How grateful I am to God for the many blessings received since I took up the study of Christian Science almost forty years ago. While our six children were growing up, they all had the privilege of attending a Christian Science Sunday School. As we continue our study of Christian Science, my wife and I are daily blessed with health and happiness.

Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook (Science and Health, p. 559): "The 'still, small voice' of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of Truth is, to the human mind, 'as when a lion roareth.'" Because of the incident I now relate, this statement holds special significance for me.

A few years ago my wife and I and another couple were on holiday in Hawaii. The second week of our stay was spent on Maui. After breakfast each day the four of us would go swimming in the ocean, and I would always try to float on my back. When we went swimming our first day on Maui, I again tried to float. But my legs refused. In earnest prayer to our heavenly Father I asked, "Father, what must I do to be able to float?" and the "still small voice" said, "Be absent from the body, and ... present with the Lord" (II Cor. 5:8). This thought comforted me. My legs straightened out and I was floating! Delighted, I shared this experience with my wife and friends.

After spending some time with our wives, my friend and I would swim out to a reef some distance from shore. There we would rest awhile by holding on to the reef. Then we'd swim back to shore. We did this daily. Toward the end of the week the water became very rough, but we decided to swim out to the reef anyway. One day, because my legs were dragging down in the water, the undertow pushed me over the reef and out to sea. I struggled to get turned around, but the undertow soon took me out where I lost sight of land.

Prayer to our heavenly Father was immediate. I thanked God that I was ever in His constant care. I acknowledged that God had always protected me in the past, and that I could expect His love to protect me now. I humbly asked, "Father, what do I need to know to handle this situation?" The answer came instantly, not as a "still small voice," but as "a lion roareth"—"Be absent from the body, and ... present with the Lord."

"Of course," I realized, "I am 'absent from the body, and ... present with the Lord.'" My body and legs popped up to the top of the water, and an incoming wave carried me into the reef, to the very spot where I had been. I grabbed on to the reef. My friend was still holding on to it, and I knew he had been praying to help me.

How thankful we are to God that Mrs. Eddy shared the revelation of Christian Science with the world. And how grateful we are for the many blessings we have received and still are receiving through the study and understanding of this priceless Science.

ALEXANDER M. PETTIGREW
Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

I am grateful for the opportunity to corroborate this testimony. The facts are exactly as related. I was swimming with the testifier at the time he was pulled out to sea, and I was carried to the far side of the submerged reef but not beyond it. I saw that his situation could become very serious and that more than human action was needed to overcome the force of the swift current.

I at once started to pray, affirming that no one could be outside God's protection at any time. Knowing my friend as I did, I felt that his spiritual understanding and faith in God were strong enough to protect him and avert a tragedy. The next thing I knew, he had turned on his back and was floating. He was then swept back to the reef and to the inshore side in calm water. We swam the short distance to the beach, rejoicing over the protection and grateful for still another proof that "with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26).

REGINALD LONGHURST
Portland, Oregon