I am glad of this opportunity to express my thankfulness to God for Christian Science. By the time I was twenty-three, having experienced much of the seamy side of life, ill health, and lack of funds, I was dejected, and my nerves were in a wretched state. A friend had tried to interest us in Christian Science, but it made no impression on me. My mother, however, realizing our great need, looked into the subject, attended testimony meetings, and became interested; but her efforts to interest my sister and me were unsuccessful.
Just at this time I was suffering great pain from a poisoned face (the result of a dental operation), and was unable to get any sleep for two nights, even with the aid of a sleeping draught administered by a doctor. The second night, when it became apparent that the draught was taking no effect, my mother picked up the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, which had been lent to us, and read aloud to me; and in a short while I fell asleep. We were in sore straits financially at this time, unable to meet the rent or other needs.
Just here I commenced to learn that "thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee," as Mrs. Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (pp. 149, 150), and I volunteered to accompany my mother one Sunday to the Christian Science church she had been attending. That service was all-sufficient. From that day I have attended no services but in Christian Science churches. The words of Truth from the Explanatory Note in the Christian Science Quarterly, "unfettered by human hypotheses" brought a flood of light into my consciousness. I came away with such wonderful messages of hope! "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. . . . Beloved, now are we the sons of God." With these messages chanting in my heart, I began to check my thinking; and within a couple of months I found myself free from constant headaches, general weakness, and the fears that had hampered me in my career and rendered life a misery. Through learning that believing in God precludes the possibility of believing in evil we were also able to leave most inharmonious surroundings and move into a better home.
