The privilege of investigating Christian Science was first presented to me during the winter of 1889 and 1890. I was a student at the New York College of Pharmacy, energetic in the study of and fascinated by the science of chemistry. In my boyhood I had been blessed with the tender solicitude of a mother's love, insistent in its demand of daily study of the Scriptures in her earnest striving to promote spiritual culture in her children after the model of a Protestant creed. Fear of God had been instilled. My concept of Christianity and of science in 1889 promptly made me resent the implication conveyed by the words "Christian Science" on a card which I saw in a window one evening.
Some fifteen years ago my health failed. Every available material means was resorted to for relief, but all proved fruitless. Materia medica, hygienic practices, diet, new-thought, travel, and climate, each was invoked. After a fruitless quest of three years, I lay shivering on the tropical sands of Waikiki beach, Honolulu. There I was considerately warned by kindly disposed "old timers," "Under no circumstances bathe here in your condition." I was emphatically told, "To persist will prove disastrous," and so on. My wife had been informed by our medical adviser, a specialist, that a sea voyage and tropical climate offered a slight and only hope; but that she should prepare to return alone.
I wandered to my quarters to select a book from a variety of fiction, philosophies, and therapeutics we had brought, which were in the bottom of an unpacked trunk. As I lifted the cover, on top, with front cover up, lay a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, purchased two years previously but discarded as illogical and inconsistent with the "scientific facts" of chemistry. Nevertheless, my wife, not then a student of Christian science, had placed it in the trunk on our departure from the continent. The seal imprint on the front cover caught my eye. I picked up the book and read, "Heal the sick, raise the dead," and reflected, If there is anything in this, God knows I need it now. I searched no further, but returned with it to the beach immediately.
