Mrs. Eddy's directive to defend ourselves each day against aggressive mental suggestion is strong and precise and calls for us to be strong and precise in fulfilling it.See Manual of The Mother Church, Art. VIII, Sect. 6;
Our defense is directed against any thought opposed to God's goodness. Sensuous, envious, hateful thoughts—these are opposed to His nature. But since God is All and the sole power, evil is nothing and without power. Therein lies our defense. We need to recognize evil as nothing and not be fooled into believing it has identity. "Evil has no reality," Mrs. Eddy tells us. "It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense." Science and Health, p. 71;
The words "aggressive mental suggestion" provide us with a vivid exposure of evil's would-be nature. It would be pushy, self-assertive, insistent. But we cannot be pushed or imposed upon when we realize that God is unquestionably All. The would-be aggressor has no place to invade in the allness of good; no consciousness to claim in the infiniteness of Mind; no matter to occupy in the omnipresence of Spirit; no existence at all in the universality of Life.
