USING, NOT LOSING, COURAGE

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

MARIETTA K. HORNIMAN

There is a fable that the devil once offered for sale all of his tools. A prospective buyer, looking over the stock, noticed a harmless looking tool laid apart from the rest. He asked what the tool was and why the price was so exorbitant. The devil replied, "That's discouragement." And he added: "It is more useful to me than any of the others.... Very few people know that it belongs to me."

In divine Science, the truth is brought to light by the reversing of evil's claims. The opposite, or reverse, of discouragement is courage. Courage is derived from God; therefore it is ever present and ever available. Courage is fortitude; it is persistence; it is perseverance as opposed to the depression of discouragement. Courage maintains with joyful assurance that all is well, even in the face of material sense testimony to the contrary.

Christ Jesus, during his brief earthly experience, was the exemplification of courage. He acknowledged God as the sole source of the great power with which he was endued. He stated (John 3:35), "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." Because he knew the giving was from God, Jesus knew it was eternal and irrevocable, for the Father neither withholds nor withdraws His gifts.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy defines God as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Within the various definitions of these terms, or names, for God may be found every attribute and idea that constitutes man.

Forever one with God as His image and likeness, man expresses God's wholeness. Each one of us must decide whether he will recognize and use the inheritance of divine ideas, as did our Master, or whether he will yield to discouragement and believe that he has lost what the Father has given him.

On page 494 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." And what we must do in order to demonstrate the truth of this statement is made clear in these words of our Leader in "No and Yes" (p. 39): "Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us." Utilization, then, of what God forever gives is the key to all demonstration. To express courage is to utilize the fearlessness of our real selfhood.

Everything God gives is ours to use at all times. Not one attribute or idea of God is withheld from His child, who is ever with Him. Under all circumstances fearlessness, steadfastness, intelligence, and joy are ours to be actively utilized. We have in Christian Science the means of learning how to use what God has given us.

A freshman in high school who had become a good tennis player rather quickly was delighted when he made the first team. The day of the opening match found the high school team with several new players and some still without full uniforms. Their opponents came from an academy some distance away and were a well-seasoned team, smartly dressed. They marched in step across the field toward the courts, full of confidence and assurance.

The freshman, while fully as good a tennis player as his opponent, made no effort to open up his game and did not take a single match point. His mother, watching the matches, realized that the entire group had given up when they saw their opponents swing across the field.

Later, when asked what had happened, the boy answered that he had lost his courage. The mother's prompt reply was, "You didn't lose your courage; you didn't use it." Then they had a good talk about utilizing what God gives.

It was clearly established that man can no more lose anything that God bestows than a reflection can fail to express exactly what it reflects. We may fail to use our joy, assurance, fearlessness, and gratitude, yes, even love, but lose them we cannot, any more than we can lose our God.

Before the boy left for the next tournament, he gave his mother a knowing smile and said: "Yes, I know. Use, not lose, your courage." Over the next two years, he and his mother recognized that an unbroken series of successes was the fruitage resulting from using Godlike qualities.

At times we may all be tempted to accept the devil's much-prized tool of discouragement and feel that we have lost heart, lost our joy; but as we quickly claim the ever-presence of courage, we render the tool powerless. Isaiah promised (54:17), "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." Let us reverse every lie and use ever-present God-derived courage to overcome whatever problem confronts us.

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ASPECTS OF EFFECTIVE PRAYER

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