For many years, like Saul of Tarsus, I verily thought I was doing God's service, to the fullest extent, while engaged in the work of the Christian ministry. Born on a foreign mission field, where godly parents had been sent to establish a mission station for a so-called orthodox church, my earliest recollections are of being taught reverence for God and trust in Him. Later, as I grew older, a sincere desire to be of service to mankind manifested itself in many forms of activity. I knew we did not know how to pray as Jesus and the early Christians did, since our most earnest and heartfelt prayers seemed unanswered.
But how to pray, to prove God's ever present help for me and mine and the whole world, was the tormenting thought that never left me. At this juncture in my experience I was led to one who, through the correct understanding of God as taught in Christian Science, showed me the true sense of the fatherhood of God.
Through a truly remarkable demonstration of God's power to bring one out of a seemingly disastrous human experience—a blessing wholly unlooked for—my thought was arrested, and I was glad to acknowledge this astonishing help, without understanding how it could be. I was still preaching and working as pastor of a church, but I began to throw aside prejudice, pride of place in church circles, arrogance, and self-righteousness because of so-called Biblical knowledge, and bigotry of sect, enough to begin the reading and earnest study of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy.
