I write this testimony with love to God and gratitude for what Christian Science has taught me regarding His protecting care. As I studied Science and Health, I came upon passages taken from the Bible telling how men were saved from the fiery furnace by their understanding of divine Love. I had begun to realize that "Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated" (Science and Health, p. 323).
It is part of the business of our shop to repair broken castings by a welding process, and this requires intense heat, which is generated from two gasoline burners operated under a high air-pressure. While working over a large piece of casting, one of these burners broke, allowing the full pressure of gasoline to escape. This ignited in an immense flame, which completely enveloped me, setting my clothes on fire and burning my face, neck, and arms to a blister. Immediately I shut off the pressure, and this put out the fire and stopped the further burning of my clothes. No one was present but my father.
I refused all material aid and departed at once for home, a short distance away. Upon arriving there, I asked to be left alone, and then sat down, thinking as I did so, "I will now know how much I understand of God." Mortal mind sought to testify, but I rose higher by denying its right to a place in the consciousness of God's man. I realized that the real man could not suffer defacement, and declared God as able to maintain His likeness in perfection. While working on the side of Truth, mortal sense left, and I was alone with God. All pain vanished; I did not suffer any discomfiture, although I went back later in the afternoon and started the remaining burner, working over the heat of the fire until I finished my task. I did not wear any bandage or covering of any kind during the whole time.
