Christian Science was lovingly introduced to me when our first child was less than a year old, and I was endeavoring to emerge from several months of poor health by adherence to rules involving rest periods and curtailed activity. During this period I would attend church and study the Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy irregularly and also attend an occasional lecture on Christian Science. One of the lectures helped me to understand that regular study would transform a human consciousness from material-mindedness into the true, spiritual consciousness of individual man, made in the image and likeness of God, and that this correction of the mental concept would, in turn, be evidenced in good human experience. This unfoldment revealed the purpose of regular, systematic study; and I found that I had time for this study and also for regular church attendance, and my health became normal.
I was very grateful for all the blessings Christian Science was bringing into my life, and I wanted very much to become a member of a branch church so that I might express my gratitude in service. But because I smoked quite heavily, it seemed that church membership was a long way off. Several times I tried to stop smoking through human will and failed. I had help at different times from a practitioner. Patient friends in the church were very helpful too, but the habit still persisted. So one day I decided to quit worrying about the problem. However, I continued my study of the Bible and of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy.
Before this investigation of Christian Science I had found other religions and philosophies incomplete and unable to answer to my satisfaction questions about life and God and man. One day, shortly before Easter, after I had been studying Christian Science about three years, I read the current Lesson-Sermon from the Quarterly very carefully. And when I had finished, the realization came to me that here indeed was the complete truth for which I had been searching. I realized that in all I had read of Mrs. Eddy's writings she had not contradicted herself, as I had expected, nor had she failed to provide definite answers to questions about God and His creation. A certain sense of prejudice which I had had in connection with Mrs. Eddy was completely gone, and my heart was filled with gratitude to God for this wonderful woman and her divine revelation, which was being shared with me and the whole world.
