I had been interested in the study of Christian Science for some time, but had not been able to overcome gallstones. I had many attacks, each one worse than the other. In one of these attacks I became unconscious, and my son, thinking that I was passing on, had me taken to a hospital. While there I consented to an operation, as my family thought it was the best thing to do. After the operation pneumonia set in, and at the end of six weeks no hope was held for my recovery. I had become so weak I could not move or speak above a whisper, and had gone down in weight from one hundred and forty-three to ninety-five pounds.
When a very dear friend who was a student of Christian Science visited me I told her that the doctors had given me up, and that at last I was willing to turn whole-heartedly to God for help. I shall never forget how lovingly she said that she would go out and get a practitioner for me. This was about two o'clock in the afternoon, and she spent the rest of the afternoon getting help for me. My temperature dropped to normal by nine o'clock that night, and I had the first night's sleep without an opiate since the operation. This was on Thursday. On Sunday the practitioner called to see me; that is the only time I saw him. In two weeks I was able to leave the hospital. That was over six years ago, and since that time I have never been tempted to look to anything but Christian Science for help.
I had been home from the hospital about six weeks when I had a return of the trouble. This time I called the practitioner for help, and was told that to be free from the pain I should correct the thought that had caused it. On searching my consciousness I found a bitter resentment over a wrong that I believed had been done me, and the task that lay before me was to change my thoughts of bitterness and resentment to thoughts of love for the one who I believed had hurt me. This took me some time, but as I did so I found the attacks of pain became less frequent and less painful. Finally I found such a thought of love for this one in my consciousness that I would have done anything to help this person. With this came the realization that I had not had an attack of the old pain for a long time; and I have never had a recurrence of the resentment or the pain.
