Many times in my experience it has been proved that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." One such time was in 1918 when I was stricken with influenza while on a visit to a neighboring city. I went to my room in the hotel and thought I would lie down awhile; but an intense fear took hold of me, and I felt that if I did lie down, I would never get up. Immediately I looked up a practitioner's name in the Journal and telephoned for a Christian Science treatment.
My fear continued, however, and after three or four hours I called the practitioner the second time and told her of my fear. She said that Mary Baker Eddy states in the textbook, Science and Health (p.253): "Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, disease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is destroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life instead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit instead of the flesh." When I gained a clear realization of this truth, the fear left me, and I retired and slept soundly. The next morning I awakened entirely healed.
As I studied Science and Health and the Bible it gradually dawned upon me that hatred, jealousy, and revenge were poisoning my system. An aggravated stomach disorder and spells of sickness incapacitated me for two or three days at a time. I became depressed and despondent, and on many occasions I wanted to do away with myself. At times I feared that I was going insane. While I was reading the chapter entitled "Prayer" in Science and Health, my thinking began to change, and I am sure my healing started then. On the first page of the textbook Mrs. Eddy speaks of God as divine Mind, and I read her words in thankful wonderment. On page 192 I read, "The belief that a pulpy substance under the skull is mind is a mockery of intelligence, a mimicry of Mind." These words stood out as though illumined, and I never again feared insanity. It unfolded to me that God is Mind and that man reflects intelligence from God.
