Daily Bread for All

An inspiring story of the manner in which the Lesson-Sermon reached Christian Scientists in France during the early war years came to light recently. After France's capitulation in 1940 it was impossible to send copies of the Christian Science Quarterly into Occupied France. However workers in Unoccupied France rewrapped large numbers of Quarterlies sent there for shipment to the three Christian Science churches in Paris. When the first shipment to Unoccupied France arrived from B"Mo!i and the Quarterlies were rewrapped. the one in charge of this activity, in making out the declaration, designated the packages to be sent over the border its printed matter. But the exchange of printed matter between the two section of the country was prohibited, and the parcels were refused by the postmaster. Three attempts were made to send them, and each time they, were refused. Turning to her Bible, the Christian Scientist found these words in the third chapter of Revelation: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." She again took the packages to the post office. This time they were marked livret, which can mean a piece of music or a little book. The same postal employee who had three times before rejected the parcels now accepted them.

During this time communication between the occupied and unoccupied areas was possible only by means of official postcards supplied by the occupying forces. Postcards indicating the needs of those in Occupied France were sent to the unoccupied territory. On them The Mother Church was referred to as "mother " and various departments in Boston with which the Scientists in Unoccupied France wished to communicate were designated by such phrases as "mother's son. Herbert." A request for additional Quarterlies might read, "Please ask mother for four hundred more."

Thus the Lesson-Sermons reached Scientists in France until the spring of 1942 when the entire country was occupied, and American government regulations prohibiting the sending of parcels to occupied countries went into effect. From then on one Quarterly reached Vichy, France through Lisbon every three months in ample time for the reprints authorized by The Christian Science Board of Directors in Boston to be made and sent to Paris. Although each copy of the Quarterly arrived minus its cover, the pages within were intact and almost invariably bore the imprint if the German censorship stamp. And, despite the shortage, there was always enough paper available to print the necessary number of copies. This activity continued for about a year, when it became possible to send a single copy of the Quarterly direct to Paris, where it was reprinted and distributed.

"Effectual fervent prayer"

From the forest fire areas of Maine heartening proof of the power of prayer has been reported. As the flames advanced on the town of Bar Harbor, a small band of faithful Christian Scientists gathered in the home of one of the members, two blocks from the church. They prayed fervently together, holding firmly to the all-power and all-presence of God. They were sure that the Christ, Truth, was actively present in what to material sense seemed the midst of this conflagration, even as it was with the young Hebrews who were cast into the fiery furnace. Suddenly the advancing flames, which had destroyed everything over a five-mile area, died down, ninety yards from the church.

One who visited the church the following night found an opened copy of the Sentinel lying on one of the tables in the Reading Room, which is in the church edifice. Turning to it, he found Jeremiah's words of benediction (Jer. 31:12), "And their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow am more at all." Truly the fires of material sense had stopped short when they reached this spiritual oasis.

Fruitage From Scotland

In a well-known newspaper published in Scotland there appears a daily feature known as "Thoughts for Today." For some time quotations from the works of Mary Baker Eddy have appeared in this feature on an average of twice a month, usually in the Wednesday or Saturday editions.

One woman who came to a Christian Science Reading Room to purchase a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy related the following incident. So impressed was she by a passage quoted that she had gone to the public library to find out whether or not any books had been written by Mrs. Eddy, with whose name she was unfamiliar. The librarian loaned her a copy of the textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scripture" by Mary Baker Eddy. As a result of reading it she was healed of two chronic discordant conditions. Her visit to the Reading Room had occurred when she and her husband decided that they must purchase their own copy of this book which had brought such a rich blessing into their experience.