The Psalmist confidently exclaimed (Ps. 46: 1, 2, 7): "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.... The Lord of hosts is with us."

Today Christian Science assures mankind with the great spiritual fact that man is indestructible and eternal. Through its study and application all may attain and maintain the peace and security rightfully belonging to man. Science reveals God not only as infinite, all-knowing, omnipotent Mind, but also as ever-present, impartial, universal Love. As the loving Father, God bestows on His children His constant tender care and protection. Can we imagine that God who is Love would for one moment give up some of His all power and allow it to be used for the punishment and destruction of man, whom He made in His perfect likeness?

No, God is Love and indivisible, the one Mind or consciousness. He is the only generator and source of power, force, and energy, and these work only to maintain and unfold good. Speaking of the protection unfailingly experienced by those who are governed by Mind and animated by Love, Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 243), "The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion, can heal the sick in every age and triumph over sin and death." To this assurance, however, Mrs. Eddy adds the following qualification: "But the same 'Mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus' must always accompany the letter of Science in order to confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets and apostles."

Therefore our daily prayerful endeavor to put off the false sense of ourselves as mortal and having a mind of our own, and to unite ourselves with divine Mind, places us under the control which Love holds over all its creation. Actually, as compound ideas of God, we include the right ideas of power, force, energy, and action and therefore reflect God's control of them. The harnessing of electricity to useful purposes illustrates this fact. Can we thus not feel encouraged in the hope that the moral and spiritual forces in the world will prevail to the taming also of atomic energy for purposes that will bless mankind?

The mortal belief of destruction is an affront to the all-power of God, omnipotent Love, and the perpetual individuality and immortality of man. It would make a mockery of the many Scriptural promises regarding the protecting power of divine Love, such as this comforting pledge of our heavenly Father to each one of us (Ps. 91: 15, 16): "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation." Should a sense of helplessness before the threat of material so-called forces suggest itself to our thought, let us reassure ourselves with the provable fact that man's existence is uninterrupted and inviolable, untouched and untouchable by the counterfeit delusions of sense, because forever governed by God's unchanging law of harmony. This is man's eternal destiny: to be a living witness to the perfection and grandeur of his Maker.

It is the very mission of the eternal Christ and its Science, which the Master so powerfully demonstrated, to deliver from all evil, including danger and destruction. For no self-assertive error can limit or usurp the ever-present Christ-power, of which all may avail themselves through understanding prayer and a steadfast trust in God, good. In the proportion that we realize our oneness, or unity, with all good, we rise into the consciousness of His allness and ever-presence. This consciousness is "the secret place of the most High," into which no destructive element can possibly enter.

Material-mindedness alone has a point of contact with destructive material force, because they are both phases of mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy points this out when she says in Science and Health (p. 196), "Sin alone brings death, for sin is the only element of destruction."

Of the three Hebrews who came out of the burning fiery furnace with not "an hair of their head singed" (Dan. 3:27), it is recorded that they refused to serve other gods and worship a golden image. Daniel likewise did not yield to idolatry, nor did he harbor resentment or hate because he was cast into the den of lions. He emerged unharmed, his innocency and purity of thought making a clear transparency for the protecting power of the Christ, Truth. In this uplifted consciousness there are no elements of destruction, because there are no elements of sin. In the symbolic language of Isaiah (65:25), "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord."

Our Father-Mother God is continuously aware of the need of His creation for security and peace, and He continuously supplies that need. As we rise to an abiding consciousness of this truth through our spiritual-mindedness, we shall neither fear the present nor dread the future, for, like Paul, we shall be firmly persuaded that neither "powers, nor things present, nor things to come. ... shall be able to separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:38,39).