"The Lord was not in the fire." This assurance came to Elijah (I Kings 19:12) as he stood upon the mount before the Lord. Elijah was hiding from his enemies in a cave when an angel message came to him to go forth, and there was revealed to him God's presence and power, and the impotence of the material fury of wind, earthquake, and fire. The prophet needed the lesson, for his trust in God's power had apparently been darkened in this period of tribulation. From the experience, he saw that it was necessary for his safety and progress to face his enemies without fear. He needed to awaken to the fact that there is no power in evil.
When in our everyday affairs we seem hard pressed by difficult or dangerous circumstances, we too may be tempted to fear the power of evil and seek refuge in a cave of despondency. If so, we too can profit by Elijah's experience and face the enemy and subdue it. Christian Science reveals the scientific method not only of overcoming the fear of danger, but of eliminating the danger itself. Mary Baker Eddy points out in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 293), "There is no vapid fury of mortal mind—expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity—and this so-called mind is self destroyed."
Man is not a corporeal being subject to danger and destruction. Man is God's perfect, spiritual image, or expression. His true identity is not subject to the ravages of the elements or the barbarity of men. Man is in reality "hid with Christ in God," as Paul informed the Colossians (3:3). Man, the child of God, need not and cannot find refuge in matter, in flight, in munitions of war. This perfect man of God is not a physical form, nor does he inhabit a physical locality. No weapon can destroy the real man, for that man, one's true selfhood, is not located in the material realm of danger and destruction. God, Spirit, is man's habitation. To spiritual consciousness, which is universal, matter is unknown.
