In 1911 I left England for the far coast of the Pacific...

In 1911 I left England for the far coast of the Pacific and there met, for the first time, a student of Christian Science. I had from early girlhood turned from the teachings of a denominational church, and after some years of careful reading drifted into agnosticism, but all the time hungering for something that would prove the existence of a wise and directing intelligence outside myself. After much wandering up and down bypaths I thought I had at last discovered the means by which I could interpret life in spiritual terms. I plunged into the study of theosophy and became a very close student for a number of years. By the time I left England I thought I had gathered the best from various schools of religion and that the sum total of them would meet my needs; so when the subject of Christian Science was presented to me two years later and I bought a copy of Science and Health, it was not for any help I expected to receive through the study of it, but merely, as I thought, because the subject was an unexplored field and therefore one not to be passed over. How great my needs were and how wrong my viewpoint concerning my true self and the real universe I never realized until I began to study the textbook. I discovered that in the past I had been trying to spiritualize matter, clearly shown by Mrs. Eddy to be an impossibility. The only man there ever had been or ever will be I found was the man made in God's image and likeness; that the human or mortal man, full of ills and doubts and uncertainties, was not that man and that his testimony was always false.

That the real man is coexistent with Mind, God, I had to prove only a few days after buying the book. I was out with a party of friends, and while I was running down a steep incline my foot went into a hole. I could not lift it quickly enough to avoid severe injury to my ankle. For the moment it seemed as if I would fall and faint, but following close on this suggestion came the words I had been dwelling on that afternoon, "In him [God] we live, and move, and have our being." Fortunately not one of the party knew what had happened, for they had all gone on. At first when I tried to walk I could not seem to control my foot, but, still clinging to the thought of living in divine Mind, I made good progress, and when the foot of the hill was reached I walked without any pain. The party waited for me some little way up the trail and no questions were asked. That night I walked over seven miles without pain or inconvenience. When I reached home I related the happening to my mother and sister and we examined the ankle. I was too young in the study of Christian Science to know that in examining it I was making a reality of the accident. When I saw the condition fear crept in. I went to bed, but the ankle and leg became so swollen and the pain so intense that I could not bear the bedclothes to touch them. The next afternoon my sister got in touch with the student who had introduced Christian Science to me. She came the moment she was free and whilst talking she pointed out on page 475 of Science and Health the answer to the question "What is man?" also to the twelfth verse of the fourth chapter of Hebrews: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Once more I turned to my books (I had been reading all day) and within two hours I was able to get up from my bed and walk. The ankle was a little stiff but there was no pain whatever. The following day I was not inconvenienced at all, although I had to wear a low shoe because the swelling had not quite gone. This happened while I was on a summer holiday and every day I walked many miles exploring rough country. A certain stiffness remained, however, which seemed to be due to either a broken or displaced bone. I went to a practitioner and after treatment the stiffness disappeared. The evidence of a displaced bone, however, did not disappear to my knowledge until two years ago, but it never troubled me at any time.

The healing efficacy of Christian Science was so clearly proved that both my mother and sister accepted Mrs. Eddy's teaching without question. As I began to understand more of the science of being I experienced a mental freedom I had never dreamed possible, and with it came a corresponding freedom from stomach, throat, and chest troubles. No words can express my gratitude for Christian Science. Gratitude is akin to prayer, and "true prayer," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 39 of "No and Yes," "is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us." My hope is that I may learn better how to draw at all times upon this inexhaustible source of love.