While in attendance at religious services at the front, I would often think of the time when being in the Army seemed a thing impossible for me. The doctors had said that I had a leakage of the heart and stomach trouble. Then during 1914 I had a nervous breakdown and was in a hospital two weeks, and after my return home was three weeks in bed. At the end of that time Christian Science was presented to me. From the first I accepted it, but for some reason my healing was slow. When the time came for me to join the Army I was in Mexico, Missouri, and being one of the first men on the draft list to be called, I was summoned to appear for physical examination but was rejected on account of being under weight.
A few months later I was again summoned to appear for examination in my home town in Texas and was accepted. I went through examination after examination, and finally took the overseas examination and passed that, and at not one was anything found wrong with my heart or stomach. I learned many lessons while overseas and went through many peculiar experiences and hardships. Two months out of the nine that I served in France were spent in active service, partaking in two of the big American drives. Most of this time was spent in pup tents in rain and mud, and two weeks were passed in a dugout, where it was damp and disagreeable; but I experienced no suffering except for a cold that lasted a week.
I am grateful for having known of Christian Science during this time and realize more than ever that I never would have been able to join the Army or have the privilege of seeing active service overseas if it had not been for Christian Science. My one wish is that more may be partakers of this truth, and that we may all learn to "love one another with a pure heart fervently."— San Antonio, Texas.
