May the sufferer who reads the story of my healing look up with new hope, for the same light and health and joy which came to me from the outstretched arms of Christian Science await him.
From a child I was constantly under medical treatment. With my father I went from one physician to another, as we both suffered intensely from the same form of stomach trouble. Homeopathic and allopathic treatment, with their medicines, diets, exercises, and changes of climate, were tried without avail. An accident when a small girl was believed to be the cause of headaches so severe that I would lie for hours at a time in a state of semiconsciousness.
Through suffering I learned that the pleasures of earth are but bubbles that burst and are gone at touch; that in ministry for humanity alone is joy. Longing and searching for this mission I went each day that I was physically able to hospitals, where the poor who were considered incurable were confined. There I tried to comfort and uplift; but spiritually blind and physically bound as I was, what had I to give? I sank under the weight of sympathy, and nervous prostration followed. Night after night my head lay on a pillow wet by tears of yearning. The one cry of my heart was to know God, and to find my mission. The night was thick with gloom; but, although I knew it not, the sunrise hour was just at hand.
