When Christian Science was presented to me I was suffering...

When Christian Science was presented to me I was suffering from a diseased hip and spine and walked with the aid of crutches. I was without funds and in great sorrow; in fact, I was suffering from lack in every sense of the word. I knew very little of the Bible, except the Lord's Prayer and the twenty-third psalm, which I used when things seemed unbearable, always feeling a sense of peace when I repeated them.

For a year previous to beginning the study of Christian Science, I prayed daily that God would guide, guard, and protect me. As I could not sleep at night, I decided to read the Bible. I found nothing in it that satisfied me but the psalms. I continued reading them for a week, and at the end of that time, one day about noon, I received a copy of the Christian Science Sentinel through the mail. I began at the first page and read it through with great interest. When I had finished reading. I pondered over its contents, and this is the substance of what I had learned: If God fills all space and God is good, then this disease is nothing. About four o'clock that afternoon I realized that I could walk. I carried my crutches to the foot of the stairs, walked to the telephone, and called a practitioner. I had read in the Sentinel about the practitioners and thought I should have one help me. I told her I should like to know something about the textbook mentioned so often, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The next day she came to see me and brought the book and the Christian Science Quaterly. She showed me how to study the Bible Lesson, and told me always to begin the day with it. Later, she and her husband presented me with the Church Manual, telling me to read it every day; and also saying that I would find on page 44 the By-Law in regard to subscribing for the periodicals. First I subscribed for the Sentinel; then for the Journal; then for the Monitor for one month at a time; and finally for the Heralds. The daily study of the Manual instilled in me a great sense of loyalty to The Christian Science Board of Directors for which I have always been most grateful. Just as the snow and ice melt under the rays of the sun, so fear and worry dissolved under the warm rays of divine Love.

Two years later, while visiting my parents, who had moved to another city, and while being shown through the house, I saw crutches hanging in the basement. Turning to my mother I said in astonishment, "Whose crutches are those?" She replied, "My dear, they were yours." From the day I left them at the foot of the stairs, the day I was healed, until I was reminded that they had been mine, it had never entered my thought that I had used crutches.