It is not unusual for children to fix up a place to which they can go and be by themselves. It may be an improvised shack or a house up in a tree. As they grow up, the need for a sanctuary is still there, but it is more difficult to find such a place. As one becomes interested in Christian Science and experiences the value of quiet communion with God, he realizes that what he needs is not a place so much as a state of consciousness in which he can find rest and security in the realization of who he really is and what the purpose of his life is.
For ages the ninety-first Psalm has given encouragement to those in need of comfort. This well-loved Psalm begins with this reassuring promise: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
Christian Science teaches us that to dwell "in the secret place of the most High" is to dwell in the consciousness of our true identity. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 244), "The 'secret place,' whereof David sang, is unquestionably man's spiritual state in God's own image and likeness, even the inner sanctuary of divine Science, in which mortals do not enter without a struggle or sharp experience, and in which they put off the human for the divine."
