One of those days!

No matter how badly things may sometimes start in the morning, you can get back on the right track and experience the truth of the Biblical proclamation, ''This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.''n1

n1 Psalms 118:24.

Well, what about the trouble? The burned toast, the argument with the spouse, the traffic jam? Yes, there sometimes seems to be an insidious evil force intruding into our lives, a force that would disturb our peace and impede our progress. But Christian Science maintains that peace and order, and the happiness that ensues, are natural, even a divine right. This right stems from the fact that harmony is the reality of man's being as God's spiritual image. It stems from the fact that God is totally and infinitely good, the only genuine power or source of action. Think of it: if this is true, then the only things that really, ultimately exist are good things, and the only force that can truly be active is goodness.

So where does the evidence of another, evil power come from? From information supplied by the five physical senses. These senses are supposed to tell us the condition of the ''real'' world and to be the only way we can gather information about it. But just what do they sense? A material creation subject to chance, limitation, and inharmony. Such a view couldn't be the outcome of a good God, of perfect Spirit. It couldn't be reality, in the deepest sense of that term. Physical sense evidence, then, is by its very nature unreliable. And if the beginning information is faulty, any conclusions based on it are also open to question.

All those wrong assumptions and distorted conclusions are a product of the carnal, or mortal, mind. This supposed mentality, a counterfeit of the one infinite divine Mind, God, is the source of hatred, sensuality, fear, depression - all the sins and woes of human experience.

So it's easy to see how, to uninspired mortal thought, this morning's episode with the burned toast, or whatever, seems a perfectly natural thing, just another sign that a negative, evil force is present and active in the universe and may be expected to continue its sway all day.

It's important to abandon this false view of the situation right away and to discern through prayer what the divine Mind knows and sees - spiritual harmony. ''And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.''n2

n2 Genesis 1:31.

Good ''preventive maintenance'' is also needed. Daily prayer that understandingly affirms one's true nature and situation as God-created and God-controlled, plus a conscientious effort to eradicate all thinking and acting that does not conform to this fact, is effective.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, opens Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures with these stirring words: ''To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.''n3 Here is both the promise and its condition. By recognizing and relying on the power of good we begin to see negative evidence more as a suggestion than a condition - more as a false concept that cannot affect us without our mental consent. As we cultivate this perception, we will not only be more successful at nullifying the seeming momentum of evil; we will experience the solid presence of good more directly and more consistently. It's a process Mrs. Eddy describes in her spiritual definition of ''day'': ''The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and 'there shall be no night there.' ''n4

n3 Science and Health, p. vii.

n4 Ibid., p. 584.

Through our prayers and our living in harmony with Christ Jesus' teachings, today can bring us such unfolding. It can be ''one of those days'' when spiritual understanding displaces mental darkness. Accept it, enjoy it. Every day! DAILY BIBLE VERSE Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalms 107:8, 9