The well-known violinist and humanitarian, Yehudi Menuhin, has written: "Fear is the basis of all the suspicion and enmity in the world today. Unless we can cast it off, no country's economy will ever recover, nor its people know a happier life or a better standard of living, but be left with bullets instead of barley and bombs rather than butter." ^{"Against another Final Solution," The Times (London), August 10, 1982 .} It is vital to overcome fear, for it would paralyze our ability to reason clearly and to take the prayerful and practical steps so important to the future of mankind. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: "We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?" ^{Science and Health, p. 563.} This does not mean we can ignore a threat—whether it seems small, or global as with the threat of nuclear annihilation. We should not stand aghast at it, paralyzed with fear to the point where we do nothing about it.

What can we do, practically, now? First, perhaps we need to look more critically at this belief that we are helpless, that there is nothing we can do. The Bible teaches that we have some very wonderful weapons at our command. It adjures us: "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." ^{Eph. 6:10, 11.} It goes on to say that the armor of God includes truth, righteousness, peace, and faith. God, divine Love, directs us to use these weapons with intelligence and wisdom, thereby cherishing and safeguarding us. Using these weapons, we can break the mesmerism of fear surrounding the nuclear arms race.

While we should neither ignore the nuclear threat nor be frightened by it, we do need to affirm vigorously that Mind, God, is in complete control of His universe. God is All, the only real power. Therefore what appears to be the power of evil has neither place nor reality in the omnipotence of Mind. Man, God's idea, is intelligent and wise because he reflects these qualities of God. He never could be angry or vengeful. Because man is governed by Love, he has infinite patience, understanding, and love. His actions are God-controlled; they are not angry human reactions. This is in total accord with the teachings of Christ Jesus, who overturned the doctrine of "an eye for an eye," instructing his followers not to react in anger but to love and forgive. ^{See Matt. 5:38, 39, 43, 44 .}

Mrs. Eddy states, "In God's hour, the powers of earth and hell are proven powerless." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 134.} Realizing more of God's presence and power, we see that moral and spiritual power has substance and permanence. Material conditions or threats do not. We find ourselves praying to see more clearly God's absolute control and guidance, embracing our world. Through prayer we become conscious of God's allness and ever-presence. We see that in this presence man is always safe. When peace efforts are under way, whether among heads of governments or on the local scene, we will find ourselves contributing the power of prayer to their constructive efforts.

The true exercise of power is the reflection of the power of God, good, and the utilization of this power to bless mankind. We see this expressed in humanitarian acts and in efforts for peace. By contrast, the world believes that power comes through a fomenting of fear and hatred and through the taking of revenge. The ultimate of such material power might be a nuclear holocaust. But Mrs. Eddy writes: "The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate need no temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom." ^{Ibid., p. 356.}

The individual identities of God's creation exist throughout eternity. Man, including every idea in this creation, forever expresses his Father-Mother, God, and can never be annihilated. Conceived by eternal Mind, the spiritual law of harmony cannot be destroyed by nuclear fusion or any other supposed power apart from God. Infinite, divine intelligence, emanating from unerring Principle, cannot be annihilated by human error. That is what power opposed to God is—error, a desperately mistaken view of reality as something other than Spirit and its creation. The only thing that can ever become extinct is evil with its manifestations of fear, hate, lust, and greed. This annihilation of evil takes place as the allness of God's goodness becomes more and more apparent and as God's absolute and loving control is seen with increasing clarity and faithfully expressed in our lives.

Our responsibility today is to help to bring about that awakening and the extinguishing of evil. We do this as we use our spiritual weapons of understanding, vision, faith, and love.

Equipped with these, we refuse to be overcome by fear or to submit to belief in a false material power. Understanding God's infinite power for good and acting and praying from the standpoint of this understanding, will help to defuse our own fear and that of the whole world.