Calamities loom ahead if we continue to identify ourselves as mortals, subject to material belief. Greed threatens to rob and hatred to kill if we find no protection beyond that offered by military pacts or local police. Food shortages project disaster for whole nations if we look to the physical universe alone to feed us. Yet despite all these threats, we can find safety through spiritual inspiration.

The divine Mind which is God impartially guides and protects each individual in practical ways just as surely as, for example, it did Abraham, Moses, Peter, and Paul. Divine Mind shows each of us not only what we need to do to disarm each threat but also how to do it. We need, however, to acknowledge Mind's all-wisdom and seek it. We need to silence the intellectual egotism of a belief in a personal intelligence separate from God. God's children can have no other Mind, nor can they be separated from Him in any way. As we begin to recognize this and seek inspiration from Mind, we find it. Then we need only follow Mind's commands to find that spiritual reality understood does indeed provide human protection.

God is Love—all-powerful, ever present, tenderly caring for each of us. When we acknowledge that Love is real and present, we feel Love's embrace and receive Love's inspiration. This protects us humanly, no matter what the danger may seem to be.

Our true safety is eternal and is established through spiritual law. Mrs. Eddy writes: "In divine Science, God is One and All; and, governing Himself, He governs the universe. This is the law of creation: 'My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.' " On the next page she continues, "In this eternal harmony of Science, man is not fallen: he is governed in the samerhythm that the Scripture describes, when 'the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.'" ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 258–259;} But we need to understand this law of creation, which ensures safety.

Now no such understanding is established in human consciousness without effort. What is required of us is to begin to learn what God is—that He is all Life, Truth, Love, all intelligence, the only true substance. We need to prove for ourselves in some degree the reality of His allness and understand our place within His universe of Spirit as His spiritual children. We need to affirm with understanding God's harmony and refuse to accept as real anything that appears to contradict it.

We can do this day by day, and so see evidence of His presence and power which overcome the discord of generally accepted, threatening material beliefs. We may not be able to quell every storm, but we can always find a safe place, protected from each storm. For as we acknowledge God's infinite power, we demonstrate His law of protection, if only in small ways. And we see the truth of Mrs. Eddy's words, "Step by step will those who trust Him find that 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'" ^{Science and Health, p. 444;}

One night I suddenly awoke from a sound sleep, thinking, "Wouldn't it be awful if the room where my son is sleeping should fill with gas from a heater?" Immediately, I began to pray, for that young boy was many miles away in a mountain cabin without a phone. I denied that there was any power to harm or kill the spiritual child of God. I affirmed that divine Mind controlled, alerted, and aroused to proper action that boy and those around him. I considered the implication of Life's eternality and the immortality of man until I felt assured of everyone's safety.

When he returned, the first thing my son said was, "Joe's Dad woke us up in the middle of the night and opened all the windows because our room filled with gas from the heater that had gone out." Comparing times, we found that the father had first awakened at almost exactly the time when I had felt that all was well. That evidence of God's protection strengthened my faith in His spiritual law and in the power of prayer to bring human consciousness into accord with it. When properly applied, spiritual law always saves us from material hazards.

Once Christ Jesus' understanding of spiritual law enabled him to escape from an angry mob. We're told, "Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." ^{John 8:59;} His understanding of divine Love allowed no victory for hate.

Speaking of the evening before his crucifixion, Mrs. Eddy states, "Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with spiritual views." ^{Science and Health, p. 32;} This rejection of material evidence for spiritual reality was the basis of his protection throughout his experience. Here Jesus has given us a model to follow, which is never outmoded. Today, when we refute material threats by adhering to the divine law of safety, we gain spiritual insight; this provides the protection we need humanly.

We strengthen our spiritual understanding as we live the truths found both in the Bible and in its key, the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. We gain ability to demonstrate our perpetual safety as we listen for and obey the gentle voice of Christ, Truth, which is always more potent to annul threats than the voices of doom are to produce them. We claim our protection as we refuse authority to a single lie of material belief—whether of personal lack or worldwide threat—opposed to God's present good.

We need to cherish our spiritual understanding and not permit seasonal lulls or mental strikes to hinder our spiritual growth. We need to grow daily in our understanding of God's infinite power and love. And more, we need to give daily proof of that understanding by responding promptly and fully to the inspiration we receive from Truth and Love. Then, when it could be written of us as it was of Noah, "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he," ^{Gen. 6:22.} we'll always be safe. And our spiritual understanding of God as present refuge will help others find their protection, too.