FROM THE EDITORS March 26, 2007 Issue

A PRAYERFUL UNDERSTANDING FOR ALL TIME

you might picture it as a dark cellar, dungeon, or cave. But whatever the place looked like, there were lions around that could attack at any minute. And for Daniel, alone in that place, it could have been a harrowing time of waiting and flinching, of anticipating the sudden attack of one of nature's most notoriously dangerous predators.

But the only record we have of Daniel's time spent in the lions' den is one of calm and deliverance. He emerged unscathed. What could account for such an unexpected outcome? Nothing in the way of physical aid, that's for sure. In the words of the woman who founded this magazine in 1898, Daniel afforded his own protection entirely through mental means: "Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless" (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 514). In the same way that Daniel prevailed, Paul the Apostle, through his understanding of God's power and his own innocence, simply shook off a deadly snake that had embedded its fangs in his hand, and suffered no harm.

Some may ask if Bible accounts such as Daniel's and Paul's don't amount to anything more than quaint bedtime stories or overblown tales of heroism. But not if you accept the empowering truth that Mrs. Eddy observed explains them — the fact that Love, a synonym that reveals God's unspeakable tenderness and spiritual might, undergirds all existence. There's so much locked up in that fact, so much that speaks to the challenges our world faces right now, today.

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