Testimony of Healing September 8, 1917 Issue

I should like to give this testimony to the healing power...

C. H. Lightoller

I should like to give this testimony to the healing power of Truth. I was appointed to a ship which commissioned and was attached to the grand fleet. We had a large number of officers in the ward room, but I was the only Christian Scientist. The fact that I did not smoke or drink seemed to leave me as one apart, and as time went on this gap between myself and others grew to such an extent that the time came when I had not a friend in the ship—no one even to join, in the rare opportunities we had, for walks on shore. This experience on board a ship was totally new, for I had always been "hail fellow, well met," with those above and below me. It seemed as though the whole question resolved itself into whether I would just concede one point, for if I did I could at once regain their friendship. If I would only accept the invitation to "come and shake for a drink," or join in the not altogether classical yarns around the smoke room fire,—or concede just any one point,—I should find the barrier immediately broken down.

Many and many a time have I quietly taken myself off to my cabin, and how I have striven and prayed for help and strength—week after week and month after month, till at last I became once again "one of the boys," but this time on God's terms. I can hardly trace the gradual answering to Truth, but slowly and surely the change was wrought, until three times I sent by request for a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, which with my own made four copies of the textbook which were being read in the ship. My companions for walks and sails were only limited by the capacity of the boat. My only help through that trying time was the understanding of God as taught in the Bible and explained in the textbook of Christian Science.

My gratitude for this experience and for the understanding of God and man that has been placed within my reach by Mrs. Eddy's teachings is deep and sincere, for I was able to prove conclusively that "one on God's side is a majority."—Lieut. C. H. Lightoller, London, England.

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