Editorial October 28, 1916 Issue

"Be of good courage"

Archibald McLellan

In the second epistle to Timothy it is written, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind;" and in Psalms we read, "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart." Elsewhere in the Scriptures there is much exhortation to have courage,—to meet without dismay the futile efforts of error to establish its claim to be something.

In Mrs. Eddy's published writings there are also to be found many calls upon Christian Scientists to possess courage, and in no less than two hundred instances she uses the word fear and its derivatives to caution her readers against this enemy to mankind's peace and happiness, and to awaken them to the necessity for casting out this evil, which she so frequently couples with its twin companions, ignorance and sin. On page 10 of "Rudimental Divine Science" she writes: "Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; and fear is the procurator of the thought which causes sickness and suffering. Remove this fear by the true sense that God is Love,—and that Love punishes nothing but sin,—and the patient can then look up to the loving God, and know that He afflicteth not willingly the children of men, who are punished because of disobedience to His spiritual law." Also on page 373 of Science and Health our Leader says, "The fear occasioned by ignorance can be cured; but to remove the effects of fear produced by sin, you must rise above both fear and sin."

That all consistent Christian Scientists are endeavoring to cast out this demon of fear goes without saying, and if these endeavors are not always crowned with success, this is not a reason for discouragement, but rather a reason for more persistent and consecrated work to the end that fear and its attendant evils shall be absolutely abolished from human experience. That at this time Christian Scientists are not wholly free from the temptation of fear is not a matter for surprise, for many who have been healed by the power of Truth have not yet grasped the full import of Mrs. Eddy's teachings, especially those teachings which have to do with future immunity from evil. On the contrary, it would be surprising if out of the great number who have allied themselves with this movement for the salvation of mankind there were not some to whom the message of Christian Science has as yet come but partially, some who but "see through a glass, darkly," and seem unable to throw off the bondage of fear. One class of these is made up of persons who are sincere in their desires and studious in their habits, and as they have studied thoroughly the letter and imbibed the spirit of Christian Science (see Science and Health, p. 495), they ultimately will master the fears which now so easily beset them.

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