I did not come into Christian Science seeking a religion, but looking for a remedy for the ills of the flesh. The doctors—and I had tried every kind—did not claim that I had any incurable trouble, but that I had many chronic ones; and most of the time I was uncomfortable and discontented. Fear held me in bondage to many hereditary ills. When young I began to develop diseases that my mother and grandmothers had manifested, such as rheumatism, headache, neuralgia, biliousness, acute and chronic indigestion, sour stomach, and constipation. I took from four to six doses of medicine each day, and thought that I must take certain other medicines every week. For twenty-five years or more I tried every material remedy that I heard of, and spent most of my time taking care of myself, and, as our Leader says on page 383 of Science and Health, "pinching and pounding the poor body, to make it sensibly well when it ought to be insensibly so."
With all this care and attention I got no better, so I was about ready for Christian Science; and it came to my notice in this way. About 1915 I was living in a small family hotel in a suburban town near New York city. One whom I knew well had a room next door to me. She had an infection on her face, eyes, and ears. Materia medica had not healed her, nor had it even stopped the spreading; so in desperation she turned to a Christian Science practitioner, and was healed in one treatment. Strange as it may seem, she did not continue this study; but I was so impressed with the demonstration that I went the very next day to see the same practitioner. Mrs. Eddy says on page 559 of Science and Health, "It will be indeed sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter." So it was with me. I wanted the healing, without having to learn and digest the truth; in other words, I was seeking only the loaves and fishes. I responded to treatment, but the healings were not permanent, showing that my thinking had not been sufficiently spiritualized; and so I had to get right down to the root of the matter, stop leaving most of the work to the practitioner, and correct much erroneous thinking myself.
I have always been especially grateful that I stuck to Christian Science even though at times the way seemed hard. There were two reasons, however, why I did so: first, materia medica had failed me, and I had certainly given it a fair trial; and, secondly, there was nothing else left to try. So step by step the spiritualizing of thought has gone on; and I am gradually learning the new tongue of Spirit. Much self-righteousness, pride, selfishness, and many other qualities unlike good, and which do not belong to the real man, are being destroyed, and are being replaced by a greater sense of health, harmony, happiness, and peace.
