In the year 1911, while I was near death, a Christian Scientist found me in the borderland of the then undeveloped Everglades. I had gone there on a homestead, and had fallen victim to fever. On alternate days I was semiconscious, and this Scientist, who had come upon me lying helpless in a rude cabin, asked for permission to give me treatment. Finally, in despair, but with no faith in the explanation of what was called Christian Science, I said, "Go ahead." Instantly I was made well.
Satisfied with the loaves and fishes, I did not follow up Christian Science until several years later, when again near death from another ailment. I threw away medicines, and my wife and I bought our first copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. One treatment by a practitioner healed that ill. That was in 1913. Neither my wife nor I have taken any medicine since.
However, the smoking habit hung on to me, or I to it. I would not try to join a church because I smoked and wanted to keep on smoking. My wife and I attended church regularly through the years and considered ourselves Christian Scientists.
