Mind Knows No Enemies

JOHN C. RUSSELL

I was in South Vietnam nearly seven years. Part of being in service is to be alert to duties and obedient to directives. In the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy, under the heading "Alertness to Duty," is a Rule that reads: "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged,—and justified or condemned."^{ Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 6;}

Aggressive mental suggestions related to the war, the environment, and all the fearful terrors that mortal mind could conjure up were common in South Vietnam. They were not unlike the list of dangers set forth in the ninety-first Psalm. But unlike the Psalmist, most soldiers and civilians who voiced these fears did not simultaneously affirm, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust."^{ Ps. 91:2;}

In order not to provide a congenial mental state in which erroneous thinking could flourish and multiply, and thus dominate thought and action, each day I undertook prayerful self-treatment in obedience to the directive in the Manual. The object was to demonstrate through Christian Science that mortal mind could be emptied of error by filling consciousness with truth. Then error would disappear into nothingness.

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