My coming into Christian Science covers a period of many years. I was reared in a religious home where the Bible was read daily, and regular church attendance was a natural part of our lives. As I matured into young womanhood, I was accepted as a member of the church and took a wholehearted interest in its affairs. While I shall always be grateful to these sincere people for their well-meaning efforts in behalf of humanity, this doctrine taught of a future-world salvation, and when I went out into the world on my own I found I had nothing dependable upon which to rely for the solution of everyday problems. Consequently, after much stumbling around and several bitter experiences, and by this time a very much bewildered and defeated person, I put religion behind me as a subject not lending itself to reason or explication and most certainly not applicable as a means of pointing a way out for me in my human difficulties. My ideals thus shattered, I had nothing to do with any church for several years.

But through the disappointments which belief of supposititious life in matter engenders, I was soon to be led "into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, pp. 226, 227). My introduction to Christian Science came about when I was led to take a copy of the Sentinel out of a free literature distribution box in a railroad station in a far western city.

With the radiance of the vision which was given to me later through earnest study of Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, I soon recognized my former defeats as steps on the way to spiritual ascendancy. My joy was unbounded when I found in this textbook satisfying explanations of hitherto unexplained theological points of religion. I shall always remember the first liberating light which illumined my thought when I learned that heaven and hell are states of consciousness rather than localities. Heaven indeed opened up to me then. At last I could square Jesus' teachings with practical reasoning and apply these teachings logically in immediate experience.

When Christian Science healed me physically I was convinced that I had found the "pearl of great price," and the soul thirst of many years was satisfied as I strove to understand more of God and His healing Christ. During the first year of study I laid aside glasses on which I had depended for ten years. A short while later I was healed of influenza and a diseased condition of the gums known as pyorrhea, which a dentist had pronounced beyond therapeutic help. And just as necessary to my salvation at that time were added loving, trustworthy Christian Science friends, to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude. I am sure that God in His infinite care and wisdom supplied that human need.

Succeeding steps included subscriptions to all of the Christian Science periodicals, membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church, and, when my thought grew fit to receive it, the invaluable privilege of class instruction. These sacred rights I humbly count as my greatest possessions, for through them my life has become a joyous unfoldment of inspiration and action.

An outstanding experience during these twenty years as a student of Christian Science was that of protection during an automobile accident. One Friday night, the car in which I was riding was struck. It turned over twice and was practically demolished. Although the blow was sharp and stunning, the other two occupants of the car and I suffered only minor injuries.

The next evening the branch church of which I am a member was to give a lecture on Christian Science, and I had been appointed to introduce the lecturer. All sense of shock and injury was entirely overcome, and I was able to fulfill my task joyfully at the appointed hour as well as to be at my post as Second Reader the following Sunday morning. One cannot experience such deliverance without knowing of a certainty that God's law operates today as of old to uphold and preserve the man of His creating.

For a highly useful, completely transformed life through the understanding and application of this regenerating and healing truth, and for the rich blessings which I have received, I express deep and heartfelt gratitude to Mary Baker Eddy, the greatest benefactor of this age. Thus the mental journeyings of one individual whose life was brought out of darkness into marvelous light give promise convincingly of the complete fulfillment of her prophecy (Science and Health, p. 191): "Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error."

(Mrs.) Anetta G. Schneider, Evanston, Illinois.