Activities for the Armed Services
[This month's columns are devoted exclusively to reports given June 7, 1955, at the Workshop Meeting of Christian Science Activities for the Armed Services]
Maryland
A man who from early boyhood had his heart set on becoming a pilot in the Air Force was, to use a common expression, "washed out" and assigned to other duty. This transfer came as such a severe disappointment that the serviceman was affected mentally and placed in a military hospital.
The patient occupied a small room in a locked ward. The only piece of furniture in the room was a cot. The serviceman sat on this cot impassively. Without moving, he stared into space.
The Christian Science Minister, who was called to help the man, at first seemed unable to lift him out of his despondency and inability to speak. While reading the Lesson-Sermon, given in the Christian Science Quarterly, at another military installation, the Minister was deeply impressed by this statement in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 454): "Love is priestess at the altar of Truth." These words brought such illumination that he realized divine Love could and would free the serviceman from the fetters of depression.
When the Minister arrived at the hospital, he quickly decided that the first thing he and the patient were going to do was to say the Lord's Prayer together. The Minister put his arm around the serviceman and held him up, saying, "We will repeat together the Lord's Prayer and its spiritual interpretation" (Science and Health, pp. 16, 17). When the Minister prayed aloud, he felt the patient wanted to join him. However, the serviceman did not utter a word. The Minister repeated the Lord's Prayer and its spiritual interpretation again. The second time, the patient joined him in these words from the textbook: "And Love is reflected in love" (p. 17). The man felt and responded quickly to the Minister's treatment. Together they repeated familiar passages from the Bible, and then, after speaking about the true sense of home, they again turned their thoughts toward God and heaven.
When the Minister returned the next day, he found the man working in the hospital kitchen. He was well and free. After leaving him, the Minister called on the man's doctor. The medical officer said: "I visited the patient a short time before you called yesterday. He was despondent and in the same position as the one in which you found him when you entered the room. When you came out, he was healed. What did you do?"
The Minister knew that it was divine Love that had healed the man. However, in reply he referred the medical officer to Science and Health, saying that the Christian Science textbook would explain what he had done. The medical officer accepted Science and Health, read it, and was very much interested in it.
Canada
A Christian Science Minister assigned to a Canadian sanatorium run by the Department of Veterans' Affairs always went to the hospital with copies of The Christian Science Monitor for distribution to those who desired to read them.
One afternoon the Minister saw a bed patient who was suffering from tuberculosis. When he stopped to give the patient a Monitor the Minister said, "If you like it, I will be along with another next week." When he returned, he found the patient had enjoyed the Monitor and desired a second copy. The third time he called he entered into conversation with the veteran and referred to the religious articles in the Monitor. The patient acknowledged having read and enjoyed them very much. At this point the Minister spoke about the Christian Science textbook and explained that Science and Health might be obtained in the hospital library. When he returned the following week and found the man reading the textbook, he gave the patient a Christian Science Quarterly so that he might study the Lesson-Sermon.
The patient explained that he had suffered for some time from headaches and that he had sought relief by taking aspirin. After a short acquaintance with Christian Science, he decided he would read Science and Health instead of taking the aspirin if he suffered from another headache. Another headache did come, but it disappeared quickly after he began reading the textbook.
The Minister did not give the patient Christian Science treatment, but gave him Christian Science periodicals to read. He also encouraged him in his study and made a few needed explanations about the truth.
After studying Science and Health for about three weeks the veteran was able to go home for a week end. He said that he was much better. Soon the Minister was able to take him to services in a Church of Christ, Scientist. Eventually the patient was discharged from the hospital completely healed of tuberculosis as the result of his study of Christian Science. Since then he and his wife have regularly attended a Church of Christ, Scientist, and their child goes to the Christian Science Sunday School.
