On the plains of ancient Babylon a great golden image once was set up for public worship by King Nebuchadnezzar. The king's decree condemned to death those who failed to worship it. Promptly then, certain Chaldeans accused three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, of infidelity, because they worshiped not the golden image; and the king in his rage summarily ordered them to be bound and cast into the burning fiery furnace. However, the planned destruction failed, and Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and said, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
With what depth of spiritual conviction these men of Israel maintained a position of fidelity, trustworthiness, and dependability in their dilemma! How pure was their consecration to God! Their miraculous deliverance and the king's acknowledgment of God are recorded. And down through the ages has shone the unswerving, inspiring light of the spiritual-mindedness which then and there preserved them. So, today, faithful students of Christian Science withstand the tests of persecution, temptation, and misunderstanding; for wherever the light of Truth is clearly revealed, there also is demonstrated, as in ancient times, the power of Spirit to overcome material resistance.
The mortal hatred of Truth, involving ignorance, envy, dishonesty, pride, lust, and the like, still claims power to destroy the spiritual inspiration of righteousness. And sometimes, to material sense, it may seem to succeed, for without spiritual education mortals unwittingly come under the indictment of error's suppositional law. This failure is due solely to a misapprehension of divine Love's unfailing protection. But through spiritual revelation the faithful student of Christian Science is prepared to combat the foe. He gives thanks for the infinite goodness of God, through whose eternal power the claims of evil—sickness, sin, disease, and death—are proved untrue and therefore invalid, powerless. God's impeccable law, when understood and applied, quenches the flame of hatred or animal magnetism, and the spiritual sense of divine Love, progressively acquired, lightens human experience.
