For the privilege of many years' instruction in the Christian Science Sunday School I am deeply grateful. There I learned to study the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly daily and to turn to the Bible and to the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, to obtain that understanding of God which brings inspiration and healing.
During thirty-four months and nineteen days of overseas duty in World War II, there were many opportunities for me to test the practical nature of what I had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School. I found renewed inspiration by studying the Lesson-Sermons and by reading the articles published in the Christian Science periodicals.
While I was attending Officer Candidate School at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, sixteen other candidates and I were called before a board of officers to determine whether we were to complete the course or be "washed out." The night before I was to appear before the board, I read in the Bible these words (Acts 10: 34, 35), "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." The thought that "God is no respecter of persons" freed me from fear of the interview. I was able to appear before the examining board the next day confident that I did possess the qualifications necessary to become an officer. Of the seventeen men who appeared before the board that day, only one other candidate and I were allowed to remain in school.
The battalion to which I was assigned after graduation from Officer Candidate School moved to Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. There, about two degrees south of the equator, we spent six months of intense activity preparing for the invasion of the Philippine Islands. Thirteen eight-hour shifts every twelve days I spent in a signal center under pressure of man-power shortages and an ever-increasing volume of messages to be handled. Company duties occupied about eight additional hours daily. One night, as I climbed the hill to go on duty at midnight, I felt completely worn out. It did not seem that I could walk another step. Then the words from one of our hymns came to me like a refreshing breeze (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 158):
O ye beneath life's crushing load
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.
My weariness disappeared, and I was able to go on duty that night. Many times during my six months in New Guinea and almost a year in the Philippines, Christian Science proved adequate to dispel fatigue, to protect me from bodily harm, and from all manner of tropical disease.
The Wartime Activities of The Mother Church continually blessed me while I was in the Army. I am grateful for the friendliness and helpfulness of each of the Christian Science Wartime Ministers, chaplains, and volunteer Wartime Workers with whom I came in contact. I am also grateful for the privilege I had of spending a few days resting and studying at the Sanatorium of the Christian Science Benevolent Association at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, before going overseas and again upon returning to the United States. For class instruction from a consecrated teacher of Christian Science, I am particularly grateful.— Denver, Colorado.
