"Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." This statement on page 494 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, has been proved true in my case. As a child I was requested to read aloud from the Bible every day for half an hour or more. This gave me a great reverence for the Book, but it did not give me an understanding of it. Much discussion and many arguments about creeds and the meaning of Bible texts were common, because two brothers were studying for the ministry. The lack of agreement and definite demonstrable knowledge made me turn away from religion and God as chaotic and unknowable. I spent much time and money in travel and the pursuit of material knowledge.
These studies did not help me, however, at a time when a personal problem distressed me to such an extent that insomnia and consequent nervous conditions made me physically and mentally unfit for work. I had not slept for weeks, and my eyes were in such a bad condition that the nerves around them twitched constantly. One eye I could scarcely use ; the other was becoming weak through strain. The oculist said he could not give me stronger glasses. When the best medical help was sought, I was told to stop teaching, refrain from all reading, and go to the western mountains for an indefinite time. Since I had lived in the West some years before, I knew by the experience of others that climate could not heal.
False theology, scholasticism, and medicine had all failed me, and I was in great mental distress. It was then that a sincere desire to know God (as I thought I was going to die soon) brought Christian Science to me. I had not even heard the words before. A friend took me to a practitioner, and I was healed of all my ills. This was ten years ago. Insomnia has never troubled me since; constipation, with which I had been troubled since birth, never having had a normal bowel movement, was destroyed; the twitching of the nerves about my eyes stopped, my eyes were completely healed, and I have never had to wear glasses since. This last healing was especially wonderful to me, because I had read constantly every spare moment, day or night, in Science and Health. I had disregarded all medical laws, and thereby found that matter could neither give nor take away life, for God is Life.
