Total security

WE are often told that total security, either personal or nation- al, is an impossibility. From a material standpoint this may seem to be the case, because nothing that is material can ever be totally indestructible. But does this mean that we must just accept a precarious sense of life, always at the mercy of chance or malice? Isn't anything or anybody ever really safe? The answer is that everything that is spiritual is always safe. Because our creator, God, is Spirit, our true being as His likeness is spiritual. And this understanding provides an effective basis for experiencing greater security. It's our sense of ourselves and everybody else as material, and therefore fragile both mentally and physically, that makes us seem to be vulnerable. But spiritual being, or being spiritual, is permanent and invulnerable, quite out of reach of either chance or malice. And we can come to feel and experience more of that being. An inquirer who was wrestling with this new conception of himself once asked: ``Are you saying that if life is eternal and man is spiritual, it doesn't really matter if people are murdered or not, because they will still be going on just the same?'' Of course it matters. Christ Jesus said, ``It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.'' 1 To say that it doesn't matter would be to discard humanity instead of redeeming it. What we are saying is that the understanding of the spiritual, indestructible nature of man is progressively demonstrable in human experience. It becomes a mental core of invulnerability that disarms what seem to be destructive forces and keeps us safe, whatever the circumstances. Whether or not we realize it, the issue of safety is always primarily a mental one. Destructive, criminal thinking is no part of God and no part of man as God's reflection. It's a phenomenon of a supposed mind defiant of the one Mind, God, who is Principle and Love. Principle leaves nothing to chance. Love is impenetrable by malice. And this makes man not only safe but precious. So our protection lies in our own consistent, quiet reliance on divine wisdom, order, and benevolence; it lies in not being tempted to compound destructiveness by fearing it. Many of the Bible characters illustrated this protection, often in great danger. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells of the protection she herself experienced a century ago: ``In the eighties, anonymous letters mailed to me contained threats to blow up the hall where I preached; yet I never lost my faith in God, and neither informed the police of these letters nor sought the protection of the laws of my country. I leaned on God, and was safe.'' 2 This doesn't represent a casual attitude to security or a provocative display of foolhardiness or egotism. When tempted to do so, Jesus didn't throw himself down from the temple just to show that he could do it, and he was always alert to threats of evil. But whatever human precautions seem appropriate need to be backed with a clear understanding of where safety really lies, and a reasoned faith in God's power to maintain His own creation. Goodness, rightness, innocence, are indestructible, and a protection against attack. Mrs. Eddy writes: ``Good thoughts 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.'' She continues: ``Goodness involuntarily resists evil. The evil thinker is the proud talker and doer. The right thinker abides under the shadow of the Almighty. His thoughts can only reflect peace, good will towards men, health, and holiness.'' 3 All of this isn't just a beautiful theory. It's a continuing challenge, to be accepted and proved both individually and collectively. There's nothing weak or passive about right thinking. It requires strength and resoluteness, but it has the power of justice and the force of divine authority behind it. And these are the only true guarantees of total security. 1 Matthew 18:14. 2 Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 15. 3 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 210.