Moral Courage

Duncan Sinclair

One of the greatest spiritual assets anyone can possess is moral courage. And think what it must mean to have it when it is accompanied by such qualities as wisdom, purity, and love! Sometimes one meets those who are inclined to regard the possessor of moral courage as an individual who is desirous of having his own way regardless of what others may think, but moral courage when buttressed by wisdom and love could never be guilty of such willfulness; nay, rather, he who has it is tolerant of the opinions of others, and patient, too, because he is assured that that which is right must ultimately prevail.

Moral courage has a scientific foundation: it is always based on faith in the right. The Christian Scientist can carry his analysis of it still farther, even to the very fountainhead of all righteousness, all good—to divine Principle, God Himself. How does he do this? Christian Science teaches that since God is infinite good, good alone is real, and that evil, so called, has but a fictitious or illusory existence. Being convinced of this, he endeavors to place his whole faith in good and to withdraw it entirely from evil. In other words, he learns to trust that which is good or righteous and to lose all fear of evil.

From what has just been said it will readily be seen how valuable is Christian Science in fostering moral courage, that which Mrs. Eddy says on page 327 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "is requisite to meet the wrong and to proclaim the right." What could possibly develop it better than the understanding that good alone is real? It can readily be seen how by dwelling in thought on this great truth, and by striving to demonstrate it continually, there must eventuate a consciousness so convinced of the power of good and of the powerlessness of evil, that it will have attained to a sublime moral courage and be utterly fearless of the threats of evil.

Christ Jesus was the possessor of great moral courage. Many an event in his life proved the fact. Witness his bearing before the multitudes who followed him with their sick whom he healed! See his calm in the presence of the mentally unbalanced whom he healed! Behold him as he quietly passed through the midst of the angry crowd who sought to destroy him! Regard him, before his crucifixion, in the presence of his accusers, calm, self-possessed, enduring! Was Jesus not the very embodiment of moral courage? And his moral courage sprang from his wonderful understanding of God as the Father of man, the Father who he knew loved His children with infinite love, and bestowed only good upon them. Nothing could separate him from the love of God. Nothing could convince him that his life could be destroyed. Nothing could cause him to cease trusting good. Nothing could, therefore, terrorize him. The Master had attained to an extraordinary measure of moral courage. It behooves his followers to follow him in this as in every other regard.

Moral courage is most valuable in cases of sickness, not only on the part of the sick one, but also on the part of the practitioner who may be helping the case. It is hardly possible to think of a practitioner without moral courage as capable of doing healing work. In the first place, he has to face the opposition of the unenlightened thought of the world regarding Christian Science healing. His understanding of the divine Principle of good must, therefore, be clear enough and strong enough to raise him above fear of the world's ignorant, and oftentimes malicious, criticism. In the second place, his understanding of the allness of God, good, must be such that he is able to see the unreality of evil in its every phase, disease included, and to face the false claim fearlessly. This moral courage he must carry with him, to help him to dispel the fear of disease and to heal the sick.

And, as has been said, moral courage is also of the greatest value to the sick themselves. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 417 of Science and Health: "Never tell the sick that they have more courage than strength. Tell them rather, that their strength is in proportion to their courage;" and she proceeds, "If you make the sick realize this great truism, there will be no reaction from over-exertion or from excited conditions." It should be the endeavor, then, to strengthen as much as possible the moral courage of the sick. Their thought should be steadfastly and scientifically directed to the great spiritual truths which Christian Science reveals, to the great truths of Being, until it rests there in firm assurance and peaceful trust; for thus will healing be brought about.

"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord," writes the Psalmist. We wait on the Lord when we understand Him and strive to be obedient to His law; and obedience to God's law, the law of good, gives the courage and strength so necessary in the overcoming of all unlike good.

Duncan Sinclair

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