Living as he does in a world where good and evil are believed in and practiced as equally real, the Christian Scientist, while enjoying the privilege of knowing good and doing good, has ever to be on the alert lest he be ensnared by the false beliefs of evil. But let it be said at once that no one is better qualified than is the Christian Scientist to resist evil in its every seeming form; for no one has a better understanding than he of the allness of God, good, and the unreality of evil, and of the value of this understanding as embodied in right thinking.
Time and again in her writings Mrs. Eddy speaks of the protection afforded by right or good thoughts, as opposed to false or evil beliefs; and time and again she urges the necessity of cultivating good thoughts, not alone for the protection they afford one's self, but also for the blessing they bring to others. Thus, on page 210 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" she 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." How strikingly alike is the meaning of these inspired words and that of those words of the ninety-first psalm: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ... Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. ... For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways"!
Now nobody need entertain the slightest doubt as to why "good thoughts are an impervious armor" to those who entertain them. The reason simply is the metaphysically sound one that whoever is conscious that good alone is real, thereby excludes himself from attack from so-called evil; or, in other words, whoever realizes that good alone is real cannot be conscious of aught unlike good. What a wonderful law is this! And to think that it can be put into practice and demonstrated by all who know it!
