The first sentence in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, ''To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (Pref., p vii), is a very comforting promise to me, and especially was it so when I began the study of Christian Science.

I seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and went to a psychiatrist, but after a few visits he said he could not help me. Then I went to a medical doctor, and he gave me some medicine to quiet my nerves. I began to depend so much on the medicine that I became frightened at the thought that I might run out; so I bought a bottle practically every day and hid it all over my home and office.

When the soothing effects of this sedative began to wear off (after I had taken it for a month or so), I became panic-stricken and did not know where to turn. Then one evening as I passed by a Christian Science Reading Room on my way home from work, I remembered that I had attended a Christian Science Sunday School for a short while when I was a teen-ager, and I had learned that man in God's image and likeness is already perfect and does not have to depend upon material means for health or well-being.

While in Sunday School I had memorized "the scientific statement of being," which is in our textbook; and some of these truths came back to me. I remembered the first two sentences (p. 468): "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." And as I pondered them, it came to me so clearly that God was my refuge and my strength and that through Christian Science I could learn how God would help.

I did not know how to go about studying Christian Science: but I had several friends who were Christian Scientists, so I spoke to one of them and asked him what to do. He said the first thing he would recommend would be that I get in touch with a practitioner. He gave me the names of several, and I immediately made an appointment with one of them and went to see her. She advised me to buy a copy of Science and Health, which I did on my way home from work that night.

As soon as I arrived home I started reading it, and this is when I discovered the encouraging promise in the first sentence. I read this book for hours, but every once in a while I went back to that first sentence. That night I had a few hours of restful sleep for the first time in months.

The next day I talked to the practitioner, and she explained that I could not receive Christian Science treatment if at the same time I was taking any form of medicine. I threw away all my medicine immediately, without any hesitation, as I was sure that the only way I could be helped was through Science and a better understanding of God. And every time I had a few moments at work or at home I picked up the textbook and read a page or so; but I always went back to that first sentence for encouragement and comfort. Shortly after that I began studying the weekly Lesson-Sermon, given in the Christian Science Quarterly, and attending the Sunday services and Wednesday evening meetings of a Church of Christ, Scientist.

We are taught in Science and Health (p. 323), "The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen as felt." It was only a short time after I started reading our textbook and learned that God is knowable and always available, "a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1), that I began to feel an inner peace and joy that I had never thought possible before.

Very soon I was completely healed of the nervousness, and this condition has never recurred. Since that time I have experienced better progress in business and more harmonious personal relationships and excellent mental and physical health.

I am so grateful to our Father-Mother God, and I am thankful for Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, for Mrs. Eddy, who brought the truths of Science to us, and for our dedicated practitioners, who are there to help us whenever we call on them. I am also very grateful for class instruction, which has opened up so much to me. I often waken in the morning with gratitude in my heart, singing Hymn No. 342 from the Christian Science Hymnal. It begins,

—(Mrs.) Katherine M. Kraff, Chicago, Illinois.