Overcoming the Threat of Fire Bombs

NOEL D. BRYAN-JONES

In accordance with the regulations now in force in Great Britain, the writer was recently asked to undertake the formation of a small fire-watching and fire-fighting party in the district in which he resides. At first he was reluctant to do this, because he felt that his work lay more along metaphysical lines. On thinking the matter over, however, and after studying the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, he decided that he should undertake the work. He understood that spiritual activity can and should be expressed in human activity for the good of the community. It was seen that there was, in that town at any rate, much concern expressed as to the scale of future raids, with their accompanying showers of incendiary bombs, and it seemed that the more Christian Scientists there were in touch with the active preparation to mitigate the evils of these raids, the less opportunity there should be for fear to find expression. For every Christian Scientist engaged in the defense organization there should be less fearful or apprehensive thought.

So the writer duly attended the necessary lecture on fire fighting, at the same time keeping his thought open for the right ideas which would serve to annul the claims put forward as to the power of these fire bombs. When he went over the various points afterwards, that which seemed to stand out most of all was the belief in spontaneous combustion, which had been so evident when watching the bombs in action. It was remembered that Mrs. Eddy had used this term, and on looking it up with the aid of the Concordance he found the following on page 161 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Holy inspiration has created states of mind which have been able to nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous combustion."

It was seen, then, that what had to be fought was not a bomb but the subjective manifestation of an "opposite mental state" to holy inspiration. It was seen that the suppositional cause of every fire bomb which falls is mental. That which lay back of the consignment of the Hebrews to the furnace was tyranny, dictatorship, lust for power, evil intent. They had to meet much more than the flames which encompassed them, and they met it with holy inspiration, a consciousness of the presence of the Christ which was so clear that it not only protected them completely, but caused the king, Nebuchadnezzar, to see and recognize it. "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego," he said.

Therefore, for a Christian Scientist, it could never be a case merely of a human individual fighting a bomb, but of divine Mind, represented by man, asserting its omnipotence over the false claims of evil, expressed as spontaneous combustion, and, moreover, asserting it without fear of any sort.

The question of the explosive type of incendiary bomb was also considered. It was made clear at the lecture that these must be dealt with promptly, and the suggestion was made that if this could not be done it would be better to wait until they had exploded, and then deal with the resulting fires. On page 356 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy has written: "The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate need no temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom." All around us, by day and night, these mental fire bombs of evil thought are manifesting themselves as various conditions. We need to be constant fire-watchers, seeing that they are promptly dealt with by the recognition of their powerlessness and unreality, lest they manifest themselves in some form of disease or disaster; promptly recognized and stifled, they cannot accomplish any harm.

One stands in awe as one realizes our Leader's foresight of the needs of our present time, and the authority with which she has clothed the word of Truth, wherewith every situation may be met and mastered.

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