For about fifteen years "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy was in our home and was read daily by my father. Because of prejudice toward and ignorance of the teachings of this Science, my mother would have nothing to do with it and the children thought little about it. Although we saw a broken wrist healed in less than ten days, the laying aside of glasses, which had been used for twenty years or more for a severe case of astigmatism, and stones in the kidneys and bladder reduced to nothingness, we could not see the wisdom of investigating this Science.
When the business in which I was engaged proved unsuccessful, and my health seemed quite poor, I went to see the best surgeon and physician in our city; and he called in a specialist to examine me also. They could not determine just what was causing the trouble, so they decided there was nothing they could do for me, but advised that I do no manner of work, and that I stay out of doors as much as possible.
One night, in fear of going through another miserable experience, I decided to see what was in the book that kept my father so happy and well. As I read the lines beginning, "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii), a sense of peace came over me such as I had never before experienced. When I had finished the chapter on Prayer, I knew I too had found the way out of bondage into freedom, health, and happiness.
