Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1906).djvu/696

680 of the stomach, which had been very persistent, and I had been a slave to the cigarette habit for eighteen years. Pain and weakness had robbed me of all that one holds dear. The first symptoms of the disease appeared about five years ago In the form of severe cramps of the stomach, which finally developed into other symptoms of that painful disease. I doctored continually, my diet daily becoming more rigid, until three slices of toast became my daily allowance of food.

In this condition I left the East for my home in Chicago, hoping that a change of climate might benefit me. After spending six weeks there and finding no relief, I concluded to return East. The Sunday morning before leaving I picked up a Sunday paper, and glancing through the religious items my eyes fell on the notices of Christian Science church services. Curiosity led me to a service and I shall never forget that morning or the surprise and joy it gave me to find that beautiful church, and to know that so great a number actually believed that God does heal the sick to-day. This brought a first ray of hope. The evening service found me there again. Among the notices read was that of a reading room, giving the location and time of opening. Monday morning found me there promptly, and the first book I picked up was Science and Health which opened a new world to me.

I had dieted so long and suffered so much that I had a morbid fear of food. When I had reached and read “neither food nor the stomach, without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer” (Science and Health, p. 221), I left the reading room for something to eat. I found a bakery near by, and bought a bag of cakes