Before I took up the study of Christian Science the Bible was to me an incomprehensible book. I had begun to read it at different times, but had soon put it away again. I could not believe that Jesus had healed disease and overcome death. All attempts made by my friends to convince me were in vain, and, finally, since I did not understand the Bible and had found a great deal of hypocrisy among so-called religious people, I did not want to hear anything more about religion. As I took no pleasure in life, I sought in books by various philosophers an interpretation of life which would explain its reason and purpose, but nowhere did I find what I was seeking.
I had been ill since I was eleven years old. Medical treatment had been given, but in spite of the fact that I faithfully followed all the doctors recommended, my condition grew worse every year. I suffered from rheumatism and neuralgia. I was unable to sleep at night on account of incessant pain, and it often happened that, in spite of the use of strong opiates, I could not sleep for five days and nights at a time. In the course of years I suffered from acute bowel and pharyngeal catarrh, an eye complaint, skin eruption, abdominal complaint, and chilblains. When, after doctoring for twelve years, I had given up all hope of ever being well again, I heard of Christian Science.
At first I did not wish to listen, but suddenly I decided to go to Berlin to ask the friend who had called my attention to it what Christian Science is. When I learned that healings were being accomplished to-day in the same manner as Jesus had healed, I began to believe that the records of healing in the Bible were founded on Truth. I immediately bought the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, but as it was written in what I thought was a religious manner, I put it away with the thought, This is not for me. But very soon I took it up again, and when I had read the chapter on Prayer such a sense of peace came over me that I went to sleep for the first time in years without opiates. When, on the next day, a loving practitioner explained Christian Science to me, I knew that at last I had found the interpretation of life I had been seeking. My healing did not take place quickly, for sometimes I clung very tenaciously to old beliefs; however, by working earnestly I gradually learned to cherish and understand the Bible, and through the spiritual understanding acquired by studying it I gained health and took pleasure in life again.
