As a boy in my teens I witnessed much injustice, wickedness, and cruelty during World War I, and I asked myself for what reason the people were suffering from these crimes and for what reason I was experiencing them too. So I started then to think the question over. I also asked: What is the aim of man's life? What is the end for myself? Neither home, school, society, nor church gave me an answer. For a few years I looked for the solution to that problem; but the harder I tried to find it, the more I was confused. Being disappointed, I started to seek satisfaction in sports. It was long before the opportunity to find the solution came, but thanks to God my questions were at last answered in a satisfactory way.
A few years before the Second World War I noticed that my wife was interested in the Scriptures and in other religious books, but she never talked of them to me. I thought it was right for women to be interested in religion, but not men. Nevertheless, on the day the war broke out my wife asked me to pay a visit to her best friend, and I agreed. This woman spoke to me for nearly half an hour of God and Christ Jesus, but in a way that was quite strange to me, and I could not understand her point of view exactly.
A week later I was forced to leave my home and go to the country, where I stayed in a little town. The first day the air raid alarms sounded I hid myself in a small house. In a few minutes a bomb was dropped, and the house was demolished. For a while I lost consciousness. Although I was thought to be dead, I did recover. During that time, however, I had only one desire, namely to return home, to see that woman, and to speak with her of God. Nearly two months I stayed in the country, but at last I succeeded in returning home. The next day my wife led me once more to the woman, who was a Christian Science practitioner, and from that time I started to study Christian Science.
