Although I became acquainted with Christian Science when I was a boy and was even then convinced of its fundamental rightness, it was only when my wife was instantaneously healed of an acute intestinal illness, twenty years ago, that I became seriously interested. During the year and a half that followed this healing, a great variety of experiences gave me abundant opportunity to apply what I was newly learning of the truth, and ample proof of the unassailable efficacy of Christian Science. During that time the whole tenor of our life was changed and many new responsibilities were assumed; but every experience was a joy when confident reliance was placed on the healing power and guiding light of divine Principle.
One greatly valued experience was the privilege of membership in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. The earnest desire to qualify as a member, together with the realization, gained through a friend's good counsel, that nothing could stand in the way of such a right desire, brought an instantaneous healing of the smoking habit. At another time, I was the only one available for help when my wife was seized by what seemed a very desperate attack of illness. With little or no knowledge with which to argue against the adversary, I knew enough to lean unreservedly "on the sustaining infinite," as the first line of the Preface (p. vii) of our textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, urges. The treatment given was a wordless repudiation of any so-called material life and an affirmation of complete dependence on God as Life. The result was immediate and complete healing.
On the eve of what was for me a very important move, I was struck down by Spanish influenza, then rampant; but the faithful work of the same loving practitioner who so often helped us in those early days brought complete healing, and I returned to work in three or four days.
