Article April 20, 1918 Issue

Christian Science and the Sailor

WILLIAM HALE COOMBER

The problems which present themselves to the sailor who is a student of Christian Science are different in some ways from those of the individuals whose life is mainly spent on shore, but in one respect at any rate they are the same, inasmuch as the overcoming of evil by good is just as possible to the man who sails the seas as in any other experience of human life. Perhaps there is as varied a life afloat as there is on shore, owing to the fact that in these days there is such a variety of ships which ply the ocean—from the huge dreadnought to the little torpedo boat, and from the gigantic ocean liner to the tiny tug. In whatever ship one may be, whether as officer or man, in a big ship or a little ship, in a warship or a merchant vessel, a man who is learning to know something of God and man as Christian Science teaches will find that, if he applies what he knows, a knowledge of Christian Science can improve any situation in which he may happen to be.

Paramount in these times is the question of traversing the seas in safety, owing to the fact that hostile submarines may be in a vessel's path and mines may be encountered; and, while there are other considerations consequent upon the majority of the nations of the earth being in a state of war, this would appear to be uppermost in most people's minds. All kinds of devices in the shape of patrolling vessels, ships of war for escorting transports and all kinds of merchant craft, have been tried to meet the menace to the safe transit of the seas, but still ships are sunk; and yet the man or woman who has the right idea of God and man as Christian Science teaches, and who uses that understanding, possesses the means of passing safely through such experiences in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The Bible promises this safety, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy teaches it, and the practical truth in this direction as in others is being proved by those who are grasping something of the allness of good and the unreality of evil. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," said the psalmist, or in other words, the truly "right thinker" is under God's care wherever he may be.

If he may be permitted to refer to his own experience, the writer has served some eighteen years at sea, and during the present war for a period of eighteen months on a ship of war, and has been constantly at sea. While on one ship, he subsequently learned that a certain hostile submarine commander, who was taken prisoner, had stated that he was constantly coming across the small squadron in which this ship was, but that he never could get within really sitting shot with a torpedo. On another occasion while the writer's ship was escorting a transport, the latter was torpedoed and sunk, but no attempt was made to fire at the escorting ship, although she had to remain in the neighborhood of the sinking vessel for some two hours to pick up the survivors. During all this time he endeavored to keep his thought clear, remembering the omnipresence and omnipresence of divine Love, and eventually all the survivors were brought safely into port.

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