Article December 19, 1908 Issue

HELP IN A TRYING HOUR

ALEXANDER ALDERSON

This brief sketch of a very trying personal experience has been written with the hope that it may prove to be of interest and perhaps helpful to some of the readers of the Christian Science Sentinel. On Saturday afternoon, Oct. 3, I, with my wife, her sister, and my baby aged three years, left Liverpool, England, in the S. S. City of Dundee, bound for Egypt. All went well until early next morning, when a thick fog set in. About seven o'clock our steamer was run into by the S. S. Matina, and so badly wrecked that it sank in fourteen minutes. There was no rush or confusion on board, but we all hurried on deck, and our baby, rolled in a blanket, was the first passenger to be saved, being thrown by our captain to the sailors on the other ship and caught by the chief steward. Afterward the ladies were passed from one ship to the other.

It was at this moment that I was so tremendously helped by the slight knowledge I have of Christian Science, although we had of course all been declaring the truth of being from the first, my wife, my sister, and myself being Scientists. I was still with the sailors on our steamer, and the part of the deck where we were was just being covered by water. I remember feeling so fatigued by my previous exertions that it seemed as if I could do no more, and I had sat down on a skylight when suddenly the thought came to me that all this experience pertained only to mortal mind, and had no place in the divine order or consciousness; hence that there was no danger, and that I should be saved; though, curiously enough, I felt it was absurd to expect it. Just then I saw a sailor making for the stern, which I perceived was rising and would soon be the highest point of the steamer, and that from this point I would be able to get on the deck of the Matina. I followed the sailor and was saved, the ship going down within two minutes.

This experience has enabled us all to realize more and more the truths which Mrs. Eddy has given us in Science and Health, and I would like to express our great gratitude to her for all she has done for us. The question of supply has been wonderfully met. Not only have we never been caused any inconvenience by the total loss of our private effects, but the insurance company has paid my claim in full, so that I am none the worse financially for the experience. Two days after we landed I heard that the lord mayor of Liverpool was getting up a subscription for Captian Belton's widow, as he had been lost with the ship. I decided at once that I would give fifty pounds, though I did not know where it was coming from and told my agent so. In the mean time he had handed me my letters, and on opening them I found one was from some friends, who had enclosed one hundred pounds, thinking this gift would probably be useful under the circumstances.

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