I should like to express my deep gratitude and joy for the great privilege of having had Christian Science brought to me, and to give thanks for the friend who brought it, and for all the loving patience she expressed under very trying circumstances in the way of great opposition in my home to anything that should take me away from the Church of England, to which we belonged. I did not come into Christian Science for the healing of sickness; but I came because I saw in it what I had been looking and longing for, what was called in the church I then went to "the second coming of Christ." I had read all I could on this subject, and had become convinced it would not be as the churches expected, or as they wrote and spoke on the subject.
I experienced my first healing of a bad attack of throat trouble just a few months after I had obtained the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I had been subject to these attacks, which, before I knew of Christian Science, had often caused me great fear, as the throat would very suddenly get so inflamed as to be almost closed, and I could not swallow. I was generally confined to my bed for nearly a week, and felt very weak and wretched for some time afterwards. On this occasion I was reading Science and Health, while waiting for my father to be ready for me to read the newspaper to him, when I suddenly felt one of these attacks coming on. I was very much afraid that I should not be able to hide it, and that materia medica would be insisted on. I managed, however, to read the paper without any change in my voice being noticed. It was about ten o'clock in the morning when the attack began, and by eleven o'clock half the throat was closed. I wanted to go to my friend and ask for help, but something seemed to urge me to try to do my own mental work. By twelve o'clock the symptoms of fever began to come on, and it was then that almost in despair I called out, "God alone is my Father;" and as that thought came to me I knew I was healed. Knowing that I was healed, I thought all traces of inflammation must have gone; but looking in the mirror I was disappointed to find my throat looked just the same. It did not feel the same, however. At one o'clock I was very hungry and able to eat a big lunch; and by four o'clock all the inflammation had gone.
I should like to tell also of an experience I had lately, while returning one Sunday from church and thinking over the beautiful Lesson-Sermon for that week, which was on the subject "Christian Science." I had to cross over the river to get to my home. As I neared the bridge, I noticed people assembling at the corner, and looking down into the water I heard great barkings coming from below. On reaching the bridge and looking over, I saw a dog struggling in the water and trying to climb the straight high wall of the embankment, an impossible feat. He was so plainly asking for assistance; and material help of any kind seeming quite out of the question, I began to work in Science, and to know that God, divine Mind, upholds all His ideas. As I worked, knowing that divine Love was guiding him, the dog left off calling for help and trying to climb the wall, and started to swim out to a little patch of sand a long way off, where he would not have been much better off, as the tide was coming in fast and would soon cover up the sand. He had got about half way when he suddenly changed his course and started swimming across the river, making for the opposite bank. For a moment I was disappointed, and thought just what the crowd now voiced, that he could never reach the other side; and the dog seemed then to hesitate as though he would shun the gigantic task before him. I immediately cast out these suggestions, seeing it was outlining, and just knew that divine Love was guiding and sustaining him. Then he resumed the seemingly impossible task of swimming across the river, regardless of the opposing currents of the outflowing river and the incoming tide. He did not hesitate again, and had not gone far before there suddenly appeared a rowboat, manned by a sailor from a guard-ship, anchored off the opposite bank. Those on board must have seen the people looking down at the water and sent a boat to see what had happened. The sailor reached the little dog and rescued him. The children cheered; but their elders seemed awed by what they had seen, and dispersed quietly. It had indeed seemed a battle between Truth and error.
