In the fall of 1914 I was stricken with what the doctors called heart trouble. After doctoring a while and getting worse, I tried to use Christian Science and medicine together; but this failed to do any good. I kept this up until I was too weak to feed myself and the doctor gave me but a short time to live. Then I decided to quit medicine and give Christian Science a fair trial. Two weeks after deciding to use Christian Science only, I was up and around. My complete healing, however, was slow. I am glad of that, for it compelled me to study earnestly and strive hard to practice what I had learned.
I am grateful for the healing of discouragement. One day I was feeling discouraged because of my slow progress. I told the practitioner I had been studying Christian Science for six months, but did not know any more about it now than the day I began, and I did not believe I could ever learn. She answered: "Do you know what discouragement stands for? It stands for faith in evil." I saw I had been giving magnified power to evil, thus worshiping it. When I learned the truth about my heart, all fear vanished and I was healed. In the examination for the first draft of 1917, my heart was pronounced normal.
Christian Science was a great help to me while training in camps in the United States. During the winter of 1917-18 my feet were wet nearly every day. Some days I waded to school through snow and water knee deep, and sat for half a day, wet above the knees, in a room so cold that the water in the fire buckets was frozen solid. During eighteen months in the army I never lost a day because of illness, and my name was never written on the sick report. On our return from overseas the sea was very rough and we faced one storm after another. I was quickly healed of a slight attack of seasickness, and was one of the few soldiers able to work every day.
