Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/421

Rh Mrs. Eddy he had, at least, learned obedience in a hard and manly school. The story of his life at sea, which he contributed in several articles to the Christian Science Journal, is a vigorous and sturdy piece of narrative-writing, full of wrecks and typhoons and adventures with cannibal tribes, which make his subsequent career seem all the more remarkable. Concerning his first meeting with Mrs. Eddy in 1884, and his conversion to Christian Science, he writes at length. His last voyage, from Peru home to Boston, was made for the purpose of joining his invalid wife.

Upon my arrival [he says], I found her much lower than I had supposed, and the consultation of physicians immediately secured only made it evident that she could not live long. In anxiety and distress, I then added my own knowledge of medicine of necessity considerable to have enabled me for so many years to care properly for both passengers and crew. . . . One evening, as I was sitting hopeless at my wife's bedside, a friend called and asked, “Captain, why don't you get a Christian Scientist to treat your wife?”

The captain visited a healer, and learned for the first time of the existence of Mrs. Eddy. He thought, “If the healer can do so much, his teacher must heal instantly.” In his narrative the captain says:

So, like a drowning man grasping at a straw, with alternating hopes and fears besieging me on the way, I went to the college. In answer to my request for a personal interview, Mrs. Eddy kindly granted me an extended audience, though to my appeal for help she made the gentle announcement that she herself did not now take patients. At this my heart failed utterly, for I felt that none less than the founder was equal to the healing necessary in my case. As I was about to leave, she turned to me and said with much earnestness, “Captain, why don't you heal your wife yourself?” I stood spellbound. I did not know what to say or think. Finally I stammered out, “How can I heal my wife? Have I not procured the best medical aid? What more can I do?” Gently she said, “Learn how to heal.” Without hesitation I returned to the