In her book "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy says (p. 118), "Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory."

"Be of good cheer." What a joyous, uplifting command! No sense of dismay, no sense of discouragement, no sense of failure, only the positive expectancy of that which is good can be associated with cheer.

Christian Science teaches that man is made in the image and likeness of God and is always complete, perfect, and spiritual. What appears as an unhappy finite mortal struggling with fear and sickness is not the real man of God's creating, but a false belief or illusion about man, claiming to be real. When we accept the true concept of man as the sinless, diseaseless, spiritual idea of God, this change of thought brings freedom from fear and liberation from sickness.

Instead of dwelling despondently upon the physical testimony of disease, let us look away from matter to Spirit, God, as the source of health. Let us replace discouragement over a seemingly long-delayed healing with radiant expectancy of good. One cannot be dismayed at the suggested tenacity of sickness if thought is uplifted to the cheerful acknowledgment of one's present perfection as an idea of the one perfect God. The brightness and light of cheer wipe out the darkness of fear and sickness.

The Master, Christ Jesus, was aware of the healing value of a true sense of cheer. When he had fed the multitude with the five loaves and two fishes, he urged his disciples to enter into a ship and cross the sea while he sent the people away. The boat was tossed about by high waves. Toward the break of day Jesus approached, "walking on the sea" (Matt.14: 25). The disciples thought he was a spirit and cried out in fear. Jesus' first words to them were, "Be of good cheer"; then he added, "It is I; be not afraid."

Here is evidence of the importance the Master attached to a sense of good cheer when meeting and overcoming the suggestion of fear. This sense of cheer is not mere optimism; it is confidence and expectation based on spiritual truths. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 61): "Science saith to fear, 'You are the cause of all sickness; but you are a self-constituted falsity, —you are darkness, nothingness. You are without "hope, and without God in the world." You do not exist, and have no right to exist, for "perfect Love casteth out fear."'"

"Perfect Love casteth out fear"! This is the reason that we can realize the utter nothingness of fear and its self-constituted ability to produce sickness. In the allness and oneness of divine Love there is nothing to fear or to be feared. Love knows only its own infinitude, wherein dwells the true identity of each one of us, reflecting the qualities of harmony, freedom, and joy.

There is no condition apart from or outside divine Love, for Love fills all space. There is, then, actually no place for fear to exist. Man is the expression of Love and has his being within Love as Love's fearless, diseaseless idea. When we claim our true identity as the idea of Love, we stop entertaining the erroneous suggestions of disease-producing fear. The happy, cheerful acceptance of the all-inclusiveness of Love eliminates all sense of fear and consequently removes the manifestation of disease caused by fear; thus healing is brought about.

When the waves of fear seem rampant and the testimony of material sense overwhelming, then more than ever we must become aware of the significance of the Master's words to the disciples when they were gripped by fear. After he said, "Be of good cheer," Jesus added, "It is I; be not afraid." The "I" is the Christ, which comes to us in our human experience to destroy sin and sickness. Jesus appeared to mankind in a human form, but it was his divine nature, the Christ, which enabled him to heal. Man, the idea of God, is endowed with the Christ-consciousness without measure.

In Genesis we read (1:26), "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." It is a spiritual understanding of this God-given dominion which enables us to meet and overcome the suggestions of illness, pain, and disaster induced by fear or any other form of error. In the degree that we accept this great fact, we shall see the impossibility of fear's gaining or maintaining a foothold in our thought.

Is not the realization of the power and the presence of the Christ cause for great joy and gratitude? No wonder the Master could confidently say (John 16: 33), "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." By his understanding of the divine nature of the Christ and of his unity with God, Jesus saw clearly the perfection of God's spiritual creation, man and the universe, wherein is no matter, fear, or disease. All mankind have the same God-bestowed ability and the same opportunity as Jesus had to meet and overcome the false suggestions of fear and disease.

So let us not labor heavily with the mortal, material claims of fear and disease; but let us rejoice that man is subject only to the law of God, good. We can happily claim our God-given identity as divine Love's perfect, complete spiritual idea, incapable of experiencing the aggressive mental suggestions of sense testimony. We read in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 213), "Loyal Christian Scientists, be of good cheer: the night is far spent, the day dawns; God's universal kingdom will appear, Love will reign in every heart, and His will be done on earth as in heaven."