Speaker: We can always turn to the divine Mind as the source of wisdom, intelligence, and direction, no matter where we may be or what the circumstances. Our guest is a former naval ensign who proved this, quite literally, in one of the jungles on an island in the South Pacific. The understanding that he could be divinely directed saved his life.

I'd like you to meet Adrian DeWindt, of Haverford, Pennsylvania. Please tell us the experience, Mr. DeWindt.

Mr. DeWindt: Well, this happened during World War II, when I was with the Marines on Guadalcanal. I was doing bomb disposal work with Carlson's Raiders. I'd volunteered for it and had had special training at a Navy school. It was a school where you had to learn to be 100 per cent accurate, or you flunked. It had to be that way, because there was no margin for error in dismantling enemy bombs. So we were trained to do everything slowly and precisely.

This might have been easy for some people, but it wasn't for me. I'd always been the slapdash type. If I came close, why, that was good enough. I'd gone through college with mostly C's and a few B's. So I would never have passed that course if I hadn't relied on God as the divine Mind, the source of all intelligence. And it was this same reliance on the unerring divine Mind that saved my life that day on Guadalcanal.

The enemy had been using a new type of land mine. They'd left a lot of them around as booby traps so that we wouldn't use the jungle trails. At the time of this incident, I was in a trench taking one of the new mines apart to see how it worked so that we could learn how to disarm them.

The other men stayed a safe distance away, and before I made each move I would call out to them what I was going to do so that they could take it down.

At first everything went very easily. I "peeled" the mine down to the explosive unit. But then I reached a point where my training couldn't help me any more. There was just no way of knowing the correct thing to do, and I couldn't afford to make a mistake. That's when I turned to God for guidance, as I'd learned to do in Christian Science. I rejected the thought that there was any such thing as luck—good luck or bad luck. I knew that the divine law of harmony always brings a right result and that I could be led to do the right thing. I knew that God is perfect Mind, that He is the only source of true intelligence, and that in reality man reflects this Mind. I knew that if I relied completely on this Mind, I couldn't make a mistake.

I began turning this bomb over in my hands. I didn't know what to do. Then I remembered a passage in the Bible. It's where Christ Jesus said, "There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed." And so I prayed, knowing that the right step would be uncovered.

All of a sudden I noticed a small hole on one side—a little tiny thing—maybe a sixteenth of an inch in diameter. It was covered with a metal foil painted like the rest of the bomb so that you wouldn't notice it. I took a knife blade and scratched away this covering, very gently. I kept praying the best I could. I peered in, one way and another, but I couldn't see anything.

Then I reached down and picked up a little twig. The thought came to jam the twig into that hole. So I did, very firmly. Then I started taking off what was obviously the striker of the firing mechanism. All of a sudden I heard the striker release, but it just hit the little twig instead of hitting the cap which would have set off the explosive charge.

Then I realized that if I'd followed the obvious course, if I'd just tried to take the striker off very gently and carefully as I'd done with lots of other types of bombs, the thing would have gone off because of this special mechanism. But I'd turned wholeheartedly to God, divine Mind, for guidance. You see, I'd done that first before I made any move, and that's what led me to do the right thing.

Speaker: Well, Mr. DeWindt, you've given us a convincing answer to the question, "Is it true that we can be divinely directed?" There was certainly no question about that in your experience.

Now, friends, I'd like to talk a little further about this. You'll recall our guest found help and inspiration in the words of Christ Jesus. The teachings and healings of the Master are the very foundation of the practice of Christian Science. Familiarity with the Bible and Jesus' words gave our guest confidence in God as able to provide direction and guidance. He grasped the vital and life-preserving fact that God is divine Mind and that this Mind is unerring and all-powerful.

In many verses of the Bible we learn of God as the one supreme intelligence, the one Mind. The prophet Isaiah said: "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?" And St. Paul spoke in a similar way in the New Testament.

The Bible also reveals God as unchanging Love constantly imparting right ideas. Our guest proved, when faced with what appeared to be an extremely perilous situation, how essential it is to listen for divine direction. He refused to believe that luck, good luck or bad luck, could control his activities. He saw the importance of freeing himself from any such superstition. Instead, he recognized the power of God's law to maintain harmony. You'll recall that he said he knew that the law of harmony always brings a right result and that he could be led to do the right thing.

Now, just how does an understanding of God as divine Mind lead us to take the right steps at the right time? It does this by showing us that God is everywhere and all-powerful and that there must be only one true consciousness, one infinite Mind. When we accept the Bible declaration that man is made in the spiritual image and likeness of God, then we draw the conclusion that this divine consciousness is reflected by spiritual man. So man can never be separated from the source of intelligence.

When you really think over this relationship of God and man and grasp its meaning, you eliminate fear and feel safe in God's care. Divine Mind is forever supplying man, God's likeness, with the right ideas that direct and heal and protect. Through these right ideas the correct human footsteps appear.

This prayerful process of thought is explained further in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This is what Mary Baker Eddy has written (p. 506): "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."

Friends, it certainly is true that divine Mind leads us when we understand this Mind and listen obediently for divine direction.

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 237 from the Christian Science Hymnal (O may we be still and seek Him).