I had heard of Christian Science when I lived in New York city, but thought it was a queer religion for queer people. Later, while homesteading on the California desert sixty-five miles from a railroad, I prayed to God for help, as I was seemingly passing through deep waters. In answer to that prayer "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy was sent to me. The first passage in the Preface to that book caught and held my attention, and for months the book was scarcely out of my sight. I propped it up before me when I washed, put it on one end of my ironing board, on the warming oven of my stove, and so on, where I could read a line or two and ponder them while I worked; for I was indeed hungering and thirsting for righteousness; and in Science and Health I was finding that righteousness or rightness of thoughts, for I saw myself clearly as a child of God, whose birthright was only good.
Paul has said, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind;" and in those first few weeks my body was indeed transformed, and I laid aside glasses which I had worn for over twenty years for a very bad case of astigmatism. I was healed of a disease that deadens the nerves of the arms, which for years had caused me much' suffering and inconvenience, and for which a specialist had said there was no known cure. Chronic appendicitis, bowel and stomach trouble, headaches, severe colds, varicose veins, and many other ills faded into nothingness as the light of Truth dawned on my consciousness.
Since taking up this study, in over thirteen years I have attended to all my duties daily, with the exception of one day, when through the unguarded thought of self-pity I let a severe case of influenza take hold. I fought it out though the senses said I was very miserable until the next morning, when I arose strong and free. The knowledge of God's protecting power was a great help to me in bringing up my son, for we both decided when I took up the study to place complete reliance on God.
