Article January 1, 1910 Issue

"MY PRESENCE SHALL GO WITH THEE"

MARY WHEELER.

Walking down the street the other day, I found myself suddenly stopping short in the path. Before I had time to think or reason, some movement, flashing dimly upon my sight a few feet at one side, had caused me to come instantly to a halt, and the next second a rapidly driven bicycle dashed across the walk just before my face. The physical instinct of self-preservation, so called, had instantaneously responded to the unexpected warning, and saved me from the impending danger.

As I walked on, drawing a long breath of thankfulness, I fell to pondering the incident. Human philosophy declares that "self-preservation is the first law of nature." Mortal belief would say that an age-long attitude of fear and watchfulness in the midst of adverse conditions, on the part of my material ancestry, had bequeathed to me the unconscious habit of being always on guard against possible harm to the body, and that this habit had been my protection in the unforeseen moment of peril. Viewed in the light of Christian Science, however, such an experience has a profounder significance, and brings out the possibility and importance of another kind of watchfulness, namely, that of being always mentally and spiritually on guard. It becomes a summons to be as alert in the intuitive faculties as in the so-called physical, to the presence or approach of evil of any kind, and as ready in its destruction or avoidance.

Not indeed through fear, but rather through steadfast practice in the assured consciousness of good, should the Christian Scientist become so alert to recognize all that is unlike good, that his detection of it will be instinctive and instantaneous. He should so persistently cultivate the habit of meeting every suggestion of evil with the mental act of self-defense, that no previous deliberation or process of reasoning will be necessary. Christian Science shows us that all error, even physical harm or danger, is really mental in its nature and origin, and we should accustom ourselves so to regard it.

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