Those who are sometimes almost overwhelmed by the seeming activities of evil may find great comfort in the Psalmist's prayer, "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

At times when Jesus found himself faced with difficult situations, he would retire in prayer, and Mary Baker Eddy, on page 12 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," writes, "It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth,—of man's likeness to God and of man's unity with Truth and Love." Thus it was in his understanding of man's eternal oneness with God, and the fact of man's existence as a spiritual idea, that Jesus found a place of refuge from every form of danger.

The "rock that is higher than I" is man's immortal spiritual individuality, at all times higher than a so-called human selfhood; and it is our consciousness of this that enables us to lift up our heads above our enemies, above all the illegitimate and powerless claims of the one evil that would deprive us of our God-bestowed and God-preserved heritage of life and peace, of joy and health.

The understanding of man's likeness to God enabled the three Hebrews to emerge from the fiery furnace without even the smell of fire upon them; it preserved Daniel from human hatred and animality; it enabled Jesus to pass through the crowd that was seeking to destroy him. In the case of the three Hebrews and of Daniel, and indeed of many other Biblical characters, we learn that such understanding not only immediately delivered them from their difficulties, but also turned those around them to the worship of God and still further prospered the ones who had accomplished such convincing proof of the encircling arms and loving care of the heavenly Father.

The situations of a material world cannot in any way affect or disturb spiritual man in God's image and likeness, for, as Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 207): "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause." And just as the airman flying above the clouds finds the sun still shining, and knows that it always has been shining in spite of appearances beneath the clouds, so the individual who understands his spiritual and immortal nature in the Science of being, finds God at the helm, and knows that God's control of the universe is never less than absolute.

The understanding of the truth about man—that man never was, and is not, material, but always spiritual, that man is the expression of the one Mind, God—enables us to demonstrate peace in the midst of seeming war, health and abundance when to sense there is sickness and lack, and to find the kingdom of heaven on earth, when only the opposite seems present.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 185) Mrs. Eddy says, "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness." Thus not only do we have to deny all material selfhood, but constantly to affirm and reaffirm our spiritual being. Then we are indeed immortal dwellers in the holy temple, and conscious only of the things of God.

In "the secret place of the most High" is found abiding peace, but dwelling in this "secret place" means living the Christ in our daily lives, expressing God in our every action, thought, and word. Such reflection is Immanuel, or "God with us"; it demonstrates active unity with Principle, in which we experience immunity from evil.

In a magazine called The British Weekly, the Reverend J. Reid is quoted as saying: "The soul is like a citadel, which can only be guarded from within. If it remains strong within, it will be impregnable without." How vital, then, that we should guard our thoughts and strengthen them with Spirit and its ideas, for when we know ourselves one with God, the Father Himself is our strength and our refuge, and we shall find ourselves impregnable without!

Let us, then, watch our inmost thoughts, that they may always express that which is in line with divine Principle. Let us turn from the evidence of the senses to the facts of Spirit; let us see ourselves and others as God sees us, and in our understanding of our immortal selves we shall dwell within our citadel, our "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." In the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 37) are these words: