on a belief of life in matter. When this decision was made, the affair to my consciousness ceased to assume the proportions of a catastrophe from which I might or might not recover, but became rather a problem to be worked out with the aid of an infallible Principle and rule as taught in Christian Science. I was later taken home, and through the faithful work of a practitioner was out of bed within two days. The third day I was outdoors in a chair; the fifth, went about on my feet; and the tenth, made a trip of seventy miles to Seattle and walked about the streets nearly all day.
