I was led to Christian Science while passing through deep waters— sorrow, anxiety, and sickness, and the loss of everything that then seemed to make life worth while. There was also a great fear of the future. These conditions held me in bondage until one day a friend and neighbor who was a Christian Scientist lent my husband the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The study of this book altered my whole outlook on life, and God became to me a God at hand. It taught me how to understand God, and how to avail myself of His laws, which, when rightly understood and faithfully applied, meet our every need.
Christ Jesus once said, "If ye continue in my word, ... ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Through the constant study of the Bible and Science and Health I learned that Christian Science is the truth that Jesus lived and demonstrated, and that a spiritual understanding of this truth can free humanity from every ill "that flesh is heir to."
One of the first blessings was the healing of chronic constipation for myself and our two boys. I had been subject to this condition for many years, and the boys from the time they were babies. On one occasion I was tempted to resort to material means to relieve this discord for the elder boy. At that time I had a well-stocked medicine chest. I did so wish to do what was right, and yet I could not give the boy medicine. Then quite suddenly I remembered Mrs. Eddy's words in Science and Health (p. 142):"Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first medicine. God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was Mind." It was then that I took my stand for Christian Science. I threw away every bottle and box in that chest, and that night the demonstration was made. It is now over nine years since any medicine has come into our home for our use.
