IN the first epistle of John we read, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. . . . There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." The apostle also states, "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
A dictionary definition of the word "world" is given as "the earth and its inhabitants; present state of existence." We may deduce from John's assurance that our faith or understanding that God is Love gives us dominion over the belief of matter, as expressed in our present state of existence. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 Mrs. Eddy writes as follows (pp. 8, 9): "Spiritual love makes man conscious that God is his Father, and the consciousness of God as Love gives man power with untold furtherance. Then God becomes to him the All-presence — quenching sin; the All-power — giving life, health, holiness; the All-Science — all law and gospel."
Upon reading these words many earnest students of Christian Science have been lifted into the consciousness of spiritual power; but occasionally one has felt that he apparently has got no farther than to be afraid of fear itself. Why does he find him self in this condition? Because he has been regarding fear as a reality which at any moment may prove itself more powerful than God, good. To such a one Christian Science continues to minister with unerring efficacy in proportion to his willingness to relinquish his wrong thinking. Attempting to reason from a premise other than that God is Spirit and is All only leads into confusion. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 367), "It was not against evil, but against knowing evil, that God fore warned."
