When quite a young girl I first heard of Christian Science through the healing of a much loved sister. Reputable physicians had said that she would never be able to walk again. She had been under this sentence for over two years when a friend who had experienced healing in Christian Science brought word of it to her. My sister consented to have a visit from a practitioner, listened to her explanations of God as taught in Christian Science, had one treatment, and received an instantaneous healing of helplessness and pain.
A little later I also was healed in one treatment of chronic nasal catarrh; but neither my sister nor I became students of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, at that time, nor for many years afterwards. We were both members of an orthodox church, and I was a teacher in the Sunday school. While the healing seemed natural and beautiful to me, and I believed it to be in accordance with the healing work of Jesus, I thought I could continue to be healed without studying any textbook other than the Bible.
As years went by I experienced much inharmony in family affairs. Though I read the Bible faithfully, I was not able to apply its teachings, and finally gave way to a complete nervous breakdown. At this time I was the mother of three small children, and our means became very limited, because of my illness and inability to care for my home and my family. For a while I tried osteopathy, as I never had faith in medicine, but received no benefit from the treatments. For three years I slept very little, ate scarcely anything, and was a most miserable creature.
