Some years ago I was in a state of great discouragement over my health and had almost settled down to accept suffering as inevitable, having tried an endless succession of material remedies and various treatments without getting any relief. As a last resort, I was advised by the doctor to try six weeks of complete rest without putting my feet to the ground; and I was told that if the trouble still continued the only other hope was a surgical operation, which might or might not benefit me. Acting on the doctor's advice, I spent six weeks on my back with my feet raised, but without any good result; in fact, the condition seemed, if anything, worse when I began to move about again. As I had also been warned against any great exertion, it seemed that the rest of my days must be spent in taking care of my health. This was to me a most depressing outlook, the more so as there was a prospect before me of two years' travel abroad, and I wished to feel fit and able to enjoy all that this meant; but I was afraid my strength would fail. I was rarely free from a sense of bodily fatigue.
However, in what seemed to be a dark hour, I was reminded of a healing through Christian Science which had taken place in the family of a friend, and which had greatly impressed my family because the case had been given up as hopeless by the doctors. This healing had been brought about by absent treatment. I visited this friend, learned from her what steps to take, and wrote immediately to a Christian Science practitioner for treatment. In return I received letters full of encouragement, but at the time I little realized the practical nature of the truth contained in them. I only knew that some fresh hope had opened up for me, and some of my discouragement disappeared. In three weeks I rejoined the friend with whom I was to travel, and found that plans had been made for a visit to the mountains, including a long day's outing to some famous caves, an excursion which entailed much walking and climbing. On that day I was able to keep up with the rest of the party without the least sense of effort or fatigue. It was only on reaching the hotel at the end of the day that I realized I was free from the old trouble. All sense of heaviness and weariness had gone, and I was conscious of a new sense of health and strength which has never left me from that time.
Sometime later, as the result of several visits to the practitioner who had so lovingly helped me, I began the study of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and it became clear to me that my healing had resulted from the operation of spiritual law, which, when understood and applied, is a perfect and unfailing reedy for every ill. I had received undoubted proof that a surgical operation is unnecessary when God's law of perfect adjustment is understood and trustingly relied upon. Such scientific proof is referred to on page 123 of Science and Health, where it is stated "that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle." That this "ever-operative divine Principle" is Love became to me a demonstrable fact, for it met my human need. Since this healing, which took place over eleven years ago and has been permanent, many so-called physical ailments have disappeared without any special effort, simply through a further study of Christian Science.
