Let us not make the mistake in daily affairs that a little girl made who, while learning to ride a bicycle, ran into a tree because she kept her gaze on the tree instead of on the path that avoided it. The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, puts it this way (p. 234): "We should become more familiar with good than with evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we bar our doors against the approach of thieves and murderers."

When we become "more familiar with good than with evil" and alertly reject what is untrue concerning God and man, we are putting into action the rule for scientifically preventing human ills and successfully protecting health, happiness, and progress.

Because good and evil are opposites, contrary one to the other, they can never unite at any time or under any circumstance. The Bible reveals that there is but one God, who created all and pronounced all that He created good. Therefore what is not good is not created and must be characterized as evil, as untrue and illegitimate. Suffering, lack, and discord are not good but are the opposite of good. In Christian Science they are accurately designated as false beliefs about God and His creation.

There is no law of God, good, which makes evil necessary or inevitable. The understanding of evil's falsity and powerlessness helps to bar our doors against loss, lack, and limitation. Ever-increasing familiarity with good, with what is Godlike, is an effective safety measure protecting the individual's well-being, happiness, and success.

False beliefs, if accepted as true, result in an inharmonious experience, just as an error in addition results in a wrong total. In both cases the error or false belief must be corrected.

For right results, correct thinking must be put into action. Moses was particularly blunt when he said to the children of Isreal (Deut. 30:19), "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live."

God made man in His image, perfect and incorruptible. Thus man is immune and impervious to poor health, poverty, sorrow, and the like, and knowing this, we should not fear or indulge these evils. In proportion to our familiarity with man's true nature, we can express intelligence, strength, and progress.

Christ Jesus' career of teaching and healing proved the Godlike nature of man. He demonstrated for one and all how the knowledge of God and His likeness, man, is to be used to save and heal mankind of every ill. His wholly good way of thinking and acting won for Jesus the title of Christ.

Because Christ Jesus was thoroughly familiar with the perfect and inseparable nature of God and man, he never doubted the individual's ability to live, to be free from disease and sin, and to be safe. The Christly way is the universal, impartial, and undeviating Science, which is revealed today in Christian Science, with its system of practical rules to be used for prevention and protection.

On many occasions the writer has been able to apply her knowledge of good as taught in Christian Science to forestall inharmony and to heal physical and other discords. At a time of greatly reduced income, concomitant suggestions of fear and grief assailed her. It seemed that she was being robbed of security, peace of mind, and necessary comforts, along with the loss of companionship and the accustomed home.

How wonderful it was at this point to "become more familiar with good than with evil"! She found that she could use her understanding of man's real nature to express intelligent action, expectancy of good, practical service, and confident gratitude for each unfolding step.

Loss and lack were denied credence because they are the opposite of the allness and perfection of God and His goodness. Fear, grief, and doubt were seen to be false beliefs attempting to destroy what she knew was true of God and His creation.

By watchfully guarding her consciousness and not accepting as true the false beliefs about God and man, including herself individually, and by becoming more familiar than ever before with the goodness of God and His endowment of His creation with His goodness, she experienced within a few months enlarged and rewarding opportunities for service and expanded abilities. This was accompanied by a consciousness of security and assurance such as she had never known. And in the ensuing years great comfort, as well as beauty and affluence, has been evidenced in her home and in her business affairs.

All that is experienced comes through consciousness. Consciousness of good—familiarity with good—is manifested in peace of mind and a healthy body. Familiarity with the truth that the nature of God is good only and that therefore the nature of His likeness, man, must be good is the basis for experiencing good health, good friends, good times, and success.

Mrs. Eddy tenderly assures us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210): "Good thoughts are animpervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited."

It is the privilege of everyone, everywhere, to "become more familiar with good than with evil" and to lock out false beliefs called by any name or appearing in any guise. No one need believe what is false, but all can individually demonstrate inviolate goodness, the Godlike nature of man. The Apostle Paul tells us how to do this in these few words (Phil. 2:5): "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."