"Immortal courage"

Evelyn F. Heywood

Of him to whom the Science of being has been revealed in Christian Science, it can be said, in the words of the Psalmist, "His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

How helplessly have men suffered because of fear! And not the least of their torment has been fear of their own fears, lest, as a result, infirmity of purpose or sheer physical inability deflect their judgment or drive them from competition in right endeavor.

Yet Christ Jesus, who demanded nothing of his followers which they could not perform, told those about him not to be afraid; he chided them for their lack of faith in God. The command of Jesus is assured of obedience only when it is recognized as a call not merely to courage, but to spiritual knowing. When men learn to trust God intelligently, scientifically, there is no timidity; their hearts are fixed.

Moral courage, fearful only of betraying its highest concept of right, willingly faces the maximum demand made upon it. Thus inspired, the noblest deeds of which the human race is capable have been performed. But only he who is equipped with the sublime confidence of Jesus can know that, whatever his task, nothing shall by any means hurt him.

The faith of the three Hebrews was equal to the fury of Nebuchadnezzar, about to cast them into the seven times heated furnace. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us," they told him. Their courage also did not lag behind. They had not yet proved, however, that nothing could by any means hurt them, though they knew that there could be only one danger, and it had no temptation for them: "But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods."

In a brief sentence Mrs. Eddy has given us the antidote to fear—has uncovered to us the nature and method of all evil. She writes on page 368 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Error is a coward before Truth." The inevitable effect of evil, whether it be to create pleasure or pain, is sooner or later to bring about fear in its victim. Working always through human will, aggressive and bullying, or subtle and persuasive, its history is symbolized in the experience of Adam and Eve, listening to the voice of the serpent rather than to the voice of Truth.

The individual who has declared to all false dominations, "We will not serve thy gods," remains resolute, however fierce the heat of the furnace. He who understands the spiritual import of the Christ-message of deliverance from all evil, will see that the experience of the three Hebrews teaches not merely courage; it teaches spiritual dominion. It proves the powerlessness of evil to hurt him who knows that deliverance is not problematic, but is the result of law.

The evil influences at work in the world have power to victimize only so long as men have faith in or fear of the actions and reactions of the human mind separated from Godlikeness. Courage, however well-intentioned, untutored by wisdom, unhallowed by divine reliance, seeking to destroy the enemy in its own strength, challenges evil, only in its turn to be ruthlessly challenged by the forces which it has not the spiritual understanding to know how to disarm. But he who goes forward calmly confident in the consciousness of his God-given dominion, will find that at every step he is encouraged, protected, maintained; that "his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

On page 61 of "Retrospection and Introspection" Mrs. Eddy has written: "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.'"

The spiritual fact about man is that he is not afraid. The actual coward is error. Partnership with evil is the only furnace wherein men do not walk unharmed; wherein the flames of false domination or false submission can kindle upon them. As they rise to see that no mesmerism of "self-constituted falsity," whether of sickness or any other form of illegitimate tyranny, can terrorize them, they will know as Jesus knew, as our Leader has revealed to us, that there is in reality nothing to fear. In this God-reliance, the tasks that present themselves will be faced without fear in the knowledge that the Christ-promise of power, of freedom from danger, is fulfilled now.

On page 191 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" our Leader has written: "Mortality's thick gloom is pierced. The stone is rolled away. Death has lost its sting, and the grave its victory. Immortal courage fills the human breast and lights the living way of Life." In the consciousness of this "immortal courage," man's heart is fixed.

Evelyn F. Heywood

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"Remember now thy Creator"

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