When Christian Science was first brought to my attention, I was nursing in a sanitarium in Oklahoma, U.S.A., and very much opposed to my concept of this teaching. While temporarily absent from my duties, on a visit to friends, I was taken very ill with neuralgia of the heart, and it was only through a sense of courtesy that I allowed one of my friends, a Christian Scientist, to treat me. The intense suffering, which had lasted several days, left almost immediately, and I soon learned that at the same time I had been healed of what several prominent physicians had pronounced an organic heart trouble for which materia medica had no help.
One of the most beautiful proofs I have ever had of the efficacy of Christian Science came when we were making an overland journey, with oxen, from Edmonton to Grand Prairie, a distance of more than six hundred miles. The feed for our oxen gave out after three days' travel from a stopping place, and even my light weight seemed an added burden to the faithful creatures, so after making the children comfortable I walked on ahead. Although all during our long weeks of travel our needs had been most beautifully supplied, yet I had let fear creep into my thought, through listening to many stories of the hardships experienced by settlers going over that trail, and I commenced to worry about procuring provender for our cattle and the possibility of the ice giving out before we could reach the river. While dwelling on those thoughts I noticed a dim trail leading from the main one, and thinking that perhaps it led to where a haystack had been I followed in the hope of finding something that the cattle could eat. After some time I came to where a stack had been removed long before, and was looking about with a discouraged feeling when I became conscious that I was thoroughly chilled and the sun was nearly down. I therefore walked rapidly away, not noticing that I was following a dimmer trail and after some time I had no idea from which direction I had come or in which direction to go.
I was very tired and shivering with the cold, and the fearful thought came to me that the only thing I could do was to sit down and await the end. Following this, however, the thought of leaving my two little children motherless, in such a place, flashed over me, and then the remembrance of Christian Science came to me, and I began to declare the truth, and in a moment heard bells ringing, clear and beautiful as chimes. At first I thought that was what they were. Again and yet again they rang, and with the realization of God's protecting care I turned and ran as fast as the down timber would allow in the direction whence the sound had come. After a time I came to a trail, which eventually led me into the public trail, where I found my husband. He had walked ahead to find a place where we could camp for the night and had not thought of the possibility of my leaving the trail. Ever since that time I have realized more clearly than before that, as Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494), when we are willing to be guided by Truth. Later I spent weary months when there did not seem to be a ray of light ahead and I could only cling to that beautiful promise, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." But since awaking to the fact that self-pity, resentment, and lack of love were keeping me out of the kingdom, I have proved that "all things work together for good to them that love God."
