Unprecarious living

''How can we protect ourselves? Anything can happen, anywhere, anytime! Life seems so precarious!'' said my friend. We were discussing the awful phenomenon of random terror, specifically the recent criminal tamperings with patent medicine and packaged food.

Knowing that I am a Christian Scientist, she added, ''Of course, you pray. But do you really believe it does any good?'' I assured her that I did and that I was confident that my prayer not only protects me and mine but also contributes to the general safety. God's law is an ever-available law of protection and provision to allm His children.

While the practice of Christian Science doesn't include the use of medicine, Christian Scientists are certainly aroused to take prayerful action against the kind of depravity described in the news lately. We deplore the predatory wickedness that motivates this evil and moves people to commit arson, plant bombs in public places, and put dangerous substances in the children's Halloween treats. We believe that Christianly scientific prayer, not only affirming in words but establishing in Christianized living God's kingdom on earth, renders evil motives powerless.

It is possible through such scientific prayer to feel safe in these troubled times. God, divine Principle, is everpresent, omnipotent Love. This present power keeps watch over its own orderly universe and sustains the harmony and peace native to its creation. Through the beneficent power of the eternal Christ , Truth, we can bring to bear on human events the jurisdiction of omnipotent Love.

The Christ is the divine influence that reaches and corrects human motives, impulses, and actions, individual and col-lective. Wicked thoughts and intents cannot hide from this Christ-spirit, from the compelling divine law of universal justice.

Prayer is a spiritual force. Through prayer the Christ-power touches with laserlike efficacy the hearts of men, transforms their aims, and short-circuits nefarious endeavors. The Bible says, ''The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.'' n1

n1 James 5:16.

God never made a man with pernicious proclivities. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ''A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin, lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life and Life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men sick, sinful, or mortal.'' n2

n2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 289.

God's man reflects the divine nature, infinite Love. The real, spiritual man - our true and only selfhood - cannot be a victim of evil of any sort, be it random or personal.

Effective prayer demonstrates that evil is powerless when faced with a spiritually discerning recognition that God and His goodness are supreme. It embodies an unselfed love and a faith in the one divine Mind. It realizes man's actual nature and his exemption from evil. Such prayer is a practical, potent help.

The Bible is full of accounts of the thwarting of vicious evil and the healing of sin and sickness through the spiritual laws of Love. This power to heal is with us today because the laws of God are constant, forever. We can trust our prayers. Christ Jesus promised, ''These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; . . . they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.'' n3

n3 Mark 16:17,18

Joyful, safe, unprecarious living is a divine right, and we can each play a part in proving that fact. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Your joy no man taketh from you. John 16:22