Christian Science has brought me many blessings and healings since I began its study while away from home teaching school, but my first big test was outstanding. From childhood I had been subject to attacks of inflammatory rheumatism, which recurred at intervals with increasing severity, often crippling me for days or weeks. The summer after I began to study Christian Science, this old enemy attacked in full force.
My parents insisted on calling a physician. Being physically helpless and dependent upon their care, I had to consent, consoling myself with the knowledge that the doctor's ministrations could neither help nor harm me and that Christian Science could prevail over medical science, so called.
The family doctor, to whom I had always turned before for help, was shocked to learn that I no longer wanted medical treatment. He tried to persuade me to give up Christian Science and confided to my mother that I would not live a year without medical help. He told me that my heart was so affected that thenceforth I must give up all strenuous exercise. Explaining in detail why this was so, he tried to impress upon me that I had a very real material problem which must be handled in a material way.
