The One Protection

A study of the life of Joseph as given in the last fourteen chapters of Genesis, in which is described his marvelous protection during trials of the most severe nature, together with correlative references on the subject of divine protection as found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and other writings by Mrs. Eddy, brings out many helpful facts as to what this protection consists of and what the human family needs protection from. The hatred and jealousy that induced Joseph's brothers to sell him to the Midianite merchantmen; his blameless, consecrated life while living in Egypt, and his loving, forgiving attitude toward his brothers in later years when he provided their supply during the years of famine, are all familiar incidents to Bible students. We find in this record no account of hatred or retaliation on Joseph's part. Had it been otherwise, how different might have been the ensuring history of his immediate family and of the entire Jewish race. On the contrary he was finally able to say to his brothers in the spirit of tender forgiveness, "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life .... So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God." Small wonder that such an attitude of humility and selflessness made him a prosperous man, overseer in Pharaoh's house, and that "the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand."

This narrative, like all others in the Bible, would be merely interesting reading and of no particular value to us could we not understand and utilize this same sure protection in our own day. Joseph's state of thought is well described by Mrs. Eddy on page 571 of Science and Health where she says: "At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." The writer will never cease to be grateful for the first ray of light that was shed on this statement years ago by a Christian Science practitioner. A certain difficulty was being talked over, and the writer stated that she was using this thought of a panoply as protection against malicious mental malpractice. The practitioner immediately asked, "But what is this panoply but the clear understanding that because God, Love, is All, hatred is unreal, therefore powerless?" What a different view this presented to thought from that of being protected or covered, by some thing, from some thing.

On this subject of protection as on all others relating to human experience, one of the most important things to achieve is the elimination of the belief of a selfhood apart from Mind and its idea, either as an I, he, she, or it, for it is only this false sense of self that can either harm or be harmed. One of the rules for accomplishing this achievement is given by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, beginning on page 476, where she tells us that "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals." And it is only as we, too, grow to understand and see, through the teachings of Christian Science, this perfect man, that we are able to utilize this panoply of scientific protection as he used it for himself and others in every phase of danger that mortal mind could devise. And why? Because it is impossible to appropriate to our use this unfailing panoply while believing in hate or a hater, in sickness or sin. It is surely as unscientific to see a fellow being in bondage to hatred or malice, sorrow or disease, and to call such a manifestation of belief man, as it for the individual under these illusions to feel them. This brings the fact squarely before us that we are protected only as we protect, as we reflect that Love which protected Joseph and all his brethren, and with which Jesus healed the sick and the sorrowing, the Love that knows and sees only "the perfect man."