Some months ago while working in a machine shop I did considerable work on a drilling machine. This machine was located in front of an emery wheel of medium size and high speed. One day a new stone was being fitted on the shaft and I was working on some long bars of iron at the drill, and while I had a general idea of what was going on around me I was very busy with my work and was not paying much attention to anything else. The place where I usually stood was directly in front of one end of the emery wheel shaft, but on account of the length of the bars, I was standing at the side of the machine. Suddenly I heard a most deafening ringing crash and felt a blow on my right wrist and then on my side just above the right hip. Instantly I declared "God is the only Power," and walked to a chair near by, declining all offers of assistance. I sat there for a minute or two declaring the Truth just as forcibly as I could, then got up and went to a locker where I read over several times the last paragraph on page 421 of our text-book, Science and Health, then went back to my work, feeling that the trouble was overcome. This was the second or third stone that had broken within a couple of days out of a lot that was afterwards returned to the factory as defective. It seems that the mechanic who was adjusting the wheel found that it did not run steadily enough on the end of the shaft where the former wheel had been, and he changed it to the other end, thus bringing it into line with the spot where I stood. He had finished adjusting the wheel and had scarcely stepped to one side when without any warning the stone flew to pieces, one large piece striking the bar of iron on which I was working, which was the cause of the crash and ringing noise. It then broke into several smaller pieces, one of which struck my wrist slightly fracturing the upper bone of the forearm, and then struck me in the side, bending me double from the force of the blow. When I returned to work at the machine I felt practically no pain from the blow in the side and only a dull aching sensation in my wrist. In a few minutes I seemed to be affected with nausea, and although I tried to meet it I seemed to be unsuccessful, as the next moment I fainted. The next thing I knew I felt one of the men raise my head from the floor and heard him tell some one to go for a glass of ice water. Just as soon as I regained consciousness I prayed for help and strength of God that I might be able to go on with my work and not have to give up to the error and go home.
Truth was victorious, for while I did not do much work for the next hour, during the dinner period I had the opportunity to be by myself, and by continuing the silent prayer, which Christian Scientists have learned is so effective, I was given the freedom from pain and the strength necessary to enable me to do all and more than I had been doing before the accident; for while in the morning I had some one to help me lift and carry the iron bars, several times during the afternoon there was no one with me and I lifted and carried by myself five or six bars weighing about one hundred and twenty-five pounds each and felt no inconvenience from doing this. A few days afterwards I happened to tell a friend, who is not a Christian Scientist, that an emery stone had gone to pieces at the shop and he at once asked, "Who was killed?" and seemed to be very much surprised to learn that while I had been struck, I had not been killed. I never had any more trouble with the internal injury that seemed to be present when I fainted, and within a very short time every vestige of the error was destroyed and I had learned that God is an ever-present help in time of trouble.
Jacksonville, Fla.
