Several years ago I was touring Europe with a friend who was not a Christian Scientist. However, she was very considerate in helping me plan our activities so that there would always be ample time for me to study the Lesson-Sermon and to go to church whenever possible. While visiting one city, we were amazed to see signs on the streets, buildings, and buses warning people to beware of pickpockets. We became a little fearful, but I dismissed the matter from my thought.
After one happy day filled with many activities, we returned to our hotel. To my dismay I found that my wallet containing some valuable papers was missing. I realized that I had not been alert in denying the belief that man can be dishonest or a thief, and immediately I reversed my thinking. I clung to Mrs. Eddy's statement in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health (p. 319), "Mystery, miracle, sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God." We sought the assistance of the hotel clerk, who was very sympathetic and wanted to help. He telephoned the tour guide, who gave little hope of recovering the wallet, saying that they were plagued with so many dishonest people around.
I did not go to dinner that night but stayed in my room and studied diligently, knowing that God created man perfect and that integrity is an attribute of the ever-present divine Mind and must therefore be constantly expressed. In Science and Health the definition of "Elias" gave me great inspiration. It reads (p. 585): "Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to material sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality.
