Karua Saft

Some of the great heroes and heroines in the Bible proved in their lives a lesson that Christ Jesus taught: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." ^{Matt. 5:6.} They came victoriously through hard trials because more than anything else they wanted to have a better understanding of God and His laws, to feel near to Him, and to serve Him.

The story of Daniel tells about one of these people. When his life was going well, and he was one of the people in charge in the kingdom of Darius, Daniel's success didn't make him forget about loving and serving God. Every day he drew near to God in his prayers and gave thanks to Him. ^{Dan. 6: 10 .} When envious men hatched a plot against him so that he was thrown into the lions' den, Daniel stayed faithful to God. He knew he had done no wrong.

In this time of great need, Daniel must have longed to know God's presence as he had never done before—and his hungering and thirsting for God were answered. Angel thoughts from God came to him and ruled both him and the lions. He spent all night in the den, and very early the next morning King Darius hurried there to find out if God had saved Daniel. Daniel said to Darius: "My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." ^{Dan. 6:22.} Daniel was unhurt because he believed and trusted in his God.

Sometimes people we know go through trials too, although they may come in different forms and shapes. One boy felt he had to face "lions" in school. They were not huge, fierce animals with roaring mouths, but they terrified him all the same.

Robert went to an all-boys school where people had the idea that boys should be tough and able to stand up to punishments given out. Some of the teachers were very severe, and that was supposed to be all right.

Robert disliked anything that was cruel, and to him some of the teachers did seem cruel. But like Daniel in the Bible, he never stopped turning to God, wanting to understand Him better and trusting God to take care of him. The new thoughts that he found each week in the Bible Lesson ^{Found in the Christian Science Quarterly .} and that he talked about in the Christian Science Sunday School, helped him to understand that God is All and to feel that he was God's beloved son.

"Lions" for Robert came in the shape of two teachers at his school who made him feel frightened and resentful. One teacher used to hand out hard punishments for small faults, such as laughing in class or making a spelling mistake. The other one was very rough; his idea of waking up boys and making them work harder was to pull their hair or hit them round the head. Once this teacher threw furniture about in the classroom. Robert was not the only one who was frightened, so when he prayed, it wasn't just for himself but for all the boys in his class. In the middle of noise and confusion and fear, Robert tried to remember that there is only one God, the great "I am," and that he and his classmates were all God's ideas, and that God was looking after them. When he remembered that God was there and that he was His child, Robert didn't feel so frightened, and the bad moments passed.

But that wasn't good enough. Robert wanted something better than just to survive those bad times. He wanted righteousness and he also wanted the right thought of God's all-power, all-presence, and love that would heal the situation. He talked to his Sunday School teacher about the problem, and she reminded him that the two "awful" teachers were really ideas of God, too, even if they didn't seem that way. And God's ideas couldn't hurt each other.

His mother reminded Robert that we always have a choice about how we look at things. We can accept as true any discordant picture, or we can reject it as false because our spiritual understanding tells us what is really there—God's loving control. Robert and his mother thought about something Mrs. Eddy writes in one of her books:

"First: God never made evil.

" Second: He knows it not.

"Third: We therefore need not fear it." ^{Unity of Good, p. 20.}

Robert really wanted to understand these truths, as much as Daniel must have wanted to feel God's power in the lions' den. And as the year went on, Robert began to prove that they were true and to find they were changing his everyday experience.

There was one incident that really stood out to him. He made a joke in class, and the teacher punished him by assigning three extra essays for one evening. This was in addition to his ordinary homework, and at that time he found it hard to write any essays, let alone three extra ones. The punishment seemed such a severe reaction to his joke that Robert was quite angry and upset, and certain he couldn't do the work.

But the angel messages came to Robert, as they had to Daniel. His mum talked to him about God's presence and his ability to do anything he was required to do. She helped him to reject anger and to affirm that man is God's idea, reflecting divine Mind. Robert was no longer afraid. He worked all evening and was able to finish all the work.

By the end of the year there were no more punishments, but instead quite a lot of praise and recognition of progress. Robert was no longer frightened by the teachers but had learned to be amused by them and to appreciate their point of view, even though he did not always agree with it. Robert learned that he was in control of his thoughts and need not ever panic but could listen for Mind's direction.

As Daniel did many centuries ago, we can prove that God does "shut the lions' mouths" and bring us out of their den—the prison where fear tries to hold us captive.