It is quite striking how people in recent years have turned conversation toward things mental. They speak, for instance, of the public being air-minded, money-minded, politically-minded, clothes-conscious, society-conscious, and security-conscious.

There is enough going on these days to make people danger-conscious if not alert to the consequences of random thinking. Thus, with the best of intentions, much is being taught as to how to proceed in times of personal injury. No one needs to be reminded that with attention fastened on insecurity, insecurity is likely to be introduced into his experience. Excessive thought about casualties, how to ward against them or how to care for the injured, may well make the public accident-conscious, and thereby multiply those mishaps which everybody desires to be minimized. "For the thing which I greatly feared," writes Job out of the wisdom of the ages, "is come upon me."

There is a nice line of distinction in this field of analysis. We must not, on the one hand, be indifferent to the hazards of highways, for example, nor can we, on the other hand, be indifferent as to what course to take in the event of misadventure. Yet we cannot, with impunity, fill our consciousness with pictures of disaster.

What then is the rational course to pursue as we go about our daily affairs? Clearly it is this: proceed with the intelligent realization that divine Principle governs, not only in astronomical regions, but in the very thoroughfares we travel, the houses we live in, the shops where we work. Principle is there, in full and undisputed operation, making for safe premises and conditions.

This attitude does not breed carelessness. Rather does it promote that confidence which steadies thought and movement and thereby ensures safety. It is in conformity with the undeniable fact that, regardless of appearances, the world in which we live is an orderly world, "lapt in universal law."

In the last analysis, to quote from our inspired Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, "We all must find shelter from the storm and tempest in the tabernacle of Spirit" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 362). One handicapped by the supposition that he is a material man in a material world of unstable objects and conflicting forces can hardly expect continuous safety, whether engaged in peaceful pursuits or caught in the thick of battle. Only as he recognizes the fact that he is a spiritual man in a spiritual realm can he be assured of protection from encounter.

This is but another way of saying, in the language of Christian Science, that all is Mind and Mind's manifestation. Here is man incorporeal, impalpable, and imponderable as idea, his natural and unalterable status; hence out of reach of weapon, machinery, even the pull of gravity. Realize this truth of being, and green pastures beside the still waters become a present experience. The soldier in the jungle may say, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety."

Strife is not real, in Science. Neither is jeopardy. There is no environment, in fact, but the unobstructed kingdom of Mind or Spirit. There is no area which undeviating Principle does not fill and sanctify. Hazard has no place or possibility save in that mesmeric dream which dissolves to him who begins to see the world and its activities as God constitutes and maintains them.

Happy is he who is vigilant-minded. Every day opportunities in business or at the battle front are missed because of the drowsiness that does so easily beset mankind. In place thereof invariably can there be invoked spiritual alertness and fortitude and alacrity which convert every occasion into victory in peace as well as in war. Not to the majority, not to the powerful, but to the vigilant, the dauntless, the upright—the spiritually-minded—do success and triumph come. "The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible" is the reassuring law of metaphysics, stated by Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health (p. 199).

As anxious days follow one another, everybody is either defeat-conscious or victory-conscious. No good citizen should dare, for an instant, to be less than expectant that success will crown the efforts of the United Nations. To think otherwise would be to obscure the outcome of the most momentous struggle that has convulsed mankind.

And the victory-conscious man has a reason for the faith that is in him. He knows that Principle is at the helm. Hence he is certain that unprincipled efforts and devices must suffer disappointment. He is sure that under the reign of the Most High, civilization cannot do otherwise than move toward the millennium. It cannot be extinguished by ruthless warmongers. He prays for the armies of freedom. He prays for the men constituting these armies, whether on land, at sea, or in the air. He contributes to their safety by recognizing that in reality each individual has that Mind in him which was in Christ Jesus, that Mind which draws him from lurking danger, which leads him to the place where he can do his duty with effect, and which carries him into action and brings him out in strength and security.

Then there is the obsession-minded person. Not infrequently does some individual, occasionally of outstanding quality, harbor the illusion that accident, disease, or other misfortune is at the door. What is his line of defense? Let him intelligently and forthrightly extinguish the specter by thinking from the standpoint of God, and by insisting that man has an existence and a purpose that cannot be jeopardized or thwarted.

He who lives in expectation of impending disaster encourages the very peril he apprehends. Forebodings are to be sternly dealt with, not coddled. Enemies cannot ensnare the wary, upright man or nation. Expose and annihilate fancied perils. Accord them no stability or possibility. Have faith; have confidence. God is good and God is omnipotent. Not one iota of power does He delegate to the foes of decent men and nations.

It is quite remarkable what assurance and strength one can bring into his daily affairs by a right, a reverent mental attitude, that is, by becoming security-conscious rather than disease-conscious, age-conscious, failure-conscious, casualty-conscious, or defeat-conscious. In this spiritual mood does one have reliance on the Almighty, indeed does one praise God, for thereby one absolves the Eternal from all responsibility for human woe. How apropos is the Scriptural promise, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee."

Peter V. Ross