Looking back over the past fifteen years, during which time Christian Science has been my friend and companion, comforting, guiding, and strengthening my upward journey from sense to Soul, I think it is fitting to express my gratitude for the many blessings received. Because I have so many things to be thankful for, it would be hard to count them all—Mrs. Eddy's writings, the periodicals, the loving help of practitioners when the way was dark, and the uplifting effect of the hymns in our Christian Science Hymnal when I was lonely or discouraged.
At the time I turned to Christian Science for help, I was in a pitiful condition mentally and physically. Years of wrong thinking, disillusionment, and unhappiness had brought me into a state of mental collapse. A few years previously Christian Science had been brought to my notice, and I had bought the textbook, "Science and Health with Key the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, but did not fully appreciate its contents. I was not ready to accept it.
Now, in despair, I took up the textbook and opened its pages at random. My eyes fell on these words from the chapter "Footsteps of Truth" (p. 201): "We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us." How those words impressed themselves upon my consciousness! That is what I had been trying to do —to pour the truth into a vessel already full of error. Despairingly I wrote to a Christian Science practitioner for help. It was a case of "save, or I perish!" Within a few days a reassuring reply was received, and although I had not slept for nearly two weeks, that night I slept like a baby. My reason had been saved by the prayer of a righteous woman.
