"Fear not"

CORINNE M. MC CONNICO

In times of stress such as individuals and nations are today experiencing it is comforting and reassuring to consider attentively some instances recorded in the Bible when God's angels spoke to men who were struggling with doubts, fear, and grief, no less great than seem to torment men today, in these strengthening words: "Fear not."

"Angels" are defined in part by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 581) as "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect." And the Psalmist assures us that "the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." How could it be otherwise, since God is unchanging Love? Today, as always, he who listens prayerfully hears this angel-message, "Be not afraid."

In reality there is nothing to fear. That may seem a broad statement, but no other conclusion can be reached if we accept the premise of the first chapter of Genesis, wherein it is stated that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Thought it may seem difficult for some to understand the teaching of Christian Science that evil has its supposititious existence only in false human belief, it may not seem so difficult to admit that if no one had ever believed in evil it would have had no existence even as a supposition. To seek to know when the belief in evil first appeared or where it found a receptive first hearer will not help in solving the problem of how to rule it out of our thought and experience. On the other hand, one day lived in the active rejecting of every evil suggestion from our mental home will prove, in a measure at least, that evil has that day had less reality for us. Thereby we can see that as we are faithful and continuous in our rejection of evil, it will diminish and good will become more appreciable to us as the only reality. Salvation must be individual. When evil suggestions find not one listening ear or responsive heart, evil will indeed be proved nonexistent.

Jesus' success in overcoming evil is explained in the words, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." Jesus neither feared nor honored evil in any of its forms. For him it had no attraction, no real presence, no power. The wonder is that men have so long been deceived by the belief that evil is real and powerful, and led to act upon its suggestions, only afterward to be tormented by its voice of condemnation—the voice of the same evil which has tricked them into obeying its suggestions. And yet God is unchanging good, and men may have access to Him and the heaven of His thoughts at all times. Here Christian Science becomes the Comforter indeed, teaching that the real man is always the image and likeness of God, and never has been the victim of evil.

In moments of varying perplexities, doubts, and weaknesses, Abraham, Daniel, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, Zacharias, and John heard God's angels speak to them in the words, "Fear not." When overcome by a sense of separation from the Master, whom they loved, the women at the sepulcher were uplifted and cheered by this same angel-message. In allaying the fears of his disciples and other seekers after Truth, Jesus used these same words. After Peter's impetuous outburst in the fishing boat, when he declared himself "a sinful man" and begged Jesus to depart from him, the disciple was quietly reassured by Jesus with the words, "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men." How Simon Peter's heart must have warmed to these words of the Master! Small wonder that he, with the others who were in the boat "forsook all, and followed him."

"Christian scientific practice," we are told on page 410 of Science and Health, "begins with Christ's keynote of harmony, 'Be not afraid!'" The circumstance or condition which to material sense seems fraught with danger, loss, and suffering often serves to turn us to God, to find enduring substance, well-founded security, and true health, whereby we can prove evil unreal. A Christian Scientist was once enveloped in a sense of impending danger because of certain circumstances with which she was faced. Reaching for her textbook, she opened to page 558, and read, "St. John writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of Revelation:—And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud." Ah, she thought, then I shall look for the unveiling of the angel of this experience, and not be afraid of the appearance of the cloud. As a result of this attitude of thought, the cloud of fear soon dissipated, revealing the angel and the nothingness of the evil which before had seemed so real.

To know that God made all that is made and that it is good gives us the consciousness of confident knowing, the house built on the rock of understanding, which falls not, even though the floods come, the winds blow, and the earth quakes under our feet. This pure consciousness is gained by small beginnings, by starting with a single instance of refusing to be stampeded by evil and holding unceasingly to the realization that God, good, is omnipotent, and that in His universe there has never entered anything that could injure or afflict. Thus God's power and protection will be proved step by step, until evil's boasting and threatening shall have been forever silenced!

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