From the age of fourteen years I had suffered each winter with a painful kidney disease and fever. I dreaded this unpleasant situation. Because of its regular appearance I began calling it my kidney ailment, and those around me were doing the same. I would be bedridden for two to three weeks of medical treatment. The doctor told me I would continue to have the trouble because of an inherited weakness.
When, pressed by other problems, I took up the study of Christian Science, I learned that "man is not matter." This is part of Mrs. Eddy's answer to the question "What is man?" (Science and Health, p. 475): "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God.'" Fairly soon it became clear to me that my health was not governed by fleshly organs, but my thought had to be changed.
I decided to ask for Christian Science treatment. A Christian Science practitioner helped me to see that I didn't need to fear, since the divine Mind constitutes all activity. I was relieved to learn that the cleansing function attributed to the kidneys actually takes place in consciousness, by one's having a pure sense of himself and of everyone as God's spiritual creation. God's ideas effortlessly include perfection, all harmony, function, and activity. It was important to eliminate habitual sick thinking and to identify myself with God's eternally perfect creation alone.
