Seven years ago, while an officer in a Naval Command School in Florida, I made a great discovery. At the time, I was one of thousands of men faced with the difficult task of a complete readjustment in life because of the war.

The purpose of the newly established military school to which I had been assigned was to thoroughly indoctrinate civilians in the basic fundamentals required of a naval officer in wartime. The subjects were of a highly specialized kind which would ordinarily require four years at Annapolis.

After three weeks of rigorous training in classes from eight in the morning till ten at night, I found myself floundering, unable to meet the demands of the course, mentally or physically. I began to fail miserably in both mind and body. A great sense of fear came over me, but I did not dare speak of my condition, for I knew I would be sent to sick bay.

I had been a professed Christian Scientist all my life, having been enrolled in the Sunday School when four years old. I turned to my knowledge of Christian Science to meet my need, but the more I tried to meet the problem in Science, the more confused I became.

Discouraged and dejected, one evening while alone in my room I picked up a copy of The Christian Science Journal which was on my desk. My attention was drawn to the Bible quotation immediately under the name of the periodical, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds."

I had read this quotation literally hundreds of times, but on this occasion I was greatly impressed. The substance of the text was most timely, for here I was, an officer in a military school apparently breaking under the strain of having to learn the methods and weapons of physical warfare.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." I pondered deeply this statement, and an entirely different sense of its meaning came to me. If the weapons of the Christian Scientist's warfare are not carnal or physical, then they must be spiritual. If the weapons are spiritual, then the warfare must be mental. Therefore, it was evident that the strongholds that needed to be pulled down in this case were the fears being entertained about my not having the intelligence or physical capacity to meet the requirements of the course.

I thought, How can this be met through God? The answer came: "If God is Mind, and intelligence is the primal quality of Mind, and intelligence is what I need right now, then intelligence, or God, is certainly the solution to the mental portion of my problem." The unfoldment continued to bless me: "God is Life, and Life is self-sustained." If Life is self-sustained, then the body does not sustain life, but Life sustains man. This pulled down the stronghold of fear of physical or bodily incapacity.

The words, "the weapons of our warfare," again occupied my attention. I looked about my room and saw books of every description which were used daily in classes, including some of three-hour periods. It suddenly dawned on me to what lengths the government was going, to be certain that we understood the texts contained in each one of these books. It was not a question of what we wanted to do: we had to study hours each day five days a week. On week ends, just to be certain that we were not memorizing the letter or subject matter, we had to leave all books and notes ashore and go on a cruise, during which time each man was assigned various duties from navigation to communications to see just how much each actually knew.

I closed the Journal and put it on my desk. In looking at the cover, I noticed the inscription under the title, "Founded April, 1883, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of the Christian Science textbook, 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.' " The reference to Science and Health as the textbook of Christian Science made a great impression on me. It became clear that Christian Science had not failed me; it was my limited knowledge of it that had failed. I knew how little time I had devoted to a systematic study of the subject. By comparison I realized that if I had devoted as little time to the textbooks on navigation as I had to the Bible and Science and Health I should have been as bad a navigator as I had been a metaphysician.

You are not a navigator until you can navigate, and I had discovered you are not a Christian Scientist until you can demonstrate. I added another subject to my curriculum, one that I put at the top of the list. No more spasmodic reading of the Bible and Science and Health; it was consistent, in-earnest business from now on.

I passed my course in the school with good marks and was able to meet the demands of the various offices I held during the remainder of my four years of active duty in the United States Coast Guard.

This experience was of inestimable value to me. However, I did not acquire an immediate demonstrable understanding of the great truths that lie within the pages of the Christian Science textbook; but that did not bother me, for navigation, gunnery, and mathematics had not come easily. The important thing was that I knew what the text was, that it was all there, and that I was on the right track.

Twelve years ago I was healed of cancer through Christian Science treatment. At the time I did not know how the healing work was done, but I did know when I was well. I relied entirely upon the work of a practitioner and the help of a Christian Science nurse. If ten years ago I had sailed across the sea, I should have been aware of a safe voyage even though I knew not how the science called navigation had made the voyage possible. Today, I know what constitutes that science called navigation, but of far greater importance, I also know something about the Science of being, or Christian Science, which enabled the qualified practitioner and nurse to bring me safely through and out of a case of cancer.—Robert C. Cannom, Lt. Cdr., USCGR, Manhattan Beach, California.