In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy states (p. 521): "The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart 'with the point of a diamond' and the pen of an angel." The study of this passage brought much unfoldment to one student of Christian Science who had experienced inharmony, discord, and frustration of honest effort, and she began to realize something of the wonder of that God-given dominion which enables one who understandingly trusts in Him to become the master of his own thinking.

Erroneous thinking, based on the belief of mind in matter, would hold us in bondage to the false claims of chance, change, and uncertainty; and nothing is more discouraging than a belief of being at the mercy of a fate over which one has no control. Yet, such seems to be the experience of mortals until they have gained a better understanding of God and learned to reason from the basis of the spiritual fact that God is the only Mind, and that matter is therefore unreal. Such reasoning teaches one concerning mortal man that, as the Scripture states, "as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Our thinking aright constitutes our only real activity and protects us from the many inharmonious suggestions of the carnal mind which are ever knocking at our mental doors for acceptance. To human sense they seem real, with their pretense of power. But when we reject all such pretenses and refuse to entertain their spurious claims, we are blessed with a glimpse of that light in which are revealed the allness and goodness of God. It is only the consciousness of good that can destroy a belief in discord.

The suggestions of sickness, sin, lack, unemployment, injustice are powerless of themselves to enter our thinking, and we are free to reject them as baseless, causeless, powerless, and unreal. Let us do so, and in the doing, taste the glory of true self-conquest. Mrs. Eddy writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118), "Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory." Such glory of spiritual conquest Daniel must have experienced in the lions' den, and David in the overcoming of Goliath, when they saw the testimony of the senses give way before the calm, clear, unconquerable faith in God's power to deliver.

No greater peace and joy can be found than that which comes with the realization of our eternal safety in divine Love. This safety lies in our God-given ability to think rightly, and this ability cannot be taken from us. It is forever intact. Then, let us turn from the picture presented by material sense, whatever it may be, and fix our thought on the true facts of being, as given in the first chapter of Genesis, namely, that God saw all that He had made and pronounced it good; and as we hold thought steadfastly to this truth we find the discordant picture fading from our consciousness, and thus from our experience.

Jesus always beheld the perfect reality. He saw health instead of sickness, abundance instead of lack, purity instead of sin, and through his understanding he performed many mighty works; and he said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." We can do so only as we can see, as he did, the true vision of the supremacy of God, good.

To see the claims of evil, in whatever form, as mere suggestions of mortal mind, wholly outside our real dwelling place, is to rob them of their claim to power and relegate them to nothingness. And to know that in reality we stand forever in that spiritual dwelling place is to experience complete protection and harmony.

A woman who had suffered many years from injustice resulting from the actions of another suddenly realized that her true harmony, being God-bestowed, could not be taken from her. Entertaining only those thoughts which conform to Mind, she was able to realize clearly the inability of mortal mind to inflict upon her its delusions of wickedness. She saw, as a consequence of this realization, that what had been accepted as injustice had never been anything more real than aggressive mental suggestion. This wresting of the belief from its moorings in personal sense served to heal the situation.

What a joyous privilege it is to know that our harmony is forever protected from would-be mental invaders; that we can go calmly ahead, unafraid of error's attack, as long as we keep clearly before us the fact that in reality we live in Mind, not matter, and that that Mind is infinite good! What if the storms of material sense seem to rage? They cannot disturb thought which dwells in God, and the suggestions of evil, excluded from our mental realm, cannot bring discord into our experience. Purifying our thinking, we shall dwell in the conscious realization of that perfect universe, created by God in the beginning, which is held, loved and nurtured by Him throughout eternity.