Christian Science was presented to me about fifteen years ago, when I seemed to be standing in "the valley of the shadow" with all faith in materia medica gone. I had been a semi-invalid all my life, having had many diseases, so that I grew to have much more belief in sickness than in health. As I grew to womanhood the constant sick belief culminated in a so called incurable stomach trouble, which made life an almost unbearable burden to me. I cannot say, as so many do, that I took up the study of Christian Science from a desire to learn more about God, for God and religion meant nothing to me; but I consented to try it as a last resort, and entirely for the healing it promised. Neither did I have any faith in it, for I knew nothing of its teachings; all I had ever heard about it had been given out in a spirit of derision and contempt.
The healing of the stomach trouble through the loving help of a practitioner came very quickly, and, best of all, with it came a spiritual awakening. I mentally devoured the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I read nothing but the Christian Science literature for over a year, and gained much of the letter of Science, but so little of the spirit that I seemed to have to go through the hardest experience of my life, in an attack of nervous prostration and a darkened state of thought when I seemed to have lost God, good, and all joy, and was living in a veritable hell. The healing of this condition was not a quick one, like the first healing, but was a very slow process of thought purification. I found I had to cast out self-condemnation and lack of tolerance for my fellow man; and to the extent that I succeeded in this, my healing came. There is much to be done in striving to reflect more love and to know myself as the child of God, but I am grateful for the degree of progress made. This healing stands out as the greatest of all that I have had in Christian Science, for it made a more patient woman of me and gave me a better understanding of and more trust in God.
Not only have I been blessed in every way by Christian Science, but all my family also. Prior to taking up Christian Science, my mother developed a fibroid tumor which was removed by surgery. The growth returned shortly after, but due to her weakened vitality and other difficulties, a second operation was considered impossible and there seemed nothing more to do but to make her as comfortable as possible for the brief period of earthly life apparently remaining to her. At this stage Christian Science was brought to her attention and accepted. With the loving help of a practitioner, the tumor entirely disappeared in a few months, and she has never had a return of this trouble. My father was healed in Christian Science of valvular heart trouble from which he had suffered for years. I appreciate not only the physical deliverance but also the protection it has afforded. Our son has been protected from practically all of the children's diseases, and has not lost in his eleven years of school life more than three or four days due to sickness. I am thankful for this wonderful truth given to us by our revered and loved Leader, Mrs. Eddy; but the greatest of all the blessings is that an understanding of God has come into my life, giving me a reason for existence, and something for which to work and strive and pray.— Washington, District of Columbia.
