In the past thirty years, our small country of Northern Ireland has seen much trouble. The people have endured some of the worst atrocities that man could inflict on man. For many years, the Irish Republican Army had a sustained bombing campaign that focused on "economic" targets. In effect, it was indiscriminate, without warning, and deadly. For a time, Belfast and other towns throughout Northern Ireland resembled the pictures of London during the blitz of the Second World War.

For much of that thirty years, I worked in Belfast city center. We owned wholesale and retail shops, and many of these buildings caught the bomb blasts. I can vividly recall clearing premises of the torn-apart elements of glass, masonry, and woodwork as well as goods and garments. I also made signs indicating that despite conditions, we were open for "Business as usual." Sometimes I had to hang the sign on the last remaining frame of a window or door, but we did not allow terrorism to shut us down. Like many resilient people in our country, we stayed open for business.

I give thanks that none of our staff were killed during this campaign of violence, although I saw friends maimed and killed. In our church and among its members, there was much prayer, and we tried to hold to the wonderful truths in the Bible, and from Mary Baker Eddy's writings, especially those that deal with protection. The twenty-third and ninety-first Psalms were very meaningful to us.

One day at lunchtime I set off to see a friend who had his law practice a few streets away, but something stopped me and I did not proceed. A few minutes later, a bomb went off without warning in the street where I would have been.

The statement in Science and Health "There is no vapid fury of mortal mind—expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity—and this so-called mind is self-destroyed" (p. 293) was very meaningful to me. It aided me in understanding the powerlessness of evil even at times when the human scene seemed very challenging.

There were many difficult moments. Because of car and truck bombs, the army blocked off side streets in the city center. The street beside our premises was barricaded. One day a man set up a fruit stall against this barricade and started trading. For some reason I was suspicious, concerned, and felt a nagging doubt. Small alarm bells were going off in my mind. He continued to trade for some days. There were many people in Donegal Place, the heart of the city, that day at lunch-time. The man had disappeared, and for some reason I was led to look at the fruit in the stall. I saw a bomb there and immediately started clearing the area. A few minutes later, the bomb exploded causing damage, but no one was injured.

I was so grateful for this spiritual intuition and protection. I lived with a feeling of protection and safety and often with great truths ringing in my mind. Thanks to these and other spiritual insights, I was blessed with peace as I went about my business. Without the Science of the Christ, the divine Science behind Jesus' healing works, life might have seemed hopeless. During this period of our history, business people and politicians were sometimes kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered. Businesses closed down when the owner would not pay the "protection" money demanded.

One of my friends, who owned a shirt manufacturing business and refused to pay this extortion money, was given twenty-four hours to get out of the country; otherwise, he was told, they would murder his four-year-old daughter. He and his family left that night for England and never returned. He had to close down the plant, with the loss of many jobs.

Shortly after this we received a telephone call from a terrorist group telling us to close down our business. I was personally threatened outside my office by two terrorists who said, "You have been warned; we will get you." My immediate reaction was one of fear, followed by anger, followed by the conviction that I needed to pray to God for guidance and protection.

I cannot now remember all the ideas that came to me, but this thought from the book of Isaiah helped a great deal: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isa. 26:3). I felt I must try to keep clearly in thought the perfect man of God's creation. God did not create terror or terrorists. Therefore I had to try to separate the crime from the criminal—the terror from the terrorist—and realize that this was part of the delusion that man is separated from God and can lack something. As God's beloved son, I knew I need not suffer any effect of the carnal mind; it could not make me feel intimidated or fearful. Nor could the terrorists.

I thought about fear and how I could not be afraid if I truly believed that God—and not warlike minds—was in control. Neither I nor my business could suffer any loss from trusting God in every situation. Reliance on this statement from Proverbs was helpful: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (3:5, 6). Science and Health declares, "Fear never stopped being and its action" (p. 151).

When I was sufficiently calm, I went about my business in the normal way, each day holding to these truths. I did not seek police protection or change any of my routines. An increasing awareness of God's loving care surrounded me. I rejoice that absolutely nothing happened. There were no more phone calls or threats, and for many years we had a successful business.

It is so helpful, anytime any of us is terrorized by thoughts of old age, lack, war, unemployment, business problems, and so forth to stop a moment and affirm, "I am open for business," the business of being about my Father's business—reflecting and imparting health, peace, holiness, and happiness. And "I am open for peace"—"the peace ... which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7).

I have begun to see how important it is to pray when there are reports of trouble in Africa, the Middle East, Indonesia, our own countries or our own lives—to pray that God is in control, and to listen to and follow His direction. Prayer really does make a difference, and apathy should not be permitted to delude us on the question of terrorism, whether personal or national.

Terror is no part of God's man or His plan for us. There is a solid, purely spiritual basis for living in peace with our neighbors and at peace with ourselves.