Testimony of Healing August 28, 1920 Issue

In adopting Christian Science one is bringing into his...

C. H. Lightoller

In adopting Christian Science one is bringing into his life a science, the practical part of which appeals directly to the man in the street as well as to the woman in the home, for it is most certainly applicable to problems, one and all. As surely as mathematics will bring out a correct result from a correctly stated mathematical problem, so surely will the Science of right thinking bring out a correct result in our daily lives; and where do we need it more than in our daily trials and troubles, to say nothing of danger? The need seems to be greatest when we are beset by some immediate physical danger,—not that our need is really greater, but our fear is; in fact it is the proportion of fear in the case that seems to make the danger greater and immediate help more necessary, and the arms of divine Love never seem nearer than when we require the assurance most. Given the fact that we do our work to the best of our ability when the surroundings are what one might term peaceful, then our need will be met when we land in for times of war.

During five years of active warfare it was finally brought home to me that I was able, not only to do my own job, but do it to the extent that others came and definitely asked what it was that I had got that enabled me to have such confidence and to bring things off which seemed almost humanly impossible. I have had captains of other destroyers come down into my cabin and ask the same thing and I have been able to say that it was the understanding of Christian Science that gave me both the confidence and ability as well as the protection. Of course when all is said and done it is protection that we want, and we certainly get it to an almost extraordinary degree, and I have not been the least surprised at the amazement shown by others on occasions of the following kind. I was in command of a destroyer in the Dover patrol one very dark night, when we suddenly found ourselves alongside an enemy mine-laying submarine, and after dealing with it continued our patrol, one point of which was the well-known Folkestone Gate, which was the point of departure for the many troopships crossing daily to Calais. This "Gate" was formed by a lightship which showed the only light for many miles round and formed a very convenient point to verify our position and turn back again on our patrol. Just as daylight broke we found ourselves again at this point, where we had turned so many times during the dark hours and discovered that our opponent of the previous night had laid a nice little nest of mines in readiness for the troopships. Even with daylight to help us we had the greatest difficulty in avoiding mines which we had turned amongst many times during the night. As Christian Scientists we are satisfied only with results (or demonstrations) and this was a practical demonstration of the protection afforded to ourselves and the troopships.

On another occasion we had just finished our day's work of escorting transports across channel when a thick fog set in. We were then on the English side and had to make our way back to Dunkirk. To find and enter the narrow Roads of Dunkirk, the entrance of which was situated between sandbanks on one side and a very active mine field on the other, which had been successful in blowing up several of our own destroyers, seemed about the last thing any one would undertake from choice. However, with the knowledge that God is both intelligence and protection, I made a signal to my companion destroyer to the effect that he might follow me if he wished. We shot off for the French coast at twenty knots, the other destroyer following, having elected to rely upon us for guidance. At the entrance to the Roads there is a similar buoy to one marking the center of the mine field, only the latter was painted red; at the time I figured out that we should see the buoy marking the entrance, we found ourselves, instead, right alongside the red painted buoy, or in other words we were exactly in the center of the mine field. Right there when our human need was greatest, divine Love was nearest, to the extent that I was able to clear away almost every sense of fear and so shape a course through the danger and bring my own ship and my companion safely into harbor. These are the blessings that the understanding of Christian Science brings, the conscious and unconscious protection of divine Love, and one is able to put into practice the golden promises of the ninety-first psalm, also to realize the truth of what Mrs. Eddy says on page 494 of Science and Health, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."

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