My interest in Christian Science extends over a period of nearly forty years. At the age of eighteen I was told that I would never live to be twenty-five, as I was suffering from weak lungs, a tendency toward which was said to be hereditary. Today, at more than seventy years of age, I have very great cause to thank God that I am still able to work each day.
Before coming into Christian Science I searched for health in a change of climate and in outdoor living. However, I was forced to conclude that there are underlying mental causes of physical conditions and that, as I later learned from our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 120), "Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind."
While living in the mountains, I resolved to take up a very earnest study of the Bible. I recall that night after night, through several summers, I would lie upon the grassy hillside and contemplate the stars while yearning to know of my place in the grand universal scheme. My first memorable contact with Christian Science came when I spent a very happy three-week visit in the home of students of this Science. They gave me the textbook and a Christian Science lecture to read, and I accompanied them to a Wednesday testimony meeting in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. To this day I vividly recall the unanimity of the singing, the deep silence of the period of silent prayer, and the spontaneity of the testimonies of healing.
