Article February 12, 1916 Issue

"Bring the book"

ANNIE JONES ATKIN

In a small town in southern Utah a traveler stopped at the hotel. He was stricken with illness when he came, and after being assigned to a room did not leave it for four days. The writer, who was the proprietress, asked the maids if the room had been attended to, but was told that the man was never out and that he would not let them enter. Accordingly she went at once and, demanding admission, found the man in a very weak state. She advised him to take the next room, so that his could be put in order, and although he at first objected to this arrangement, he finally consented.

When the proprietress was leaving the traveler in his new quarters he asked her to bring him something from the other room, and said: "I have a few bottles of medicine in there, and a book. I do not care about the medicine so much, but Please bring the book." She did so, but as it was dark did not notice what the book was until she brought it to him and turned on the light, when he said: "I do not know what kind of book it is; my brother sent it from Los Angeles. Nevertheless, since I have had this trouble that drove me to drink I feel better all the time I am reading it." It was "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy.

The proprietress told this man that she was a Christian Scientist and that she read the book every day. Nothing more was said, but the next morning he came down to breakfast looking calm and peaceful. In a few days he was fully recovered and the drink habit was completely eradicated. He had been waiting for the truth that heals and saves, and when it came he did not know the source. This weary wanderer, "athirst in the desert" (Science and Health, p. 570), was healed and saved through the word of Truth as revealed in Christian Science, and the battle he fought in the secret place of human thought defeated the evil suggestions and gained a victory, the consciousness of perfect peace.

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