MAN, yes, every idea of God, is now and will be forever the vital, joyous manifestation of eternal Life, Spirit. Man's life is in no way dependent on material muscles, valves, or arteries. He is safe, sustained, and guided by infallible Mind; he is kept pure, sinless, and ageless by the radiance of Soul; he is nourished, strengthened, and beloved by God, divine Love.

The mistaken belief that one's life can be restricted or in danger because of a condition of the fleshly heart can be corrected just as any other mistaken belief can be corrected—by one's knowing the truth. As the truths of Love permeate the human consciousness, disease and suffering vanish from human experience. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 425): "Correct material belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form you anew. You will never fear again except to offend God, and you will never believe that heart or any portion of the body can destroy you."

So-called heart conditions, functional or organic, like all other diseased beliefs, are fears objectified on the body. But they are still fears, still mental, still unreal phenomena of an unreal mind, and as such can be scientifically dealt with by the flawless metaphysical logic of the oneness or inseparability of God and man.

The very first step one must take, then, in seeking healing is to eliminate fear from his thought; there is no better way to do this than by realizing the omnipresence of divine Love. In the Bible the words, "Fear not," occur frequently. In times of great stress Abraham, Isaiah, Daniel, received God's message to fear not, because He was with them.

Nowhere is this counsel more tenderly expressed than in God's message to Israel, voiced by Isaiah, which reads (41:10), "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

These are more than beautiful words. They convey the healing message of the Christ, Truth, revealing God as ever present with every one of us. If we ponder this passage, it will bless us. A realization of the presence of Love obliterates fear and brings healing.

This was proved in the experience of a young woman who had long suffered from what was diagnosed by medical specialists as a serious, hopeless heart condition. For an entire year she was hospitalized; then, without understanding why, she had an overwhelming desire to leave the hospital, and after signing papers releasing the hospital and doctors from responsibility, she did so.

She was taken by ambulance to a friend's home, where almost at once she heard of Christian Science. Without delay she was taken to the office of a practitioner listed in The Christian Science Journal. At the end of this first visit the woman left entirely healed. So great was her joy that she found herself running down the street, reveling in her new-found freedom. Before this time she had been unable to walk across the room without gasping for breath.

Immediately after this instantaneous healing through the proper application of God's law of perfection, this woman began to lead a normal life. Three years later she married and spent her honeymoon camping high up in a redwood forest. Before she left for this high altitude, her friends advised her to take a certain drug with her in case of a heart attack. But by this time she was an earnest student of Christian Science and knew that all that she had to take with her anywhere to be perfectly safe was her understanding of God and of her own never-changing relationship to Him.

After spending a glorious day hiking in the beautiful mountains, she and her husband made camp high up on an isolated peak. During that night she was awakened by what she had been taught to recognize in her past experience as an extremely serious attack. For a few moments she felt that she was passing on. She could not even think of what to think. Then the passage quoted earlier in this article came to her, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed." As never before, the young woman felt the presence of God and knew that she was safe. And she was.

In a short time she went to sleep, and when she awakened, she was completely well. She spent the rest of her stay in the mountains in strenuous outdoor activity without ill effect. This experience occurred over twenty-five years ago, and today this woman leads an active, normal, joyous life; she has never had another symptom of heart disease.

Today one need not tremble with fear over a pronouncement that he has something wrong with his heart. The healing Principle of God's presence is here for every seeking man, woman, and child. As Christian Scientists, we must realize that, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 475), "Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death." And we can take heart, for we know that God is ever present to help us prove this spiritual fact.