With a heart full of gratitude I would recount the blessings which my family and I have received through Christian Science. For eight years I consulted various doctors and visited different places in order to get my twin children well. The doctors declared that they were born with malaria, that the one had an organic defect of the stomach and of the heart, and the other had bronchial catarrh. When we stayed at the same place more than six weeks the malaria would return, and all that the children had seemed to gain would be lost. The last doctor we had in New York sent us to California, but to no avail. It was the same story as before, only conditions wore worse, because our financial position no longer enabled us to do for the children what we had done before.
The saying, however, that "man's extremity is God's opportunity" proved true in our case. I became acquainted with a Christian Science practitioner, and when I had spoken with her a few times and heard her explain what Christian Science teaches. I let her treat my two children. They improved at once, and on the second day the malaria had all vanished. The healing was so quick and simple that I could not grasp it. I doubted, and wondered whether it might not have been due to the climate. A few months passed. We had, in the meantime, moved into a place where the road was not yet made, and at the end of the rainy season we noticed that the water which had gathered in a hole about four feet deep began to have an unpleasant odor. Everybody said how unhealthy that condition was. I, too, began to talk about it, with the result that the children had again attacks of the fever. At first I tried to help them myself, but I was too much afraid of the stagnant water. After a few days, as they seemed to be getting worse, I called the practitioner who had helped them before. She came, and on the same evening the children began to eat again. Since then I have never noticed another trace of the fever, and this was about ten years ago. After this demonstration I felt sure that the climate had not affected the children.
In the meantime our financial situation had grown worse. It was pointed out to me that as the one Principle includes everything, its rules can be used for the solution of every problem. I then decided to do my best, and read and studied every minute I could spare. The path seemed long and weary, but the recompense was great. Although there were moments of doubt, I continually progressed. Soon after this, when a little daughter was born, I had no doctor, and the practitioner was at another place, some forty miles distant. Everything went well, and I got up the third day, feeling as well as ever. A few years later I had the privilege of class instruction, and since then I have been able to bring to others the blessings of Christian Science.
