Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 265), "The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love." This aspiration, coupled with a sense of complete loss to understand the reason for mortal existence, depicts the state of mind in which Christian Science found me nineteen years ago.
I was physically at death's door. A specialist had pronounced me incurable, suffering from rapid consumption of the lungs. He said that I could not live many weeks, and had refused me admittance into a sanitarium which he attended, because of the hopelessness of my condition. Very shortly afterwards, for the first time and in what seemed an extraordinary way, I heard of Christian Science through a friend whom I had neither seen nor heard of for a number of years. Hearing of my condition she visited me, bringing with her a copy of Science and Health; and her simple explanations of its teachings, confirming the promises of the Bible, renewed lost hope and satisfied the longing for a way to a higher sense of life. I was there and then convinced of the truth of Christian Science and of the fact that it reveals the method employed by our Master, Christ Jesus, in his healing ministry when on earth.
For six months I constantly read and studied the textbook together with the Bible; and understanding came gradually, accompanied by wonderful glimpses of spiritual reality. At the end of that time the family doctor, who had ceased attending me, begged permission to see and examine me. He was so much impressed by what he found that he suggested that the specialist (who had said I could not live) should again see me; and, accordingly, an interview with him was arranged for a fortnight later. His examination was very long and searching, and at the end of it he pronounced me well, remarking that when first I went to him I had had "one foot in the grave," and that I had "practically made a resurrection." During the war the medical tests I underwent proved my lungs to be completely restored, and it is of interest to note that my medical history sheet, which I afterwards saw, contained the following statement and query: "Says he has had consumption! (?)—No physical signs!" Through these nineteen years since the healing there has never been any suggestion of a return of the trouble, and I have enjoyed perfect health.
