On page 469 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its author, Mary Baker Eddy, observes, "We bury the sense of infinitude, when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all space is filled with God." To admit that evil can have a place is to believe that God, good, can sometimes be absent. In other words, such an admission constitutes a denial of the Father's omnipresence; yet we read in the Scriptures (Jer. 23:24), "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord."

Omnipresent good obviously can leave no space or place for any other presence or power. This glorious fact is the basis of the teaching of Christian Science, which inculcates the absolute allness of God and the utter nothingness of anything and everything unlike Him. Error claims a place in which it can secrete itself, a vantage ground from which it can operate, but the alert Scientist is always on mental guard, ready to refuse error any location in his consciousness, because he knows that by so doing he can exclude it from his experience.

It is impossible for error to locate itself anywhere. The realization that the only place evil can have is the place we, in belief, give it teaches us that we are always free to refuse it, and so frees us from the lurking fear that we can at any time become its victims. Clinging to the fact that because infinity belongs to God, Truth, and that therefore error has no location, gives us the victory.

The refusal to give error any location is extremely important in the metaphysical treatment of physical difficulties. Mortal mind would locate certain so-called physical complaints in some particular part of the human body; but since man's true selfhood is wholly spiritual, constituted of right ideas, as Christian Science teaches us, there is really no place in which a physical claim can exist. Scientifically speaking, disease is neither internal nor external, since it is nowhere but in the supposititious mortal consciousness. From this illusory lodging place it can be ejected by spiritual understanding, or acquaintance with the spiritual facts of being. One of the most important of these facts is the incorporeal, inorganic nature of man as the image, or idea, of God.

Because evil has no abiding place of its own, the apostle graphically described the devil as one that "walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (I Pet. 5:8), as if this father of lies had entity and volition and hoped to find lodgment in some unfortified consciousness. Once our mental doors admit this fictitious intruder, we may experience difficulty in dismissing him, or "it." How much wiser, then, never to grant error the lodgment it seeks, but rather to guard consciousness by obeying the apostle's injunction, "Be sober, be vigilant."

Great is the potency of understanding the allness, the every-whereness, of God, divine Principle, Love. This was proved by the writer when she awoke one night to find that she could swallow only with difficulty. The suggestion of fear was quickly silenced as she recalled our Leader's words (Science and Health, p. 410), "Christian scientific practice begins with Christ's keynote of harmony, 'Be not afraid.'" As she saw something of God's allness, she realized that error's claim to location must be firmly handled. Discord seemed to be asserting its location in a particular part of the body—in this instance, the throat—thereby suggesting that God was not omnipresent. The student rose in rebellion against this lying suggestion as the redeeming truth of the words quoted at the beginning of this article permeated her consciousness: "Evil can have no place, where all space is filled with God."

Instead of striving to displace something discordant, as at first seemed necessary, she joyously realized that the allness of God obviated the necessity of displacing anything. So conscious was she of His all-presence that the error simply vanished into nothingness, and she fell asleep healed, with the following lines from one of our hymns singing in her consciousness:

Two valuable lessons were learned from this experience: first, the importance of never consenting to believe there is a place in creation or man where error can locate; secondly, the wisdom of instantly turning on error when it is first presented, thereby giving it no opportunity to develop.

We cannot remind ourselves too often that evil—discord of whatever nature—has no power. The only action, place, or power it can ever seem to have is that which we give it. This must be so, since God, good, is omniactive, omnipresent, and omnipotent. Becoming conscious of God's infinitude is a sure remedy for every ill, for when we really accord all presence and power to divine Love and its attributes, there is no ill left to be cured, no problem to be solved. In view of the seeming tenacity of mortal belief, however, persistence is a necessary quality to cultivate in the handling of error.

With irrefutable logic Mrs. Eddy asks (Science and Health, p. 287): "God being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence? How can there be more than all?"