Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 444), "Step by step will those who trust Him find that 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Many people had the opportunity to feel God's ever-present help during the year 1940. I have had so many proofs of this help that it seems impossible to relate them all in a few words. I will mention the more striking experiences.

During the time I was at the front in a regiment of tanks I was protected, though often exposed to bombardment and fighting. And there was not a day when I did not find time to read the whole or at least a part of the beautiful Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly, which are a constant help to us in our present need. Once we were surrounded by the enemy in such a way that it seemed impossible to escape, and the village in which we were located was under continual bombardment during the whole day.

I remembered then the wonderful experience related in the pamphlet "Safety" of a mining engineer and his wife, who were surrounded by a great forest fire. Even in these extreme circumstances I felt God's presence and love all around me, and found time to read the entire Lesson in my Bible and my Science and Health, the pocket editions in English. These books are always with me, and they are my best friends and guides every day.

After reading the last section, I felt sure that there was a way of escape, and my heart was filled with trust in God. A quarter of an hour later our colonel decided to try to escape by a little road over the mountains surrounding the valley where we were located. We succeeded in this operation, though the enemy tried to stop the column by shelling the road. That evening we reached the rest of our regiment, and our colonel said that our escape was really a miracle. To me, it was a proof that God's omnipotence may be demonstrated in every circumstance, when we are faithful and trust in Him.

Another noteworthy incident occurred some days later. I was sitting on a heap of stones at a roadside, waiting for orders. I was also busy studying the Lesson Sermon. Suddenly I felt that I must stop reading and realize God's protection immediately. I crossed the road, and I had been on the other side but a few moments when a large shell fell on the exact spot where I had been sitting. A splinter wounded me in the leg, but I had no pain. I had to be hospitalized according to military regulations, but was thus spared from witnessing the debacle of the French army. As soon as I reached the hospital I wrote to a Christian Science practitioner asking for help. During my stay in the hospital I felt no pain, and weeks later I was walking normally, to the great astonishment of everyone around me.

Later, I was made a prisoner and taken to a camp where I had to work very hard and where there was very little to eat. At one time I accepted thoughts of discouragement and despair, but from the moment I overcame these false suggestions conditions in the camp improved. Two months later, while studying the Lesson-Sermon, I saw that freedom is not a material condition, but a state of mind. That same week I was set free in a quite unexpected way.

I cannot express in words all my gratitude to God, to Christian Science, and to our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who has revealed to us this marvelous Science for the solving of all life's problems.

I am extremely grateful for membership in The Mother Church from the age of sixteen, for activity in the local group, and for the increasing understanding I have gained through my experiences. As Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 296), "Progress is born of experience," and on page 233: "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil."—Philippe Buhler, Lyon, France.

I am very happy to confirm my son's testimony, and wish to express my own deep gratitude for all the blessings received since Christian Science came into our family. During this war, we have been divinely protected and guided, and after a long separation we have been able to come together again, my husband, my two sons, and I. We have had to leave our material home and possessions and settle in new surroundings, but we understand that our true dwelling is in Spirit, indestructible, immune to error's onslaughts. As it says in Science and Health ( p. 578), "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [Love] for ever."

I am not only grateful for many beautiful healings in our family, but also for class instruction, for membership in The Mother Church, for the joy of serving in a local group, and for all that Christian Science is doing for the whole world (Mrs.) Rita Buhler-Grobet, Lyon, France.