When I became interested in Christian Science I was most miserable, filled with fear, a nervous wreck, and in bondage to chronic bronchitis resulting from pneumonia at childbirth, and pronounced incurable. Every winter for sixteen years, until May, when the weather became warm and settled, was a nightmare. I had chills, fever, and night sweats, and coughed night and day. Specialists informed me that I could have this difficulty as long as I lived, and that it was no use giving me medicine since there was nothing that would even relieve me. I also tried change of climate without benefit.
After taking up the study of Christian Science we had many wonderful demonstrations in the family, but I was filled with great fear of the bronchitis. Finally, I had treatment from a practitioner; but without result, due, as I now know, to my resistance to the truth. Then I tried another practitioner, who, after a few treatments, said: "I have done all I can. It is for you to do some work yourself." So I drifted, until one raw damp night in the early spring I went to a Christian Science lecture. We were early and the usher took us well to the front of the church. No sooner was I seated than I was seized with a paroxysm of coughing, and I hastened down to the foyer. Feeling an explanation to be in order, I said to the usher at the foot of the stairs, "I am afraid I shall cough during the lecture and disturb the audience." She looked lovingly at me as she answered: "You know it is right for you to hear the lecture, do you not? Why not go up the rear stairs if you do not wish to sit in front, and if you should wish to leave, you can do so without disturbing anyone; but I am sure it will not be necessary." I did as she suggested, thinking of what she had said, and not noticing that the usher had seated me well towards the center of the auditorium. My mental soliloquy was something like this: Why is it I cannot be healed of this when I have had so many wonderful demonstrations? Then the "still small voice" penetrated my consciousness: Because you give it so much reality, when, in fact, one belief is no more real than another. I was at that instant freed from bondage. My resistance to the truth had been removed, and with it the extreme fear incidental to it. This healing took place over ten years ago. I have since become a member of The Mother Church and of a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and have had the privilege of class instruction.
When I took up the study of Christian Science, I wondered how I could "follow and rejoice" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 398; Poems, p. 14) or be "glad for every scalding tear" (ibid., pp. 389; 4); but I am grateful for every experience I have had, and they have been many and varied. They were requisite for growth; without them I should have drifted "upon the quiet surface of error" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 254), following the line of least resistance without making any progress. River Forest, Illinois.
