The progressive development of Christian Science in our country has been marked since 1940. Before the war there were two Christian Science Societies and two Reading Rooms serving a comparatively small number of Scientists. When invasion seemed imminent, many business houses moved their personnel to less vulnerable areas and the societies were thus deprived of the services of many of their members.

Immediately thereafter, troops began to pour into this district, and our activities increased as the opportunities for service multiplied many times. During this period it seemed as though the librarian in our Reading Room was all that was stationary in a revolving universe. Many requests for assistance were gladly taken care of.

When restrictions were imposed on imports early in the war, we found ourselves utterly dependent on divine Love for the meeting of our increasing need for Bibles and copies of the Christian Science textbook and periodicals. Some had to wait for months to borrow a book.

Men and women in the armed forces had their needs wonderfully met in the free service editions of the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. These gift books were just one more proof of the compassionate understanding of the needs of men which characterizes the work of The Mother Church. Until they received their free books, most of the recipients in this area knew nothing whatever about the teachings of Christian Science.

We are very grateful for the privilege, which was extended to us by The Mother Church, of making reprints of the Christian Science Quarterly Lesson-Sermons. A Hindu printer, reared in a Scottish mission, did the printing work for us and has never presented a statement for services rendered.

One outstanding result of the wartime experience is the feeling of a closer relationship and friendship with the workers in Boston. They have expressed constant patience and loving understanding and innumerable occasions. We thought our problems were multiple, but we knew the problems which were presented to The Mother Church at this time were much bigger than ours, and ours appeared small to us in comparison. We were constantly encouraged to continue in good work, and for the support which we felt at this time we can never adequately express our gratitude.

This compassionate co-operation has given our membership a greater sense of belonging to The Mother Church, and of working side by side with the workers in Boston and throughout the world. Much of the discouragement that we often felt before the war, when growth in Christian Science seemed slow, has been dispelled. Loneliness was healed when the members of our society began to realize more fully that even to human sense we are not a small fragment of the Christian Science movement, a long way from The Mother Church. Through our increased opportunities to serve the Cause of Christian Science in helping those from distant lands, we proved ourselves at one with The Mother Church.

We are sure that in this area much more good has been accomplished for Christian Science than we can measure. After an engagement in which a very youthful Scot experienced remarkable protection, his men, who were all Punjabis, said to him, "We have come to know that your God has built a little roof over your head." This recognition of divine protection encouraged one Indian Christian to ask this young Scot for the loan of his Science and Health, which he read with great interest. The men in the young man's regiment said that they knew his protection had also meant protection for them.

A young American member of a bomber crew became aware of the fears and superstitions of his comrades. The group had received instructions to make two more flights over an important target before being relieved, and were told to expect opposition and heavy flak. Before making this flight, the American took his Bible and Science and Health to a quiet place and studied to clear his thought of the mesmerism of fear, and of the beliefs of good and bad luck. His thought was free after he realized that, when he had overcome in his own consciousness the doubt, uncertainty, and fear of a power apart from God, he had overcome the "enemy." He then saw that in the truth of being there is no enemy and no place for an enemy to be. The two flights were successful and harmonious, and no opposition came near these aircraft.

Many more people resident here have become interested in Christian Science through the multiplied activities of wartime than would normally be the case. We feel that when the surplus of service people leave us, we shall find, in the words of our Leader in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 356), that "the seed of Christian Science, which when sown was 'the least of all seeds,' has sprung up, borne fruit, and the birds of the air, the uplifted desires of the human heart, have lodged in its branches."