Article April 4, 1936 Issue

Take Courage!

ETHEL B. WISE

JESUS said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, ever a close and devout follower of the Master, insists throughout her writings that it is our divine right to know this truth with its accompanying freedom from fear, worry, lack, and sin. On page 3 of "Pulpit and Press" she bids us claim our royal heritage: "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love."

What course, then, lies before the earnest student of Christian Science? How shall he realize this God-bestowed and heaven-bestowing freedom now, right where he is? May it be that he is attempting the impossible in spite of his sincere desire to be obedient—that is, attempting to demonstrate a condition of ease in matter or physical comfortableness? His freedom lies in turning away from seeking the material condition which he has considered so desirable, and in striving wholeheartedly for purer motives, for greater honesty of purpose. This spiritual aspiration alone God knows and blesses. Mrs. Eddy has written in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 127), "When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone,—but more grace, obedience, and love."

Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth." Then, obviously, we can "know the truth." We can know and declare that the truth is ever present, that it belongs to us here and now, to be used, taken into consciousness, lived in all its beauty and power. Here and now we can devote ourselves to the joyous task of receiving more and more of this glorious light until it fully penetrates our conscious being and we can say with John, "Now are we the sons of God."

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