While very grateful for the many physical healings experienced through the application of the teachings of Christian Science, I am much more so for the clearer understanding of the Bible that has come to me through the study of Science and Health. Early in life I met with an experience which caused me to take the Bible as my companion. I was a church member, an earnest student of the Bible, and strove to enter into a higher understanding of Jesus' life.
One afternoon, while visiting in the home of friends whose son was very ill, and who even in delirium was praying to God to be merciful to him, I stood by his bedside and thought that if the words and works of Jesus were understood this need not be. I renewed my efforts in Bible study, praying in the only way I then knew how to pray,—by supplication,—that I might receive more of the grace of God. Soon afterward Science and Health was placed in my hands with the request that I read a certain passage in the chapter on Genesis. I did so, and said to myself that if this was what Christian Science taught, it surely could not be so very bad, for there was nothing wrong in what I had read. At that time I had never met a Christian Scientist and had only once before heard anything respecting the teachings of Christian Science.
A few months later, after being told by two physicians that I must take a year's rest from teaching or break down completely, I decided to try Christian Science treatment. After talking with me a few moments the practitioner began to tell me what the Christian Science concept of God is. I listened intently, learning more about Him in that brief time than I had learned before in years of Bible reading. The study of Science and Health was begun, and I found therein the truth for which I had been seeking all the previous years. I learned that it was not necessary to quit teaching in order to rest, for I found rest and peace by reading Science and Health, and the Bible became a new book to me.
