It is with profound gratitude to God and to our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, that I write this testimony.
I came into Christian Science about ten years ago after I had undergone a major operation, and had been told that another was necessary. Through a dear friend I was led to Christian Science and to a practitioner, who lovingly told me to read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. She also gave me other Christian Science literature. I read it avidly. Words cannot describe the beautiful spiritual illumination that followed, and for weeks afterward I felt as though I were walking on air. The truth was indeed "sweet at its first taste" (Science and Health, p. 559). I was immediately healed of fear and continued in much better health than I had enjoyed for several years.
I read the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly and form time to time a Christian Science Sentinel; however, I was not ready for the complete acceptance of Christian Science, and after a period of three years of drifting to and fro between medical science and Christian Science, I once more became critically ill and was taken to the hospital for a second operation. Although I was very despondent at this time, I still clung to the small understanding I had, and from time to time read Science and Health. One day when the pain was quite severe, rather bewildered I asked myself, "Here I am studying the truth; why am I in this condition?" I once more took up my Science and Health and it opened to this answer (p. 381):
