True Courage Established

THE foundation for true courage is a right understanding of God, which eliminates fear. In the history of all peoples we may discern the striving to worship some superior power, but mortals seem always to be attempting to deify something as near like themselves as possible, something that can be understood humanly, and so when Jesus gave his Christ-teaching with its wonderful proofs of the supremacy of Spirit, the people were disappointed in not finding him a material ruler. To them, as to most of the human race, the material world seemed to be the real, and the spiritual world appeared distant, vague, and shadowy. Human beings are in constant dread of something. Foremost is the fear of death, the belief that life is in matter and can be destroyed. And this great fear leads to many lesser fears,—of poverty, sin, disease, and accidents. Even the food eaten and the air breathed seem laden with dangers.

One of the first results of the study of Christian Science is the lessening of these fears in the thought of the student. When it is learned that instead of being a far-off deity seated upon an imaginary throne in the heavens, "God is incorporal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love," as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 465), and that this God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever present with His expression, man and the universe, the foundation for true courage is established. Since God, good, is supreme, infinite, and omnipotent, there can be no other power; therefore evil has no place in reality, so there is nothing to fear. The study of the Christian Science textbook reveals also the "scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468), which to so many students is a veritable rock of salvation when they are tempted by fear: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." This statement is a direct deduction from the definition of God.

The most wonderful fact about the Christian Science definition of God and the "scientific statement of being" is that they can be proved true by any one sincerely seeking Truth. Little children often show their understanding and consequent courage more readily than their elders, and we remember that Jesus said we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. The simplest proof of the healing power of right thinking brings the assurance of the ever presence of divine Mind, as in mathematics the successful solving of one problem encourages the student to have confidence in his ability to reason out another by the same rule. Again as in mathematics, one can advance in Christian Science only by working out problems. gradually the many fears that hold mankind in bondage begin to yield to this better understanding of the divine Principle of the universe. The enlightened mother gives the necessary care to her children, but ceases to worry and be anxious about them, because she has learned that as she realizes that God's idea, spiritual, not material, guided and governed and protected by the loving Father-Mother God, is the reality of child, she is placing them in the kingdom of heaven. What wonderful encouragement is brought to the sufferer by the assurance that disease is unknown to God and comes not by His will, that the so-called disease is an unreality. For when we remember that God, good, creates and governs all, we know that the only reality there is, the idea of Truth, must be spiritual and good, incapable of producing inharmony and discord, and with this understanding there is nothing to fear. Dreaded poverty is the excuse for much discouragement. In Christian Science one learns that since God is the one creator He must be the one source of all supply, and, since God is infinite and ever present, supply must be like Him, infinite and ever present. By persistent application of this understanding to problems of seeming lack, many grateful students can testify that an abundant supply for all rightful needs is assured. To the man in large business enterprises come moments for great decisions. The human mind with its doubts and fears, thinking one way to-day and another to-morrow, often hesitates to take great responsibility, but as a man learns to submit all problems to that Mind which governs the whole universe, timidity and fear give place to courage equal to any right action.