Most persons come to Christian Science through physical suffering. I accepted it through conviction, nearly twenty years ago. When first I heard of Christian Science my mother was investigating it, and it seemed to me a very beautiful theory. The practical side of it did not appear to me until a year later, when the subject was more fully explained to me by one who had just began to practise in this city. I saw at once that this was the truth, and I have never changed my opinion. This new-old knowledge so absorbed my thought for many months that I could read nothing else, not even a novel or newspaper. I read everything I could find on this subject, and the Bible became a new book to me. What held me was the wonderful fact that the same healing performed in Jesus' time could be done in ours, although the Church had neglected this work of the Master for fifteen centuries. Instead of there being two distinct periods, the time in which Jesus lived and our time; instead of his being a remote divinity whom we had been taught to worship, the Christ now bore a personal relationship to me. My first healing was an added wonder to me, further intensifying this relationship.

There being then no organized Christian Science services where we lived, we remained in our church until the clergyman denounced Christian Science from the pulpit because some of the members were investigating it. Then we left. I stayed at home Sunday mornings and read the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It has been interesting to observe the development of Christian Science in St. Louis in these years, from the meager gatherings in private houses to the occupancy of the new First Church edifice in July, 1904. It was said that we would not retain those large congregations after the Exposition. As a matter of fact, it has become one of the problems of this field how to handle conveniently the increasing numbers at services and lectures,—three flourishing branch churches having left First Church since that time without being missed.

I have seen many proofs of the truth of Christian Science in physical healing; having been myself healed of malarial trouble with two weeks' treatment. One summer, while traveling abroad, a tooth began to give me great pain. I was leaving Paris with friends, doing the regular sightseeing every day till we stopped at The Hague. I got little relief, being on the go all day and getting no sleep because of the pain till after midnight. I was using my best understanding of Science for it; but had no privacy for reading, my friends not being Scientists. After two weeks the rest of the party left for home, and I settled down to sketch in a little village near Amsterdam. But the first day I was in too nervous a state to do anything. I made an engagement with a well-known dentist in The Hague; also writing to a Christian Scientist in Paris for treatment, there being no practitioner in Holland at that time. The treatment was given on receipt of the letter, and that night I slept normally for the first time in two weeks. The next morning all pain had vanished, so that when I appeared at the dentist's and told him this, he looked greatly surprised. The pain did not return. As well as receiving help myself, I am thankful to be able to help others. A sister asked for help for a trouble of three months' standing after the birth of a child, the doctor failing to give relief. The result was not only physical healing in two days, but a changed mental attitude towards Christian Science, and to-day she is an efficient worker in her own family.

I am also grateful for the benefit received in my work. It has been my privilege to spend some time abroad in the study of art, devoting a good part of that time to the pictures in the great galleries,—and among various new ideas brought to the student's notice, one fact impressed itself very strongly; that is, the expression or manifestation of the one Mind. It was to me a special proof; because I realized that no human intellect, unaided, could possibly have accomplished those marvelous results. If the religious thought of the old painters, such as Albrecht Dürer, Holbein, and Fra Angelico, had not been so strong, and if they had not done their work with the guileless sincerity of children, they would not have held the admiration of succeeding generations of artists nor inspired them to individual effort. Our gifted contemporary, St. Gaudens, like them, possessed that primitive sincerity.

No career is so bound by human restrictions as this of art. There is first the limitation of talent and temperament; then of power, and age. Even sex will enter into it. To these, Christian Science has a complete answer—a rule to combat this falsity of argument. For, to the student of Christian Science, admitting the necessity of a distinct bent for expression along a special line, how can there be limitation to the one creative action, annihilating, as it does, the sense of lack, the ban of years, and all discrimination between masculine and feminine ability? Another obstacle is criticism,—not alone that from our fellow-artists and the lay brother, but that which we load upon ourselves. This is fear—and one of the strongest opponents to progress. To this, Christian Science offers a panacea of surety for fear; power, for the feeling of incapacity; union, for separateness of the masucline and feminine qualities. Whatever bearing Christian Science may have on the art of the future will be evidenced first by sincerity; and secondly, by omission of the competitive spirit which is specially generated in the business side of this profession.

Christian Science is of inestimable value to workers in any branch of art. I wish all might avail themselves of the open fount. As for myself, the study has changed a natural inclination to discouragement and self-limitation to more confidence that in infinite Love there is supply of ability, strength, and insight into the truth which I wish to portray; and, keeping hold of this thought, after some years of simultaneous study of art and Christian Science, in the face of obstacles and apparent failure, I succeeded in finding myself in my work. Fear has also been reduced—the fear of not achieving my place. The interest in competition has been destroyed, knowing that there is abundance for all, and that just credit will be given my own work without crowding out another. Then, the spirit of criticism has been much modified, so that some good may be seen in work which formerly I condemned as hopeless. If every work attempted, every picture painted, were handled mentally in this way by artists, there would be more general success.

In one respect, particularly, we have Mrs. Eddy to thank, for breaking that mortal spell upon the world—the inequality of the sexes. This one point has given special freedom to the artist, and expansion never experienced before. If she had done nothing else, this alone would make her what she is to-day—the world's foremost citizen.

Cornelia F. Maury, St. Louis, Mo.