Trust in God, omnipotent Spirit, shuts the door on the sweeping temptation to fear evil in any form, whether hatred, sensuality, insanity, fanaticism, or terrorism. No matter how vivid, realistic, or formidable the picture of violence may seem, it cannot touch God's manifestation. And this can be proved.

World news seems periodically to include instances of shocking brutality. Recently, Italian terrorists stormed the University of Turin and methodically injured ten students. In Jerusalem, six Jewish settlers on the occupied West Bank of the Jordan are accused of firing into a school for Arab girls. The taking of fifty American hostages in Iran has become an incident of international proportions.

The result of such events is often a feeling of total helplessness. Concerned governments and agencies can only do so much humanly to patrol and govern world affairs; beyond that, people seem left to their own defense. The usual weapons for combating inhumane actions in a country—political and economic pressure, military support to the opposition, or simply a sincere appeal to morality and humanity—often have little effect. Violence impelled by an amoral sense of power seems impossible to reason with.

However, there is always solid ground for hope when trust is placed in a higher form of government, that is, God's government. The Bible gives us many instances of people threatened with overwhelming disaster; yet each time God was appealed to for guidance and deliverance, help was immediate and sure. The children of Israel, for example, had lived under a repressive regime for many years. While in exile, Moses had a revolutionary insight into the nature of God, which convinced him of God's love for His children and the power of this love to liberate from oppression and suffering. He returned to his people and led them unharmed out of the country despite the pursuit of Pharaoh's military might. There was even a Promised Land awaiting Moses' people, so that their escape would not leave them homeless.

What is required in nullifying violence is the understanding Christian Science gives of what evil claims to be—real—and of what it actually is—illusion. Mrs. Eddy saw clearly evil's deceptive nature. She pointed out that its seeming power was dependent entirely upon people's willingness to be deceived into believing in it and giving it support. Without this belief, she saw, it was powerless. She writes in Science and Health: "Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent." And in the next paragraph she goes on to explain: "Evil is self-assertive. It says: 'I am a real entity, overmastering good.' This falsehood should strip evil of all pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of good." ^{Science and Health, p. 186;}

The immediate protection and comfort the world needs and yearns for are described by the Psalmist: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress." ^{Ps. 91:1,2;} In the ultimate analysis, safety is not found in a particular country, in military might, or in political astuteness, but in the quiet understanding of God's ever-presence, which the Christ continually imparts, even though discord presses aggressive claims.

When we continually acknowledge and affirm God's government to be the only government and power, and mentally include everyone under that reign, we are helping to subdue evil—giving it no place to abide, no thought to dominate.

"Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him." ^{v. 14 .} Love for God and man is the most powerful weapon we possess. It will deliver us all from the mental and physical enslavement of evil and from its destructive claims. This is spiritual fact that, when understood and applied, can be proved.