When in 1922 Christian Science was first brought to my notice by my mother, I was in very poor health. I had been suffering for nearly six years from the effects of an aeroplane crash. A back injury had left me with very little stamina, and I also suffered from nervous dyspepsia, constipation, and insomnia.
I attended two Wednesday testimony meetings in a Church of Christ, Scientist, and was so impressed by what I heard that I immediately obtained a copy of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. This so absorbed me that I read it on every possible occasion, for I felt instinctively that it contained the solution to all humanity's problems. Prior to 1922 I had not attended a church service for some years; the Bible had become a closed book, and my experiences in World War I had made me cynical in regard to all religion. Mine was not a sudden healing, but as I studied the textbook in conjunction with the Bible, my disabilities steadily diminished, and at the end of twelve months my health had greatly improved.
About this time I changed my occupation. The hours at my new work were long, and I often arrived home so exhausted that I had to rest before I could eat a meal. One evening after a long and tiring day I still had one call to make. As I walked the last few hundred yards, I nearly collapsed from exhaustion. It suddenly came to me that weakness is no part of the real man, and these words from Science and Health came vividly to me (p. 391): "Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them."
