About twenty years ago the seed of Christian Science was first planted in our home. Two years after my marriage in 1903 our struggles with sickness began, and for ten years I actually dreaded the spring of the year—it seemed so sure to bring sorrow. I had never had any religious training, but had always attended Sunday school up to the time of my marriage, though the teaching made no impression upon my daily thought or life. In the spring of 1908 when our little daughter passed on, and it was said to me, "God knows what is best," I replied that I did not want to know God if He sent such sorrow. During all these years I was very bitter in my denunciations of Christian Science, although knowing nothing about it from personal study but reflecting what I had heard my father and others say. In 1910, after eighteen weeks of sickness in the home, during which both children were ill and my father passed on, the seed planted many years before began to take root, and I turned to Christian Science. I had between two and three weeks' treatment, and though for four years I said no good came from it, I know now how well the ground was prepared.
During the holidays of 1914-15, being completely worn out and with nerves broken down, two severe attacks of bronchitis resulted in an incipient case of tubercular disease, for which, because of the belief in heredity, we had always been on the watch. A competent housekeeper was engaged, and I began the rest cure, which included the latest medical methods of treating this disease. The cough was stopped by very strong medicine, but after three months of hypodermics and tonics the exhaustion common to this ailment was still there. It was impossible for me to attend to the smallest duties in the home without these stimulants. The first of July found me completely disgusted with medicine, with but one ambition, and that was to understand God. Then I was ready for healing, and at the recommendation of a friend I went to a Christian Science practitioner's office. In fifteen minutes I was completely healed, and never can I forget the wonderful sense of strength and exhilaration which resulted from that healing. I did all the housework except the washing for my family of four all summer and scarcely realized it, I was so absorbed in reading Christian Science literature.
From that time on Christian Science has brought the solution of every problem for my three children and myself. In these three years scarlet fever, severe colds, bronchitis, bilious attacks, severe sick headaches, neuralgia, and many forms of so-called diseases prevalent in the winter have been overcome, some instantaneously, others requiring a day or two; but each experience was a positive proof to me that when the divine Principle and rule of Christian Science is understood enough to be applied correctly, it never fails to heal.
