The imperative need of mankind at this hour of the world's struggle for its very existence is to find at once a power and means infallible with which to meet the aggressive onslaughts of evil. The seriousness of the mounting claims of materialism is forcing men to seek a spiritual means of preservation, which is found only in the Word of God. Victor Hugo has written these words of wisdom: "There is one thing stronger than armies: an idea whose time has come." Our Father-Mother God has eternally provided the right idea with which to meet every emergency. Wherever there is spiritual discernment to look beyond and above the clamor of the emergency, God's idea is seen and demonstrated as the only reality. Then the emergency is discovered to be, not disaster and defeat, but the emerging of the idea "whose time has come," for the irresistible power of the Christ, Truth, and the impotence of error are realized. This enlightenment is indeed a new day, imbued with promise and fulfillment.

Many have learned to look into the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons for the spiritual idea needed to meet the demands of each succeeding hour, as one means provided in Christian Science. The truths of divine Science found therein, when lived and demonstrated, are "Christ's Christianity," which Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says "is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 271). The Lesson-Sermon is designated by her as being "undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized" (Christian Science Quarterly, Explanatory Note).

One learns to listen for God's message in His Word and to utilize that spiritual impartation with unshaken confidence and divine authority. Many times we have marveled at the coincidence of the statements in our Lesson-Sermon and the events of the week, not realizing perhaps that the discordant events are but the human resistance to the Word. When this is seen and Truth is applied, the resistance is destroyed. This brings us to see that there will never be a problem or an emergency the remedy for which is not already present in the power of the Word. All that is actually going on at any time is the design of God unfolding.

Too often the Lesson-Sermon is merely read with the effort to make it fit our needs, while the real purpose of our study should be to lift our thinking up to the level of the revealed Word and above the problem. This enables us to rise to the level of God's message, and to utilize His Word, before which the erroneous beliefs lose their seeming reality and disappear.

One's own grasp of the truth is his spiritual discovery and unfoldment. Thus the Word is made flesh; that is, it is made to live in and as individual understanding. The entire subject unfolds naturally and progressively from premise to conclusion, and when the six sections are analyzed and summarized it is interesting to discover that they constitute a complete and healing presentation of the subject suited for the needs of the hour.

What a joy it is to utilize the written Word! With it we can reverse the mesmeric arguments of mortal mind after the manner of Christ Jesus in dealing with the suggestions of evil. After his baptism by John, Jesus was "Led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Three times was he tempted, but in each instance he silenced the suggestion with the written Word, saying repeatedly, "It is written ... it is written ... it is written." The Master did not contend with the devil as a reality, but he weighed every mortal mind suggestion with the Word of God.

The following experience illustrates how the almost universal fear of enemy attack can be met. In a Lesson-Sermon, "Adam and Fallen Man," the following verses from the Old Testament appeared: "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?" A student's thought was arrested by that searching question, and upon looking up the word "naked" found the following illuminating definitions: open to attack, unprotected, unshielded, defenseless, exposed, and without support. Then it became clear that the question could be paraphrased thus: Who told thee that thou wast unguarded, unprotected, unshielded, defenseless, exposed, and without support or substance? That was indeed a startling question, and when applied repeatedly in solving problems it was found to be practical.

In the night this student was called to a patient and found the family in great consternation and fear because, as they said, the aged mother had had a stroke. When they were asked: "Who told you that your mother had a stroke? Did God tell you?" they were amazed, and finally replied, "No, God didn't tell us." "Then who did tell you?" they were asked. The daughter said, "The devil must have told us." Then the Scientist replied: "Are you going to believe Satan? Are you going to be fooled? Now you tell Satan what you think of him. Jesus called him a liar, and you can do the same. Turn away from the error; deny all that it claims, and affirm the truth."

To all appearances the mother had been passing on, but with the clear and joyous realization that because man is spiritual, no one had been open to attack, unguarded, unshielded, unprotected, also that there was no mortal mind to deceive or to attack God's child because God is All-in-all, the patient was quietly sleeping within an hour. The following morning a call came from the mother stating that she was up early and was leaving to attend to her regular duties. Needless to say, she was rejoicing in another proof of the healing power of Truth and Love.

The Word of God in the Bible, in our textbook and our Leader's other writings and in the organs of The Mother Church established by her, shows forth the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience—yea, the allness—of divine Love, which is stronger than all the armies of earth and is the very presence of God made manifest.