How can one make certain of the powerlessness of evil to harm him? The answer is, By keeping evil out of his own thought. While this answer needs to be understood scientifically and spiritually, it is at once unequivocal and deeply inspiring. It is unequivocal because it allows for no possibility of failure on the part of one who applies the rule. And it is inspiring because it makes clear the fact that no one is at the mercy anything outside himself, that is, of anything over which he cannot exercise control.

Authority for the method whereby one can prove himself immune to evil is amply supplied by Mary Baker Eddy, whose discovery of Christian Science constituted fulfillment of Christ Jesus' prophecy that the Comforter would come to men. For instance, in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she assures her followers (p. 210), "Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of ever sort."

What are good thoughts? The word good, as Mrs. Eddy uses it, always has reference to that other form of the same word denoting the infinite divine source of all that is substantial, real, healthful, and immortal, that is, to God. God is the Mind which is perfect, aware of good, and completely devoid of awareness of anything that is not good. Hence the conceptions, or creations, of that Mind are perfect, or, to use another word, good. Being perfect, the Mind which is God is one and only, for perfection can have no real, that is, effective, opposition and remain perfection. This Mind being one and only there is no other Mind wherefrom man derives selfhood, or individualized consciousness. Hence man is constituted of good thoughts naturally normally, inevitably.

How can anyone make evident the fact that he is so constituted? By acquainting himself with divine Mind and recognizing and utilizing it as his Mind. In consequence of this he becomes increasingly aware of what divine Mind is aware of and decreasingly aware of what divine Mind is not aware of. By persistence in this course he arrives progressively at true self-knowledge, attested by his inability to entertain evil in consciousness and therefore his inability to be harmed by it.

Divine Mind, God, is aware only of itself. It sees, knows, understands itself, and it forms, outlines, conceives only its own good ideas, which partake of the nature of their source and are, in fact, its image and likeness. The knowledge of this and the practice of it are manifest in the powerlessness, yes, the nonexistence, of evil for the individual whose knowledge it is and who practices it. Contrariwise, the accepted suggestion that one has a mind which is not divine and consequently entertains thoughts which are not divine is suppositionally manifest in awareness of evil and the ability to feel it and be harmed by it. This suppositional situation, appearing to itself as real as a dream to the dreamer, is dissipated by awakening to the fact that one's consciousness is constituted only of the thoughts of divine Mind, and where such thoughts are no opposing thoughts can be.

The importance of understanding this was emphasized by Christ Jesus in his observation (Luke 6:43), "A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." In that same chapter he gave his admonition to the effect that one who sees a mote in his brother's eye should recognize it as a signal to cast the beam out of his own eye and then do whatever remains necessary for removing the mote. In the light of Christian Science it is clear that only evil can see evil, and this seeing is only in supposition. This does not mean that there is not work to be done in helping one's brother, but it does mean that help is given by removing what claims to see evil in one's brother and that one's dominion over what claims to see evil is always demonstrated in one's own consciousness.

Note Mrs. Eddy's elucidation of this point (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 210, 211), "Love your enemies, or you will not lose them: and if you love them, you will help to reform them." Nothing in that statement should be regarded as counseling a course of ignoring mortal hatred. The statement is a summons to nullify hatred. Ignoring hatred is exactly the course which claims to stem from a mesmeric state of mind synonymous with fear of hatred and the belief in its reality. Loving one's enemies is the state of mind which attests a consciousness purged of mortal haired and manifest in wisdom which guides to that spiritual haven where hatred and its harmfulness have no entity.

Good has affinity for good; and evil claims to have affinity for evil. The understanding of that fact has more efficacy than any sermon ever preached, unless the words of the sermon actually succeed in contributing to the understanding. If one seeks security in his life, he needs to understand spiritually the security in which God dwells and knows that He dwells. Reflecting that divine sense of security, one sees and knows security, thus demonstrating the affinity of spiritual sense for spiritual sense. If one is seeking freedom, he needs to understand spiritually the freedom of divine Mind, God, to be what divine Mind is, for this divine sense of freedom attracts freedom to consciousness.

Conversely, if one is irked by a sense of being wrongly dominated, he should swiftly remove from his own consciousness all desire, hidden or otherwise, to practice domination. This does not necessarily mean that suggestions will at once cease to come to him that there is that which desires to dominate him, but it does mean that he will exercise dominion over these suggestions and be unharmed by them. It is only when mortals do not work in this spiritually fruitful manner that frustrated human sense resorts to war—hatred claiming to match wits with hatred, and hatred having no wit.

The mental arrow shot from another's bow is practically harmless," says Mrs. Eddy (ibid., pp. 223, 224), "unless our own thought barbs it." And Christ Jesus slated the same priceless truth for all to understand and prove through scientific Christianity (John 14:30): "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."

George Channing