My testimony to the blessing of Christian Science differs, I fancy, from some I have read, inasmuch as it was not for its healing power I was attracted to it, nor have I wonderful accounts of physical healing to recount. Being that uncommon thing in this age, a healthy woman, I had become indifferent to religion of any sort. My old religious beliefs having been relegated to tales that are told, I knew not what to believe, and gave up reading the Bible and saying my prayers.
When traveling in England in 1911, and while at a hotel in London, my sister met a quiet, calm woman with a gentle face, to whom she was attracted by a remark of hers at table. My sister lingered to talk with the lady and when she joined me in our room she seemed interested and excited, and said: "That woman is a Christian Scientist. She has asked us to go to church with her tomorrow. Will you come?" I said, "Yes, I have not come over the seas to refuse to learn all I can of the world's movements." Merely to see or hear something unknown I accompanied them to church, never again to enter quite willingly one of any other denomination. The peace and simplicity of the service was soothing; those she introduced gave us a loving welcome and seemed so happy and interested in our being there, I from South Africa and my sister from Australia.
My first experience in a testimony meeting was somewhat of a shock, especially on hearing women speak in church. While moving about, we went to Harrogate to spend a week, but remained three months, all the time that was left of our European visit. We wished to stay among the Christian Scientists there, to whom we can never fully express our gratitude for their kindness and sweet friendship to us.
