It is impossible for me to express in words my gratitude for Christian Science, through the study of which I am learning the truth about God and about man as His perfect reflection. In 1917, while teaching in the Cleveland, Ohio, public schools, after five months' treatment by a physician I was told that I must spend the remainder of my days in California or Arizona because of what he diagnosed as tuberculosis. I sought Christian Science for the loaves and fishes, not for a religion, as I was perfectly satisfied with the teachings of the Episcopal church, of which I was then a member.
I was given the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and told that all I needed to do was to read it. Practitioners were not mentioned. I read it every spare moment, attended the church services, became so wrapped up in what it revealed that I forgot all about my body, and was healed. I felt like a child who, after solving a seemingly difficult problem in mathematics, imagines that he can surmount all problems. I continued to attend the services and to read Science and Health, but did not rely upon God at all times. I was enjoying ease in matter when an apparently unsurmountable test arose. I sought help from practitioners, but the demonstration was delayed, and through family influence I turned to materia medica and heard seven physicians pronounce the verdict: Nephritis or Bright's disease. Knowing that doctors considered it incurable, I was back in the middle of the sea of doubt again.
Like the pendulum of a clock I swung from medical doctors to Christian Science practitioners, and from Christian Science practitioners back to medical doctors; but even while under medical treatment I still clung to Science and Health and read it twelve hours out of every twentyfour. One year passed, and I was seemingly much worse than when the year began. Physicians were looking for the cause, and as a last resort to find it I consented to an exploratory incision or operation. Both diagnostician and surgeon were very fearful of the operation because of the condition of my heart. Lying on my bed the night before the operation, and fearing that I might never regain consciousness, I turned to God with a childlike faith. Then the thought came to me so clearly that man is the reflection of God, and that no matter what they did to me the next day I would still be the perfect reflection of God, for nothing can change spiritual reflection. I knew that death would not help me in the least; that if I passed on I would still have to work out my salvation. With the clear realization of the allness of God came a great calmness. Physicians marveled at my recovery from the effects of the operation without even a temperature. On leaving the hospital I was told that if the cause had been removed, the kidneys would be normal in two months. Six months passed, and I still had nephritis. On hearing a solo, entitled, "Leave it with Him," sung in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I was so touched that I then and there decided that regardless of what happened I would leave all with God. I had been told that I could never eat salt again; but I went out from that church that morning and ate everything I liked, including salt, and have continued to do so ever since. This absolute reliance on God and the clear realization I had gained of man as the reflection of God healed me. I have had physical examinations since in order to swim in Young Women's Christian Association pools, and passed as perfect.
