About twenty-seven years ago I picked up a friend's copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, the textbook of Christian Science, and read a few pages in the chapter on Prayer. At that time I knew very little of God and had been a medical nurse for twenty years. I had hoped and longed for some other kind of employment, because I had long since lost all confidence in medicine and surgery. I became interested enough in Christian Science to buy my own copy of the textbook.
Just prior to my introduction to Christian Science my mother passed on, leaving me a small business, which I was undecided about continuing. However, as a result of my putting into practice what I had already learned of this Science, I felt guided to carry on with the business and abandon the nursing profession, a move which proved to be a great blessing.
I had always enjoyed good health until eighteen years ago, when I developed paroxysms of pain which were so severe that complete prostration resulted. While in the throes of these spells I would scream out decisive statements of Truth and very often would repeat "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468). I was never without severe pain for more than a few minutes at a time, and although I had almost constant help from practitioners and studied Science myself, I did not get permanent relief. Had it not been previously proved to me through the following two instantaneous healings that Christian Science heals, I could never have endured such suffering: the healing of chronic appendicitis and of the smoking habit of over twenty years' standing.
