Article September 20, 1900 Issue

How I was Led to the Truth

BY LILLIAN L. MORSE.

The account of the "new birth" in an individual "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever," has a perennial interest for us all. In "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker G. Eddy, p. 15, we read, "The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years." So it has been with me. As a child I was taught that man and the universe were the mechanical products of mindless matter. In such a universe there was no room for God; hence the belief in God was a superstition, the Bible a lie, and its central character, Christ Jesus, an impostor; a hereafter was a fiction born of human hope and affection; death and the grave were the end of that soulless but intelligent machine called man.

Along with this teaching I was educated into dyspepsia, sick-headache, and medicine dosing. My father was dyspeptic, and gave much time to the study of the digestible properties of different articles of food. Gradually one food after another was condemned, until only hot water and medicine were thought an entirely safe diet. In time I almost eliminated those two articles, and would go many hours without taking anything into my stomach. The headaches became so bad that I was like one crazy while they lasted, and morphine was my final resort.

During these years, while I was growing up, I was not satisfied with the atheistic-materialistic theory of existence I had been taught. Something within was always pushing on in search of a truth more satisfying. I felt that there was a Supreme Being, even if reason allowed for none. I studied the older churches, and also investigated every new theory and cult that came to my notice,—theosophy, spiritualism, hypnotism, but adopted none.

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