Alone with God! What a wonderful vista this thought opens up, with its joy, freedom, confidence, peace—a continuing sense of security!

At one time, when a student of Christian Science was experiencing a physical problem that caused great fear and suffering, it seemed necessary that she stay alone in the home at night. The thought of the stillness, of being shut off from all contact with personal companionship and support, seemed very disturbing. During this time one who was helping the student to prover her dominion over error's claim to power gave her this thought: "To be alone with God ensures safety." As she pondered this thought a wonderful unfoldment came to her. It was seen that since God is All, there can in reality be no other presence, and so no need of protection. The love, tenderness, care, and compassion expressed toward one by loved ones are but God, good, manifesting Himself through them. And if one were alone he could not have less of God, inasmuch as He is the one infinite presence, always expressed through His spiritual ideas.

Thinking along these lines, the writer saw that to be alone with God means to be alone with Truth and Love, with faith, confidence, tranquillity, joy, patience, and steadfastness. It means shutting out all sense of fear, disease, suffering, doubt, self-pity, discouragement, loneliness, or any other false suggestion that would deprive us of our harmony. It does not always seem easy to exclude aggressive arguments, but as we do this, through our reflection of the one perfect Mind, our reward is continuous safety.

In human experience loving, congenial companionship is a blessing that is appreciated by all. But should the occasion arise when we are left alone, we can be grateful that we are always in the presence of divine Love, and that therefore we are never for an instant really alone with loneliness. God, good, is ever present, and loneliness is nonexistent. When loneliness tempts us, this is an opportunity to prove the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement on page 266 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Would existence with personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is alreadyfilled with divine Love." And she goes on to say, "Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science."

There is no time, place, or circumstance where we may not be assured of our safety, and realize that we are alone with God. Amidst the stress, confusion, and turmoil that confront us in the round of our daily affairs, we can always withdraw mentally from the mesmerism of mortal mind and enter into the quietude of "the secret place of the most High." We exclude and nullify error by opening our consciousness to the spiritual ever-presence which is Love, to thought of love, compassion, forbearance, charity, forgiveness, and confidence, which reveal Love's ever-presence.

The Bible is full of comforting and beautiful promises of God's care and protection for all His children, and as we gain the spiritual understanding of these passages through the study of Science and Health we are able to claim the promises as "angels of His presence" (ibid., p. 512), and to avail ourselves of them. One such promise reads, "Behold, I give unto you power ... over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you." In Christian Science we learn that "the enemy" consists of arguments that we live in matter; that we are subject to disease and evil; that life depends on conditions of matter, of the body and surrounding environment. When entertaining these false beliefs, we forget that we are alone with God. What joy to know that the presence of the one Mind is the exterminator of the belief that mortal mind is present!

"The Christian Scientist is alone with his own being and with the reality of things," writes our Leader in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (p. 20). How evident it is that there can be no intruding thought in that sacred relationship between God and man, Principle and its idea. Through true thinking we are alone in consciousness with God, our Father-Mother. He speaks to us; we hear and express His thoughts. What peace this oneness with Truth reveals! What safety we are assured of! What heights we can attain as we become more conscious of this relationship!

We hear much of safety campaigns—the efforts to make mankind more careful in their movements and contacts with others. These efforts are in the right direction. We should indeed express unfailing courtesy, alertness, kindness, and consideration in all our associations with our fellow men. But the Christian Scientist knows that true safety is assured only as man's oneness with God is recognized. Paul writes, "In him we live, and move, and have our being." Since God is always safe, His expression, man, is always safe. This understanding supplies us with the intelligence to direct us in every emergency. The prevalent fear of accident is destroyed by realizing that we are all Mind's ideas, governed by the one infinite Mind, each one in his right place at the right time, never interfering with another. This unfailing truth assures us of safety and protection.

Jesus said, "I am my Father are one." His mighty works were accomplished through the understanding of his oneness, his aloneness, with God. In feeling the multitude he did not admit any suggestion of the presence of lack. In raising Lazarus from the tomb he gave no credence to the presence of death. He was so conscious of the presence and power of God that there was no room in his thought for a belief in any other presence or power. As he went about doing good his teaching stressed the one presence, and he turned the thoughts of his students to the contemplation of God's presence to protect them from all evil. He recognized no reality, no obstruction, in any antagonism or hate that might be directed toward him, because he knew his life was one with God.

Discord is the result of believing that there is something present and powerful besides God, good. But as we who know something of the Principle of being, God, are alert to prove for ourselves that we are alone with God, and refuse to accept the false testimony of mortals belief regarding evil's claims, we are helping to bring this realization to our fellow men and are aiding in lifting their burden of belief in the presence of fear, lack, sickness, and hate.

God's infinitely good creation has never changed, and has never been contaminated by evil in any form. Man as God's image has never had a mind separate from God, has never been subject to sin, lack, disease, and death. As Christian Scientists it is our joyous privilege to prove this truth through proving our aloneness with God, infinite good.