I was a miserable woman, suffering daily with headache...

Anna I. Sperry with contributions from M. E. M.

I was a miserable woman, suffering daily with headache which the best doctors could not cure. I also had organic troubles which made it impossible for me to do my work at times without terrible pain. Doctors told me that I ought to go to a hospital and undergo an operation, they said I would never be well until I did.

I was very nervous and despondent. I had been taught to read the Bible and attend church. I went to different churches, talked with ministers and other good people, investigated every religion I could hear of, but was always disappointed.

They all told me I ought to love God, and then told me that it was by His will that I suffered, and that it was right to doctor for the troubles. I could not see why, if they believed that sickness was sent by a divine God for a good purpose, they should wish or dare to call in some man to undo what God in His wisdom had done.

I read the Bible, but it seemed to contradict itself, and to tell of a God who made mistakes and corrected them in anger afterwards. At last I gave up and decided that there was no God or heaven, I was sure only of the hell here on earth. I was never satisfied and was on the verge of suicide when a neighbor asked me to go to a Christian Science meeting with her.

I went, and was impressed first by the happy and loving faces about me, and then by the way in which each one seemed to lean on the promises of the Bible and the loving Father as revealed by the life and words of Christ.

As we walked home at the close of the meeting, I asked the Reader some questions, and was satisfied by her sensible answers, that those people had found what I had been wanting all my life. I went home, and putting aside all my doubts and fears, I asked the loving Father to show me if this were the right way, and pledged myself, if I found my headaches healed, to try to understand and live for God all the rest of my life.

I was so sure that Love would make everything right, that I went to sleep happier than I had been in years. I awoke the next morning, well and strong, with the glorious assurance that my Father is Love, and that He had heard my prayer.

That was my healing five years ago, and I have had no need for drugs since. I never asked to have the other troubles healed, they simply disappeared at that first meeting.

I cannot put into words my gratitude to God. I am also most thankful to Mrs. Eddy for her pure and noble life, and to the dear ones who helped me out of the darkness of doubt and despair.

Anna I. Sperry, Sandy Hook, Conn.

Christian Science did not come to me first in the joy and peace of healing, but in the light and revelation of the Bible. The Bible was to me a new book. I can never express the glory and beauty of the word of God as revealed to me after reading Science and Health. I met with much opposition, and many tried to convince me that Christian Science was of the devil; but I knew there could be no evil in anything that helped me to understand and love my Bible.

I pressed on, and prayed for wisdom to lead me to Truth. My daily verse was: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

Soon I had very convincing proof in a demonstration for a friend over a disease of long standing. After this I never doubted that Christian Science is the truth. Since then I have had many demonstrations, not only over sickness but over many other forms of error.

When we begin the practice of Christian Science we think sickness is the principal thing to be overcome; but as we go on we learn that we must battle with error in many forms, and we are tested where we most need testing to perfect our spiritual growth. With some, sickness is the claim which seems to be most real,—with others, a sense of lack or poverty, while to others, worldly ambition, pride, and all the et cetera of self. Self is the great problem, characteristics we once thought virtues, we find in the light of Christian Science to be only a false sense of self.

Jesus said: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." What is it to deny self? We once thought it meant to deny ourself some material pleasure or comfort. Now we see self-denial in a very different light. We know we must deny and overcome all selfhood apart from God, Good,—all that is unlike our true self, the spiritual man, made in God's image and likeness. When I think of the change Christian Science has wrought in me, my heart goes out in love and gratitude to our dear Leader, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

M. E. M., Madison, Ga.

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