Perhaps you have at some time seemed to suffer from the evil thoughts and acts of others because you have allowed a fear of them to abide in your consciousness.

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy, assures us on pages 234 and 235 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that "evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits."According to this statement of truth, we can be affected by the wrong thoughts and deeds of others only to the degree that we believe in such errors, and give them a place in our thought. The teachings of Christian Science emphatically deny any power to error, but demonstrate its powerlessness and nothingness. Our Leader continues, "Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence."

Our work, then, as students of Christian Science is not to engage in some form of campaign to prevent other people from thinking evil thoughts about us, but rather to let virtue and truth build within us a strong defense against evil. We do this by steadfast reliance upon God and His omnipotence. Christ Jesus told the seventy, when he sent them forth on their healing mission, that he had given them power "over all the power of the enemy" (Luke 10:19), and this power is ours to reflect today if we are willing to do so.

It has been said that the water in the ocean can never sink a ship unless some of it gets inside. It might also be stated that the wrong thinking and wrongdoing of mankind can never lower one's thought level unless some of it gets inside one's mental home. The conscientious shipbuilder strives to make his craft seaworthy by taking precautionary measures against leaks, knowing well that if he leaves no openings for water to enter, the ship will remain afloat and ride the waves. An attempt on the part of the shipbuilder to diminish the quantity of water in the ocean would prove futile. His task is to strengthen the sides of the ship in order to meet whatever resistance there may be from without.

Likewise we, as navigators on the mental sea of experience, should not become perplexed because of the material circumstances confronting us, nor should we be disturbed by the environment in which we may find ourselves. If we heed the Apostle Paul's injunction to the Ephesians (6:11) to "put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wile of the devil," we shall be able to keep our states of thought from sinking in the midst of storms.

An integral part of this "whole armour of God" is "good thoughts," which Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 210 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" "are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited." Could one have a stronger defense than this?

To divest evil of its seeming power, it becomes necessary to refuse to attach it to any person, place, or thing. While it may be a temptation to believe that a certain person, place, or circumstance is responsible for our present condition, we should bear in mind that what others think, say, or do is strictly their business. What we permit to enter our consciousness is our business. The evil that would claim to gain ascendancy over good must be impersonated and nothingized, and in no other way can we accomplish this than by putting on "the whole armour of God." No phase of error can ever affect our true business of reflecting the healing Christ, "if virtue and truth build a strong defence."

Throughout her writings Mrs. Eddy has emphasized the allness of God, good, and the nothingness of error, or evil. The solution of any problem but awaits our willingness to acknowledge God's allness and to see error as nothing— no person, place, or thing. Is it not plain that that which is nothing cannot be taken from one place and put in another? If we erroneously believe that we can be affected by other people's thoughts, that evil can be transferred from one person, one place, or one thing to another, we make a reality of evil, and consign to it a measure of power. In so doing we are admitting, contrary to the teachings of Christian Science, that there is in reality a mortal mind, a power apart from God. Such admission presumes there is more than one Mind, and breaks the First Commandment as given in Exodus (20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

In 1866, Mrs. Eddy was one against the world in knowing that Christian Science heals, yet "the malicious purposes" of the opponents of scientific Mind-healing could not find "unsuspected lodgment" in the consciousness of this spiritually-minded woman, because "virtue and truth" had built "a strong defence." It was her steadfast, untiring devotion to what she knew to be right that resulted in the founding of the Christian Science movement, with its great influence for good in the world today. Our continued consecration to the Cause of Christian Science will extend this healing religion in the proof that its honest and earnest application never fails to overcome all that is unlike God, good.

A strong defense of virtue and truth is built by all who steadfastly rely on the healing power of the Christ, Truth, to meet their every need, and who heed the command (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 292):