A sickly and pampered three-year-old was invited by his Christian Scientist neighbors in 1914 to go to Sunday School. His mother was concerned about his behavior and was very surprised that he was allowed to come back to Sunday School after his first visit, as he was usually impossible even for her to deal with. At home he began to share little truths learned. His mother could hardly believe his transformation and asked her neighbors if she could go with them to church to see what went on there. Soon she went regularly and saved grocery pennies to buy her first copy of Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health.
When her second child was about to be born, the doctor told her husband that both mother and child could not be saved. Her husband told the doctor to save his wife. The baby was stillborn, laid aside, and covered with a cloth. But the mother's sister was earnestly praying to feel God's presence with them. She had recently begun to study the copy of Science and Health her sister (the baby's mother) had shared with her. With spiritual dominion she walked into the room, took off the sheet, picked up the infant, and prayerfully declared: "God is his Life!" The baby breathed and was restored to life. Later this child grew up to be a Christian Science teacher.
Four years after this child's birth a third son was born, who, at the age of two, was seized with a period of violent convulsions culminating in unconsciousness. The father, who drank, smoked, swore, and had a violent temper, left the house because he did not want to be there to see his son's death, and he knew he could not shake his wife's faith. There were no other Christian Scientists where this family now lived, so the mother rocked her unconscious son, singing hymns, while she handed her oldest son (the same child who had had the behavior transformation by going to Sunday School) the textbook, Science and Health, to read. She also asked her middle son to work metaphysically. She prayed through the night, and before her husband returned home at 3 a.m., the child was completely healed. The father was amazed. He went directly to the medicine chest and threw all the drugs into the trash. He never again relied on anything but Christian Science. In the next few months he was healed of smoking and drinking; and within a couple of years every vestige of bad temper was eliminated—so much so that he was known for his gentleness.
