I sometimes wonder which of the many blessings I have received since gaining some knowledge of Christian Science, during the last ten or twelve years, I am most grateful for. Perhaps it is for the healing of very severe headaches that began to torture me early in life, being among the earliest recollections of my childhood. I have heard people complain of headaches that they thought were hard to bear; but those I endured were simply crushing in their intensity and terrible in their effects, and often incapacitated me for days at a time, leaving me almost without strength, and there always had to be a season of recuperation before I could resume my household duties. I know not how nor when they went; but as the light of truth dawned in my thought the darkness of error and superstition went out. Friends who are unbelievers in this glorious Science say, "You outgrew the headaches and think you were healed through Christian Science," which is a very weak argument, to say the least, when we consider that they grew more and more severe and frequent as the years passed by, until Christian Science found and healed me.
In conversing with a gentleman from the South one time he told me of the hoodoos in which the superstitious negroes believe and of the strange and ludicrous things they would do to propitiate one of them that they believed was trying to get them, or had them, in its grasp. I can see now that believing in those headaches and their supposed cause was no more sensible than was the ignorant belief in hoodoos and the suffering and bad luck they were supposed to bring.
I believed that if I worked five minutes longer than the time set as my limit of endurance I had to suffer for it. If on a warm and sunshiny day I carelessly or unconsciously placed myself in a position where a refreshing breeze blew across my brow the consequent suffering was inevitable. And what did I not do to appease the monster? I swallowed quarts of bitter, nauseating liquids. I applied poultices to my temples until the skin was burned and blistered. I had my teeth extracted, my eyes examined and covered with glasses when my sight was all right. I was advised many times to cut off my hair, and one old gentleman begged me to take up smoking, saying he had suffered martyrdom from headaches for many years and only this concession had saved him. At this something within me rebelled, and I refused to sacrifice either my hair or my self-respect. Thanks to Mrs. Eddy I now see the tyrant for what it is, and it no longer has power to make me suffer. I am unspeakably grateful that Christian Science has come into my life and for all the blessings that came with it.— Palo Alto, California.
