It Is Too Late For contagion. Immunity has been, and already is, an eternal and omnipotent fact about God and all His creation.

The ability to tell each other what is going on all over the world is a mixed blessing. We rejoice in good news of progress, restored families, and resolved disputes. The motive to warn of danger is right, but it too often comes with a dose of fear that tends to spread contagion. Fear has the potential of leaping the fence of geography well ahead of predicted hazards. Therefore, resistance to fear is a starting point to counter danger before it appears.

But does the lessening of fear have anything to do with the elimination of contagious disease?

Fear is essentially mental. And spiritual mental might is a sound means to allay fear and prevent the danger it predicts. Consider these words from Mary Baker Eddy who discovered, through the Bible, the power of the promised Comforter to heal disease and prevent harmful contagion: "If only the people would believe that good is more contagious than evil, since God is omnipresence, how much more certain would be the doctor's success, and the clergyman's conversion of sinners. And if only the pulpit would encourage faith in God in this direction, and faith in Mind over all other influences governing the receptivity of the body, theology would teach man as David taught: 'Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.'

"The confidence of mankind in contagious disease would thus become beautifully less; and in the same proportion would faith in the power of God to heal and to save mankind increase, until the whole human race would become healthier, holier, happier, and longer lived. A calm, Christian state of mind is a better preventive of contagion than a drug, or than any other possible sanative method; and the 'perfect Love' that 'casteth out fear' is a sure defense" (Miscellaneous Writings 1883—1896, p.229).

The God-given spiritual capacities of man are superior to the fear of contagion and a virus that provokes it. They are both mental, and the system of mental might Mrs. Eddy described is available and applicable to care for us in the face of fear and objective danger. The requirement is to yield to the truth of God and His creation. There is no danger zone between God, Life, and its expression—God's creation. In the wholeness of this blessed relationship, God knows no disease, and brings its carrier, fear, to a stop. In the healing system of Christian Science, God is understood to be all-powerful and ever present. Therefore, whatever does not conform to this all-good is deflected into harmless unreality.

The fact that man is the expression of God is a fact that aided me in a simple and protective way during a journey in southern Asia. That region of the world was new to me, and other travelers had warned me to be alert to what I would be seeing. I asked the health authorities to tell me what inoculations were recommended and what were required. None were required, but the list of "recommended" was impressive.

Because I had been a student of the practice of Christian Science healing, I sought my immunity in those teachings. I saw new meaning in the statement that man is the expression of God. The use of man here is in its generic meaning and includes the male and female of God's creating. But being the EXpression of God relieved me from being IMpressed by what I would see, or hear, or taste, or smell, or feel that was unfamiliar to me or my "western" system. I found that consciously being an expression of Love was a place of safety. To my great joy, this concept of the immunity of being God's expression brought, not only safety from supposed hazardous differences, but also rather a deeper and holier appreciation of all I experienced on this very significant journey.

This idea of why contagion is "too late" is offered with appreciation for the help that has come to me through many hard-fought battles with stubborn beliefs and fears. Yielding, submitting, to a higher power, to God, Love, and Life, I have found to be a means of continued health and progress. Somewhat like yielding to the sunrise and accepting the light that follows. So whatever hesitations and fallbacks happen in our human experience, there is God; there is correction, safety, immunity, and spiritual confidence in accepting the truth that we are first and always the expression of God.