A father stood in a swimming pool in water up to his shoulders, arms outstretched, and called to his son, a toddler poised joyfully on the edge some six feet away. Fearlessly the little boy plunged in as he had many times previously, each time paddling beneath the surface until within reach of his father, who scooped him from the water and helped him return for a fresh plunge. The boy's loving trust in his father and his joy in achievement served to shut out all distractions at the busy pool.

As his trust in his Father-Mother God grows, the student of Christian Science learns to reject the influence of fear. With this faith his awareness of the spectral, illusive nature of what appears to the physical senses to be danger can render him fearless like the child at the pool, his encounters with the elements bringing him progress and filling him with innocent joy.

Seeing evil as real produces fear, and to eliminate fear, Christian Scientists do well to understand evil's spurious nature. Fear is a belief that the power of God, or good, is somehow limited, that there is some place where God is not, that there is something of which the divine Mind is ignorant. It is a lack of faith in the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of God.

Being afraid, then, is believing in limitation or lack—lack of security, strength, intelligence, ability, inspiration, or good health. This belief, or lack of faith, crops up in every area of human concern. A belief in lack of love, for instance, can lead to the expression of hatred, lust, perversion, jealousy. Acceptance of lack of opportunity breeds unhealthy rivalry, even despair.

If fear can lead to sin, can it not lead to such other false, material beliefs as sickness and death? Mrs. Eddy says, "Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; and fear is the procurator of the thought which causes sickness and suffering." ^{Rudimental Divine Science, p. 10;}

Through fear the mortal belief of life in matter brings suffering and death. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: "Disease is an experience of so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the body." ^{Science and Health, p. 493;} To the student of Christian Science, the terms "fear" and "mortal mind" are inseparable, one being the effect of the other—the effect of a false belief in a mind separate from divine Mind.

How does one eliminate fear scientifically? He can persistently strive to realize that God's children, the spiritual ideas of divine Mind, are not helpless victims of an insidious, invisible mental force lurking out there somewhere to pounce on them at the first misstep. No fear really exists anywhere. Filled with trust, the child at the pool was fearless, feeling neither limitation nor threat.

"Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?" ^{Mark 4:40;} queried Christ Jesus of his frightened disciples in the midst of a storm at sea. At another time, also at sea, Peter climbed out of the boat to emulate Jesus walking on the water. The account goes: "When he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" ^{Matt. 14:30, 31;}

Clearly the Master held faith to be the remedy for fear. John said, "Perfect love casteth out fear." ^{I John 4:18.} That "perfect love" includes faith in the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of divine Love. The growth of the understanding of God's allness strengthens human courage until one increasingly experiences moments of fearlessness. This enlightened faith can't be shaken.

The recognition that God's spiritual man—and there is no other—reflects His allness in individual completeness brings the healing Truth to bear in one's human experience. It brings deliverance—the Father's arms lifting His child out of mortal belief, the Master's hand extended to the sinking Peter.

Recognizing the eternality and infinite nature of man's completeness counters tension. Understanding, and holding to, his true completeness, purity, and perfection, one can reject mortal fears of imperfection in health, morals, or purpose. Expressing the real man's capabilities is sufficient for any requirement, since man reflects divine intelligence. An individual can know that he constantly and consistently reflects God, that this is his fundamental occupation. His awareness translates itself into right placement in his human experience, lessening the sense of competition, its demonstration blessing all who are involved.

This was proved by the experience of a serviceman enrolled in a communications course who found himself failing in Morse code. He confided to a Christian Science Minister for Armed Services Personnel that he had been demoted to a less advanced class and still the code evaded him. He feared that he would be dropped from the entire course. He and the Minister discussed the fact of one Mind, denying the belief in many minds, in limitation and chance. They acknowledged that God, Mind, the Father with outstretched arms, would guide the soldier to the demonstration of intelligence and unlimited capability that were his already by reflection. Both prayed that this young student of Christian Science might hold to this truth.

Ten days later the student reported that his instructor had been promoted right out of the department and that his new instructor had detected his difficulty immediately. The acknowledgment of God's allness and man's consequent completeness had eliminated his fear in his first meeting with the Minister. Healing followed, and all were blessed. He later became a Christian Science Representative in the Armed Services overseas in addition to carrying out his military responsibilities.

In every case we need to dissolve the fear to find the answer, for where the problem seems to be, the solution awaits. And one's recognition of his own wholeness can be most effectively applied at the moment thoughts of evil and chance first begin to tempt him.

However one approaches specific fears—and such approaches are highly individual—many are the opportunities for the refutation of fear. Through his daily study and practice the student of Christian Science can not only increase his understanding of the rules of healing but strengthen his trust in the Principle on which the rules are based. His trust can be like the simple trust of the child at the pool and Peter's in Jesus' outstretched hand. This enlightened faith casts out fear through the acknowledgment that God is All, filling all space and so rendering it impossible that any threat or power can oppose Him or His ideas, His children.

One can joyfully prepare himself for every encounter with mortal belief, his gaze fixed on the Father's infinite presence, anticipating only added grace with each plunge, free from fear.

Be strong and of a good courage,
fear not, nor be afraid...:
for the Lord thy God, he it is
that doth go with thee;
he will not fail thee,
nor forsake thee.

Deuteronomy 31:6