Security is essential to the progress of nations as well as of individuals. This security is dependable only when it is based upon divine power. The foe in ambush, threatening the safety of the world, in every case is the carnal mind. Its suppositional product, matter, in any form, could hardly be the means of routing or of overcoming the enemy. Divinity is the only conqueror of carnality; and its help is available for men in the form of spiritual understanding, which enables them to detect the foe, to thwart and to eliminate it. Spiritual ideas are the hosts of the Lord which are encamped round about all people, and they are adequate to defend the whole human race from evil suggestions, impulses, actions, and consequences. Defending they also deliver, and delivering they establish the freedom and peace of God upon earth.
Mrs. Eddy writes that "Christianity is ever storming sin in its citadels, blessing the poor in spirit and keeping peace with God" (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 2). Spiritual ideas are an irresistible army moving in holy fulfillment to set free the captives of mortal sense, to deliver every man into the freedom of the sons of God, to restore, and not to destroy. Pressing beyond the entanglements and barriers of mortal arguments and conclusions, divine ideas find lodgment in the hearts of men. With tender mercy, the might of gentleness and trenchant persistence, this host wins its way, establishes its victories over carnal sense, and renders unto God the things that belong to God.
Divine ideas are coincidently an army of defense and of occupation, for as they remove false beliefs from human consciousness they take possession of it, abide with men and govern them. Wherever human thought entertains divine ideas it is enlightened, enriched, and, step by step, liberated from struggle. The army of the Lord brings with it the resources of infinite Love, the opportunities of heaven, and the reign of harmony. Humanity is safe in its presence and uplifted by its strength, for the heavenly host comes to end the usurpation of error and to establish assurance in the ever-presence of good, God.
