goitres, shortened limbs, hernia--he did
not wish to say they were liars, they seemed too sincere to do that, but
he fancied they were simply mistaken. How could they, or this belief, or
whatever it was, cure cancer? Good Lord! He went on disbelieving in this
way, and refusing also to read the book until one Wednesday evening when
he happened to be at the Fourth Church of Christ Scientist in New York
that a man stood up beside him in his own pew and said:

"I wish to testify to the love and mercy of God in my case, for I was
hopelessly afflicted not so very long ago and one of the vilest men I
think it is possible to be. I was raised in a family where the Bible was
read night and morning--my father was a hidebound Presbyterian--and I
was so sickened by the manner in which it was forced down my throat and
the inconsistencies which I thought I saw existing between Christian
principle and practice, even in my own home, that I said to myself I
would conform as long as I was in my father's house and eating his
bread, but when I got out I would do as I pleased. I was in my father's
house after that a number of years, until I was seventeen, and then I
went to a large city, Cincinnati, but the moment I was away and free I
threw aside all my so-called religious training and set out to do what I
thought was the most pleasant and gratifying thing for me to do. I
wanted to drink, and I did, though I was really never a very successful
drinker." Eugene smiled. "I wanted to gamble, and I did, but I was never
a very clever gambler. Still I did gamble a bit. My great weakness was
women, and here I hope none will be offended, I know they will not be,
for there may be others who need my testimony badly. I pursued women as
I would any other lure. They were really all that I desired--their
bodies. My lust was terrible. It was such a dominant thought with me
that I could not look at any good-looking woman except, as the Bible
says, to lust after her. I was vile. I became diseased. I was carried
into the First Church of Christ Scientist in Chicago, after I had spent
all my money and five years of my time on physicians and specialists,
suffering from locomotor ataxia, dropsy and kidney disease. I had
previously been healed of some other things by ordinary medicine.

"If there is anyone within the sound of my voice who is afflicted as I
was, I want him to listen to me.

"I want to say to you tonight that I am a well man--not well physically