When a young girl I hungered and thirsted after God and used to shut myself in a retired part of the house to pray, if haply I might find Him; but no satisfying sense of God came, although I was a member of a church. One of my girlhood's desires was to be brought into touch with some one spiritually minded enough to teach me the things of God. Youth passed, but my prayers and desire were not fulfilled. Later experience of family sorrow and suffering made me question if God existed and what life meant. We seemed to be ushered into life and expelled from it without our consent, and to me it all seemed so purposeless, unreasonable, unjust. Then I prayed only to be kept loving, good, and true. This was my mental condition when I turned to Christian Science. In it I found God, Christ, and man made in His likeness, and in our Leader's writings I found my ideal of a spiritually minded teacher realized.
When about fourteen I was taken ill with kidney trouble in a very serious form, being much swollen with dropsy, and my life seemed at stake. I recovered from this attack but was left with chronic heart weakness. Then came fourteen years of continual medical treatment, other ailments having developed, such as spells of rheumatic fever, diphtheria, and a chronic bowel trouble, diagnosed by physicians and surgeons as mucous colitis. These were said to aggravate the heart trouble, so that for weeks I was unable to lie down and I suffered terribly. Ten surgeons and physicians were consulted, all agreeing that on account of the heart condition it would be impossible to operate. Most tenderly I was told by a consulting physician that they were simply working in the dark and had no cure for my trouble, that all they could do was to use alleviating measures. Finally I was in such distress and pain that my doctor said they would operate rather than have me continue in such agony. I consented gladly to this, thinking that death would bring surcease of pain, for it was not expected that I would pull through.
The surgeon who was to operate was off on a holiday and we were awaiting his return, when Christian Science intervened. I postponed the operation and turned to God, Truth, Life, Love, as revealed through the inspired writings of Mrs. Eddy, and was healed. Treatment was continued for three weeks. The bowel condition was overcome at the very first, and as for the heart trouble, I am strong and active, able to take long walks and climb steep hills without any bad results. Bronchitis, rheumatism, and impaired eyesight have all yielded to the truth.
