"Oh , how I love God!" Such was the involuntary outcry of a woman who had just passed unscathed through one of the greatest calamities of modern times. The rumbling earthquake of Christmas night, 1917, had turned more than a hundred thousand people into the streets homeless, and had left many others among the ruins. Guatemala City had fallen! The warning shock came at eleven o'clock at night and inside half an hour the rich capital of the Republic of Guatemala lay in ruins.

In June we had returned to this beautiful southland. In August, the first Christian Science services were begun in our home with from five to eleven persons in attendance. A wonderful healing that had previously taken place awakened much interest in the truths of Christian Science and brought inquirers. Other healings followed, and soon over a dozen people were earnestly studying the literature so kindly sent by the publication committee, and reading the Monitor, besides two copies of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" sent by a student's association. Our second reader provided copies of the Quarterly, and daily we were rising through faithful study out of the stupefying beliefs of materiality into the consciousness of spiritual reality that means deliverance from captive sense.

About two months after our services had started there began to sound in my consciousness the words of the seventh verse of the ninety-first psalm: "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." At first I believed this reiteration to be merely an echo of thought, but I finally came to accept it as a promise of entire protection,—from what I could not even surmise. Three months passed with these words of promise beating a rhythmic accompaniment to my steps. Thought rose on wings of faith until the entire consciousness was flooded with the understanding that God alone has presence and power. With this all-pervading sense of the ever presence and the allness of God and the consequent nothingness of evil, one who was crippled, suddenly stood free, literally leaping, and praising God. A surgeon of much repute had just pronounced it necessary to cut open the foot and again break and scrape the bone, but Christian Science spoke the "Peace, be still" and ushered into the waiting consciousness the redemptive truth that man is never at the mercy of so-called material laws.

Fortified and uplifted by ever increasing proofs of the truth of Christian Science we came finally to that Christmas night of 1917 in Guatemala. An hour had just been spent with one who seemed to be entering the "valley of the shadow," and the spoken words of Truth as set forth in our beloved textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, had so opened the floodgates of consciousness as to illumine sense with the fact of the indestructibility of being. Three of us were imbued with the peace and calm of him who said: "I am the resurrection, and the life." In less than a half hour eight in the same house stood awaiting whatever might be the material end of one of the most devastating earthquakes in history. I had sprung to my door with the first shock, to find it jammed; but the next tremble released it and I stood free. We fled into the patio, or small inside garden around which all Spanish houses are built, and instantly an inner voice seemed to warn me that I was about to be crushed by a falling timber. Immediately, as a clarion call, there came again that promise which had been as a companion for all those weeks, and as I heard the final words, "It shall not come nigh thee," a peace fell upon me which seemed to render me impervious to all fear. Gathering together the screaming servants, I bade them have no fear, for God would protect us, and the absolute conviction of the truth of the promise contained in the words calmed them.

Then came the final shock, which was like the crash of doom. We were thrown forward on to a barrel of ferns, and at this moment a huge pillar came plunging down within a foot of us; one whole side of our house fell outward. But the eight in our house escaped without injury; the supposedly dying man walked out; his wife, who had always been prostrated by every disturbance, was fearless and active, and all of us began praising God for deliverance, as taught and demonstrated in Christian Science. Some one may say that this might have happened without Christian Science. True; but no human being could have passed through such an experience fearlessly without a knowledge of its demonstrable truths.

The nine nights and days that followed were spent in the street beside our house, where a smaller house had completely fallen. We were five women, one child, and two helpless men, and upon me fell the responsibility of caring for us all. Some told me afterward that they thought me half crazy when they saw me twisting and tearing timbers out of the ruins, and wondered what I was about. My husband was out of the city and there was no one to help me build a shelter. But, mindful of the fact that we have to go forth by faith at all times, not even knowing whither we are going, I collected the timber for a tent, ropes to tie it, and rugs to cover it. Then came need for a saw, hammer, and nails, and I was directed to the very spot where these were buried deep in adobe and plaster, which spot had to be reached by crawling under the fallen stable roof. As the quakes continued at frequent intervals during all of this time, nothing but the peace consequent upon the divine promise could have given me courage and strength to go on.

Just as I had assembled all of the material necessary for building a tent, a stranger who was passing offered assistance, and this was the only aid that we had during those days, as each had enough to do in caring for his own. But this fully demonstrated the fact that if we go forward in full faith God does give the increase. Every need was almost miraculously met, so that those who saw exclaimed; one in bondage for thirty years to belief in a weak back was freed, so that the work of a strong man was done without any ill effects; the nine days and nights that were passed in the street under seemingly impossible conditions resulted in no harm; and, wholly through demonstration as we are taught in Christian Science, one woman was enabled to care for and house the family so suddenly given into her care.

On the night of the first shock, as our house partially fell, we went into the street and awaited the dawn. The shocks were continual until morning, and with each we could hear the crashing inside the walls. It seemed as if everything must be wholly demolished, but there quickly came the realization that as thoughts are things, I could not possibly have the experience of destroyed possessions except as I allowed my thought to dwell in the realm of material illusion. In the morning when we reentered the house we found that ten dollars would cover the entire loss! The walls of three of the rooms had been almost covered by pictures and ornaments which had been mostly swept on to the tile floors by the plaster as it fell, but not a picture was injured or a glass cracked, and only two cheap ornaments were broken! Several saw this and gave Christian Science full credit for "the miracle," for how else, they asked, could glass fall from such high places on to tile floors and be prevented from breaking?

We received great and wonderful lessons from the experience, but none of more value than one that came from two incidents worthy of recital. The lesson taught was that evil has no power of its own, and we can either bestow upon it what power it seems to have or so disarm it that it has neither semblance nor expression. For instance, because I had literally filled my thought with the sense of the allness of God, the earthquake in all its horror did not come nigh me. But I had not yet been able to wipe out a personal sense of injustice,—a sense of aggrievement over a belief of being imposed upon. Then, after my husband returned, we had a shake far more violent than any. It lasted over ten minutes, and the pandemonium caused by the crashing ruins was indescribable. One could neither see nor breathe as mortar and adobe plunged in all directions, even coming to within a few feet of us; but when it had passed my husband exclaimed, "Wasn't that dust terrible!" Of the earthquake he knew no fear, while the dust had brought to him a sense of dread and terror! Right there I saw that we give evil all the power it has.

But the greatest lesson gained was that of the utter futility of giving any value to material possessions. For five years we had been earnestly striving to learn this truth and to know that only in our Father's house of many mansions are we safe. This lesson was, however, hard to learn because the belief of value in matter is universal and tenacious, and only through fasting and prayer can we recover from the false belief that we can ourselves own something. Our sudden plunge from plenty to poverty was hard, but blessed, as we now know, for the bitter experience was but the open door to the imperishable possessions of spirituality. As thought was awakened to the one reality our needs were supplied in a small way, but not until after we had faced the severest want. Firmly we stood by the fact that God is all and meets our every need, although at times fear stood at the door and clamored for admission. Again there seemed no end to the heart-breaking problem, but truth as taught in Christian Science always sped us on our way.

For two years my husband had struggled to get possession of a large, well-known finca or plantation in this country, but just as he had it about financed, the war came and ended it all. Then we turned away from material planning, began the services in Christian Science in our home, gave much time and study to the cause, and left all in the hands of God.

Inside of two months after we had stopped striving the owner gave us complete possession of the whole big property upon satisfactory terms. So when the earthquake came and ruined those of means who had been sorry for us, they exclaimed, "How fortunate you are! For you have a home and we have nothing!" Overnight, positions had changed. Earthly possessions had gone into their native nothingness and the faithful planting of spiritual seed for five years had begun to bring in visible returns. But we knew that it was due to nothing less than the unfailing operation of divine law, and this had given us a home and a refuge from the storm. Outside of the earthquake belt and already self-supporting, the finca will furnish homes and employment for many destitute people. The calamity which befell the capital has already brought some eighty thousand persons to this part of the Republic, so the question of labor and market is solved for us and a more rational life is afforded them. Thus has the wrath of man been made to serve God. We still have a big demonstration ahead of us in the development of this property, but we have fully proved that whenever we work for the glory of God, His grace is sufficient for us.