One of the most reassuring and helpful statements made by Mary Baker Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is found on page 224, where she says, "No power can withstand divine Love." It is readily seen why this is so when it is understood that, as Christian Science teaches, Love, God, infinite good, is omnipotent. Since God, good, is All-power, it is obvious that there is no truth in the belief that evil, whether in the form of sin or sickness, can oppose or withstand it.

Knowledge of the omnipotence of Love—that its power is supreme—destroys fear and enables one to resist the so-called encroachment of evil and disease with the assurance of victory. And the ability to face evil conditions of belief fearlessly is, so to speak, more than half the battle, for one can put out of thought anything of which he is not afraid. Confidently then the Christian warrior can go forth, as did David of old, to meet and overcome the enemy, whatever its nature may be. David had no fear of Goliath and no doubt of the outcome of his contest with him. Neither need the student of Christian Science be afraid or in doubt when seemingly confronted by animal magnetism in any of its forms. He can resist any temptation to believe in the power of evil if he is unafraid and understands the reason why he does not have to fear.

The statement, "No power can withstand divine Love," is equivalent to saying that in reality there is no power opposed to divine Love. And this is true because of the fact that Love is infinite. It is plain that that which is infinite—omnipresent and omniscient—can have no opposite and no opposition. Therefore our necessity is not to struggle with something real, but calmly to know the unreality and consequent powerlessness of whatever appears to exist as an enemy to peace and harmony, whether it be sin, disease, or death.

The simple words, "Peace, be still," were spoken by Christ Jesus to the storm on the sea, with the immediate result that there was a great calm. The Master's words were really addressed to mortal mind, of which the raging of the elements was but the outward manifestation. Back of these words uttered by Jesus was the conviction, based upon understanding, that so-called natural or physical laws expressed in tempest and turmoil are powerless in the face of divine or spiritual law, the effect of which is quietness and peace. This so-called miracle of stilling the tempest is illustrative of the truth contained in the statement of Mrs. Eddy previously quoted, "No power can withstand divine Love," for it was the power of divine Love, Spirit, which Jesus demonstrated on this occasion and in the many other instances recorded in the Gospels.

Jesus proved, and in the demonstration of Christian Science it is again being proved, that there is no such thing as an incurable disease. The only thing that makes people who are without an understanding of Christian Science believe that certain kinds of disease are incurable is that they think matter and so-called natural laws are more powerful than Spirit and its irresistible law of life, health, and immortality. Consciousness of the fact that, in reality, no other law is operative than the law of Spirit—divine Love—enables one to face any situation, however fraught with seeming difficulty, with confidence in his ability to meet the conditions successfully. And our Leader tells us (ibid., p. 419), "Meet every adverse circumstance as its master."

Many are the victories over fear, pain, sin, lack, and other discordant conditions that students of Christian Science have won through holding firmly to the divine facts of being in the face of aggressive and sometimes persistent arguments of mortal mind. Paul wrote Timothy, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

While some victories of good over evil seem to come only after long-continued and patient knowing and declaring of Truth, there are frequently those quick and decisive victories which prove that it is possible to destroy evil beliefs instantly, just as they were destroyed by Jesus and his followers in the earlier days of spiritual healing. The ability of Christian Scientists to heal quickly and permanently will increase in the proportion that they understand the omnipotence and omnipresence of Love, for Mrs. Eddy has said (ibid., p. 365), "If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine."

George Shaw Cook