When a boy eleven years old, I united with a church and tried to live according to its doctrines, but the temptations were many and seemed too much for me. I became discouraged and began to lose my health, until I seemed to come under the law of mortal disease. By the time I was of age there were many questions regarding man and God that no one could answer for me; hence I finally lost all faith in religion. For twenty-five years I never knew a well day. I was suffering from a form of lung trouble, was underweight, and felt and looked about as bad as possible. During all these years I never ceased to try physicians and every medicine that offered any hope of relief. I was treated by several very prominent physicians who were personal friends and would have saved me if possible, but all to no purpose. I felt myself slipping into the dark shadows, when Christian Science saved me.
While traveling from the West to Chicago, my home, I met a lady who told me she had, been healed of lung trouble by reading a book called "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. This seemed to me such an utter impossibility that I considered her mentally unbalanced; but later, on getting better acquainted with her, I came to the conclusion that she was a very bright woman. Some six months after this I went to the Christian Science reading room in Chicago and requested to see the best practitioner they had. I was given the names of three workers, and was told any one of them could take care of my case. My first interview was very unsatisfactory; when the practitioner began to talk about the Bible and God, I frankly told her I did not believe a word of it. I had been unable to find a minister who could explain fallen man or the scheme of salvation to my satisfaction, and when the practitioner showed me the real or Christ man, the only man God ever made, I was offended as all my ammunition was taken away. But I went back to her, and for several years she patiently assisted me in working out many problems, as I seemed to be diseased all over with complications. I began to improve steadily, became happier and more contented, and gained remarkably in weight.
After four years of more or less work with a practitioner, I took class instruction and became a member of the Christian Science church, teaching in the Sunday school and serving in many other capacities. The Science of being was unfolded to me, until I am now devoting all my time to the work. Infinite Love, divine Principle, is revealing to me the ever present Christ-idea and a God who is infinitely good, loving, and kind. The consciousness of this truth was the healing balm that banished from me the beliefs of hate, malice, lust, dishonesty, and disease.
