CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR
“During the many months I have been with the colors I have had great cause to be grateful for the beneficence of The Mother Church and the branch churches around the world.
“While doing duty with my regiment on the western front in France we were caught in a barrage. After several hours with my comrades falling all around me, I too fell exhausted; but with these words on my lips, ‘Here, Lord, I fall in Thy arms,’ and repeating the Scientific Statement of Being from Science and Health, together with a verse from the 91st Psalm, ‘A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.’
“When I regained consciousness I was in a field hospital, receiving the best of attention and recovering from the effects of poisonous gases. Later, together with two hundred other disabled soldiers and convalescents, I was placed aboard the steamer Mount Vernon bound for the United States. Some two hundred miles out from port we encountered a nest of German submarines and were torpedoed, the shot striking amidship. Taking my place in the lifeboat, I began to realize that divine Love is present at sea as well as on land and protects all His children. When I opened my eyes it was to behold the love that exists between the overseas boys and the sailors, for the marines took big men in their arms, carried them up a flight of stairs and tenderly placed them in lifeboats. There was no excitement. The enginemen were able to disconnect the broken boilers, resume steam in the others, and we returned to port under our own steam.
“I was treated at three different army hospitals in the United States. After many examinations and X-Ray pictures, materia medica diagnosed my case as pulmonary tuberculosis, active in the upper lobes, caused by the poisonous gases I had inhaled. They administered maximum treatment without appreciable results and apparently did not understand the case. I asked for Christian Science treatment which was cheerfully given and my improvement was very rapid. The
358
