Before taking up the study of Christian Science I was in most unhappy surroundings, and harmony was seldom present. I sought relief in material gayety, but found how ineffectual that was, for the reaction seemed to exaggerate the prevailing discord to an almost unbearable extent. My next step was to interest myself deeply in one of the well-known forms of religion. I certainly found the services soothing, and while in the buildings I was comforted; but that remedy also had the natural result of reaction, for I discovered very soon that my seeming relief was merely emotional ecstasy, which soon evaporated.
Just at this time when my life seemed incomprehensibly unhappy, a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy was handed to me with the request that I read it. I scanned various chapters that night and during the following day. I then returned the book with a polite word of thanks, saying I had imbibed sufficient of the text to appreciate it. The friend who had lent me the copy of Science and Health was then a young student of Christian Science, and together we went to a gentle, loving practitioner, who told me something of the fatherhood of God, whose love was "underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being" (Science and Health, p. 496), and I asked her to give me some help to destroy my seeming unhappiness. During that time I realized clearly that one's outward material conditions are caused by one's own thoughts. Many faults of character, chiefly gross intolerance and destructive criticism, were largely substituted by merciful thinking. Within a short period I was lifted out of my surroundings into a state of wonderful happiness and freedom, learning thereby that home is a state of consciousness and "is the dearest spot on earth" (ibid., p. 58), and that "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul" (ibid., p. 60).
During our married life my husband and I have repeatedly been shown the omnipotence of Love in physical, moral, and financial conditions. With the help of a practitioner I was healed in three days of a bad attack of appendicitis. As I was then staying with a non-Scientist, we had to allow two doctors to be called, and as soon as I was in a fit condition they proposed to perform an operation. Instead of taking the various medicines or obeying the strict diet prescribed, I ate whatever food appealed to me, and on the third day was out of bed, going with my husband to the doctor to tell him I was quite well. During the hours of intense pain the practitioner's work was so faithfully done that my thought seemed to be detached from the body, and ultimately I could look down on the mortal pain fearlessly, disowning allegiance to an illusion.
