"The Lion of the tribe of Juda"

ARTHUR NOEL SHAW

From time immemorial, most of the really worthy people in the world have been remembered, revered, and loved because they possessed, in some degree, the courage of their convictions. Such were Daniel, the Apostle Paul, and, in a later era, John Wesley and Abraham Lincoln, who possessed this kind of courage to a very great extent. Thus it is that, today, when thinking of men who have stood firmly and steadfastly for what they believed to be the right, one's thoughts naturally revert to these heroes and others like them.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, had a very deep regard for the God-given virtue which is called moral courage, that grand and noble courage which cannot but be admired, whether we be of the same opinion as the person possessing such courage or not. In fact, Mrs. Eddy considers it one of the most desirable of all the virtues; for in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes (p. 514): "Moral courage is 'the lion of the tribe of Juda,' the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in 'green pastures, ... beside the still waters.' " And on page 589 she gives as the metaphysical interpretation of "Judah": "A corporeal material belief progressing and disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing."

How essential it is for all earnest Christian Scientists to become imbued with moral courage in the highest possible degree, so that this "spiritual understanding of God and man" may appear,—may be revealed to their consciousness, to an even greater degree than at present, is thus manifestly evident. When one considers to what an extent our beloved Leader must have possessed this quality known as "lion of the tribe of Juda" in order to give to the world our textbook, the desirablity and necessity for emulation at once become apparent.

In the Revelation of John we read: "And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."

In our profound gratitude to God, divine Mind, that Mary Baker Eddy was found spiritually-minded enough to become worthy to have Science and Health revealed to her, that it might be handed on to a suffering world, let us "acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God" (Science and Health, p. 497), reflect the Godlike attribute of moral courage more and more in thought, word, and deed, in order that we may prove by our lives the truth of Paul's words, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

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