Many years ago "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy was given to me with the remark that it was a book which heals sickness as Jesus healed it and that it helps one in any circumstance. This remark aroused in me a great interest in the book, and I read it every free moment I had. Soon afterward a smallpox epidemic broke out in the neighborhood. People were so frightened that they went in great numbers to be vaccinated against the dread disease. My fellow worker in the office was also vaccinated, and he tried to persuade me to be vaccinated. But my faith in the truths which I was learning from my new book. Science and Health, prevented me from even considering such a step.
Then one day this same fellow worker told me that his friend had fallen ill with the disease. Two days later I felt very ill, and my body presented a picture such as had been described to me, and I was obliged to stay in bed. Supported by pillows I studied the book, expecting my healing. On the second day the symptoms had completely disappeared, and not only was I healed, but I was spiritually uplifted, filled with a deep inward happiness I had never known before.
This meant more to me than the physical healing, remarkable as that was. I saw that disease is a mental illusion. Mrs. Eddy says on page 331 of the textbook, Science and Health, when speaking of God, "He fills all space, and it is impossible to contrive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind." These truths made a very deep impression on me, and I clung to them. This healing experience spurred me on, and I devoted every free moment I had to the earnest study of the textbook.
