For the clearer understanding of God which has been unfolded to me through the study of the Bible and Science and Health in the last two years I do indeed praise the Lord. My former religion meant to me only one of the features of education. For many years I attended the church services because my parents believed it was right for me to do so, that it was a duty I owed to God and mankind; and I repeated the prayers and creeds without any intelligent understanding of what the words implied. There was no real love for God, or for this religion that taught me of a God who had created both good and evil.
As I passed into womanhood I grew out of these teachings altogether. The church meant nothing to me, for I found that in no way could it give me any comfort or hope or faith when I seemed most in need of it. Then I turned to books, searching the philosophies of so-called big minds to ascertain if they had found a God who could be a comforter to one who had passed through much sorrow; but they too seemed to be searching for the "unknown God," and were miserable and discordant because they could not find Him. Finding that this search was fruitless, I began to believe that God must be in nature, as this seemed to be the only harmonious and beautiful feature of life.
There was always in my thoughts and affections a longing which nothing material could satisfy. Then one glorious day "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" was loaned to me, and I had read but a few pages in that wonderful chapter on Prayer when I realized that the void had been filled with the truth about God,—that He is Love, the creator of good only. Seeking for the understanding that would unfold the true idea of Him, I turned from the so-called pleasures of the world and their seeming demands, and gave my time to searching for the true knowledge found in the Bible and in the Christian Science textbook. Science and Health has revealed to me the ever present God and my relationship to Him, and my every moment is one of rejoicing and praise for this revelation which has come through the channel of the pure and perfect thought of Mrs. Eddy. Truly she has given to us the spiritual light which illumines the Bible, that we may know God's "wonderful works to the children of men."
