I thank our dear Father-Mother God from the bottom of my heart that He led me to Christian Science, and that I found true the words, "When the need is greatest, God's help is nearest." Our parents brought us up in a pious way and taught us of the power and goodness of God. We were also trained to go to church and to pray. But in spite of all our prayers, there was a great deal of sickness at our house, and my parents passed on early; so that after the death of my mother, who had always trusted God, I quite lost heart and could no longer pray.
Then, following great sorrows and afflictions, in April, 1927, I suddenly had to take to my bed. The physician who was summoned diagnosed the illness as hemorrhage of the lungs. In my despair I remembered Christian Science, of which a dear friend had told me much that was good. Through my wife I sent for help, which was immediately given me. I learned even in the first interview with the practitioner how fundamentally wrong our earlier concept of prayer had been, because we had always looked upon God as the author of both good and evil and had never trusted Him unreservedly. When, among other things, it was told me that God made man after His own image and likeness, consequently perfect, and that there was no room for imperfection in divine perfection, it became clear to me that, since that was the case, no flux of blood could take place. Full of hope, I immediately bought for myself the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and tried as earnestly as I could to understand the truth contained in it. The struggle with error was very hard and lasted many months.
During this time I was unselfishly helped by two practitioners, the one following the other, one of them standing by me day and night at the worst time. Her understanding of Truth brought me out of "the shadow of the death-valley" (Science and Health, p. 108). But error tried again and again to fetter me anew, and much patient work had to be done before at length things improved and I was finally allowed by the doctor to enter a sanitarium. As a commercial employee, in accordance with government insurance regulations I was obliged from time to time to undergo a medical examination, and it was on the strength of this examination, since I was free from fever, that I was sent to a rest home where I was not required to take drugs, but could just lie under the trees in the midst of nature's loveliness. From that time on my purpose in life was to study the textbook, to watch and pray, and to thank God that I had learned to pray aright. And it was wonderfully proved to me that an earnest, God-sent prayer never remains unanswered. Supported by the help of a Breslau practitioner and her helpful letters, which always spurred me on to bear up in the struggle against error, I slowly won full restoration to health.
