My Experience in Christian Science

Christian Science came to me about sixteen years ago at a time when I had nearly abandoned hope of any physical aid, and was mentally wretched from a sense of rebellion at what I called a hard, hard fate. From birth I was considered very weakly, having begun coughing when two weeks old, and passing through one or more sieges of lung fever every year thereafter until ten years old. Several times I was supposed to be at the point of death. I was never able to attend school long at a time or join in the sports of other children to any extent, because of the frequency of attacks of illness, and once, after a few weeks of unusual exemption, greatly amused the family by exclaiming with great exultation, "Why, mother! I haven't been sick for a long time." Later on I was obliged to leave school entirely because of the most intense headaches, which seemed utterly to incapacitate me from any labor, physical or mental, and from which, for several years, I had never been quite free. This trouble finally culminated in inflammation of the brain, and the inevitable nervous prostration following in the train of so much suffering. Then, as if to add the last feather's weight to sufferings already almost unbearable, an accident so increased them that many times I almost wished for death to release me from this bondage. Nearly all this time I was doctoring in some way, employing many physicians and various methods of medicine: homœpathy, allopathy, hydropathy, electrical baths, massage, etc. Reviewing in thought the number of practitioners under whose care I was placed, I recall no less than fourteen. I had also the best of care, but all to no purpose, except, as it seemed to me, to deplete the family pocket-book and drain the energies of a devoted mother and sister.

They were always striving to do something for my relief, and, upon hearing of a new process called Metaphysical Healing, or Christian Science, immediately put me under the care of a healer, although, as it seemed to us all, it was hoping against hope, and would probably result, like all previous attempts, in failure. Before beginning the treatment I read a few pages in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker G. Eddy, which a friend loaned me, and I will here add that it has ever since been my constant companion. Oh, the delightful change that the reading of that book and the treatment brought to me. It was as if I had been translated into a new world. The most wonderful and convincing proof of the healing influence of this new treatment was the new-found ability to walk, something to which I had become so unaccustomed that when I began, as I did after the first treatment, I felt as if I were literally treading on air. Every day I experienced increasing strength and corresponding lightness of heart, so foreign to my old self that I was often constrained to say, "Is this really I, or am I dreaming?" It had hardly dawned upon my consciousness then that the sickness, weariness, and wretchedness of these many years were in themselves the dream, while perfect health and happiness were my real birthright and inheritance. The impression made upon others was similar to my own amazement.

One, an intimate friend, when she heard of my recover, wrote me, "I keep saying to myself, How strange she must feel to feel well!" and this was indeed true, as in all my life I had hardly known a day when I could say I felt well. As I continued to read the "little book," I saw that I must put into practice what I understood of its teachings if I would gain more understanding, and felt richly rewarded when beliefs of various kinds to which our family had always been a prey disappeared, before the realization that but One Mind had formed and was governing and caring for everything in His universe. I shall never forget the first time I was called on to give a treatment. I was aroused in the night to help a sister who was suffering from a severe attack of heart trouble. How thankful I felt, when in less than five minutes, under the influence of the silent utterances of Truth, the intense pain had disappeared and she was quietly sleeping. I began then to realize that it was more blessed to give than to receive, for, great as had been my joy at my own emancipation, to know that I could be made the instrument to convey this blessing to others, and especially those to whom I owed so much for their care and patient forbearance, was an unlooked-for happiness to one who had long felt herself worse than useless. In those days the Massachusetts Metaphysical College had not yet closed its doors to students, and my thoughts and aspirations were very soon turned in that direction. There were many obstacles in the way and the expenses attending tuition at this college appeared very formidable, as I felt I had already incurred, by my long and almost constant illness, a greater debt than I could ever repay. However, my family being as desirous as I that I should have the best instruction, we all worked together for its accomplishment, and in a year from the time of my healing I enjoyed the inestimable privilege of class instruction by Mrs. Eddy herself, a privilege whose worth is being more and more understood and valued by her students every year as they realize what they owe to her brave, self-denying, and God-directed labors.