One of the greatest services that Christian Science is performing for the world today, is by way of prevention. It is very generally conceded that Christian Science heals and reforms, but less is known about its inestimable value as a preventive of sickness and misfortune. There are unwritten chapters in the lives of Christian Scientists which, if they could be known, might amaze the world; a record of events which proves the loving care and guardianship of our God, infinite Mind.

A homely philosopher has shrewdly observed that "foresight is better than hind-sight." It is an act of wisdom to know in advance what are the designs of error, and what it is best to do in order to thwart its asserted claims. The blow that is foreseen and evaded, ceases to be a menace. It is good military tactics to discover the enemy's plans before they are executed. Many a battle has been won before it was fought. This is just the difference between what humanity generally understands to be protection, and the Christian Science interpretation of this important function of Providence. One is post facto, the other is before the event, and coming first, this kind of protection is practical and worth while, because it abolishes the belief that there is anything from which we need to be protected. Mrs. Eddy's answer to the question, Would you have me get out of a burning house, or stay in it?" emphasizes the scientific nature of the protection afforded by Christian Science. "I would have you already out," she says, "and know that you are out?" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 335).

In ancient days, when the moral concepts of the human race had risen no higher than the doctrine of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," cities of refuge were provided, where a man might seek safety from enemies and where his person was held inviolate. As moral ideals improved and advanced, the sense of protection from enemies became dematerialized, and we find the psalmist voicing a great spiritual truth in the ninety-first psalm,—"Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him." Because man's trust is in God, in good, he is protected, and protection thus becomes a mental state rather than a material place of safety. The psalmist makes it plain that man's safety is in Mind, and not in any material modes or means of protection. We learn in Christian Science that its treatment means protection, and it also means abiding in the consciousness of God's allness. God is wholly responsible for man, for all that he undertakes, for all that he is or does. God, through His laws, orders and sustains all of man's activities, and therein lies man's constant protection.

This scientific statement of the relation of idea to Principle, of creation to creator, uncovers and exposes the fallacy of the belief that there are laws, motives, impulses, or causes that are at war with man or are hostile to his well-being. Protection is the absolute conviction, based on an illuminated spiritual understanding, that God is the only power, the only cause, the only lawmaker, and that He is the supreme and only governor of all that really exists. Mortals declare themselves to be constantly in need of protection, and the customary human instinct is to resort to a person or place for aid in times of trouble. Drugs are relied on to preserve health; human laws and the law's agents are depended on for protection from injustice, dishonesty, or whatever asserts its ability to work mortal man's undoing. Mortals insure themselves against fire, accident, and death, in very much the same way that our prehistoric ancestors fled to the walled "cities of refuge."

The difficulty about the human theory as to what constitutes the best means of protection, is that it fails to take into account the mental origin and nature of the discord which jeopardizes the life of mortal man, as well as his health and his success. Until Mrs. Eddy made her discovery that evil in all its forms is an unreal belief, relatively little progress was made in the effort to destroy evil. Drugs and surgery have not diminished disease, or the human liability to sickness. Insurance against death or accident has only served to impress more strongly on the human mind the probability of both death and accident; it has painted in more vivid colors the mental picture of both of these dreaded happenings. It has not reduced the death-rate or minimized the number of accidents. Again, in the realm of commerce, the most elaborate business precautions have not prevented the failure of even the greatest enterprises. And so it is in every department of human life, that which mortals have relied on to guard them, has proved to be a broken reed.

All of these failures to cope with disaster should have taught mortals, long before this, to turn for their protection away from material expediencies to something more sure than anything that our human experiences have ever offered us. To paraphrase a Biblical text, They labor in vain, who hope to find security or protection anywhere but in God. The spiritual perception of the prophets discerned this great truth, and in the Old Testament we find reference after reference to God as the only refuge, a tower of strength, "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," a shelter from the storm.

That the protection of right thinking is practical and reliable, the students of Christian Science have proved for themselves. In the matter of sickness alone, they have no doubt saved themselves many experiences by reason of their mental attitude on this subject. Mrs. Eddy says that "common consent is contagious" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 228), and just so it is with all other forms of mortal discord. Christian Science teaches that man and the universe are governed by God, and by His laws, which are always good. When this great fact becomes apparent, the individual thought which grasps it comes under the protection of the universal laws of good, which by their very occupancy destroy the belief that there can be any other kind of laws adverse to man's harmony. The child of God, according to Christian Science, is always in his right place, always subject to the control of unerring Principle. When this is demonstrated, it means the most effective protection from accidents, since these, under analysis, are seen to be only a belief that man can be out of his proper place.

This understanding of what constitutes protection is doing more for the world than may be appreciated at present. It will take the place sooner or later of all inferior methods of protection, and it will be seen that health conservation is not something that can be secured by legislation or by a more liberal application of the drugging system to the needs of the human race. A true understanding of God will be found to be the only real protection, since that understanding includes no evil. Divine Love is never ceasing in its protection, for God is All, and there is none beside Him.

Copyright, 1914, by The Christian Science Publishing Society