MRS. EDDY tells us that "Christian scientific practice begins with Christ's key-note of harmony, 'Be not afraid'" (Science and Health, p. 410). This is surely the fundamental note on which alone the full and perfect chords of love, joy, and peace are based; and these go to make up the harmony of being. Courage is a human stepping-stone leading to the attainment of this harmony. Every day, every hour we need to have the unfaltering courage which in the face of fear still maintains what it knows to be the facts of existence. The effort that turns perseveringly from the mortal sense of sorrow, separation, and loss which clamors for recognition, and which seeks to rise to the understanding of the unreality of any seeming trouble or regret, demonstrates true courage. When faults of character yield slowly to the declaration of Truth, courage of the highest order is necessary to hold steadfastly to the idea of spiritual perfection which characterizes the real man. This patient persistent work brings its own reward, slowly perhaps, but with such absolute certainty that each one may look back and, comparing past with present conditions of thought, say with gratitude, "I am less afraid."
Courage must not, however, be confounded with indifference. We are sometimes tempted to look over or round a difficulty, — to say, "That is not my problem," and so dismiss it without further thought; but every discordant condition is our problem, to the extent that we must clear the belief in its reality out of our thought. The slurring over of even the smallest portion of a problem leads to inaccuracy, and consequent delay in getting the correct solution. We need to look fearlessly at every form of error, to recognize it as error and therefore unreal.
As we advance spiritually, Truth sometimes seems to demand the relinquishment of much of that which we have hitherto considered essential to our happiness, and material sense shrinks from anticipated suffering, but when we learn that we suffer only as we resist the truth, we gain the courage needful for that complete dependence on divine guidance which in its turn brings perfect freedom. It is the striving of material sense to assert itself which causes discord. If the guiding voice of spiritual sense were consistently listened to and obeyed, we should find, even in the face of apparent distress of mind or body, that our way in reality lies through the "green pastures" of Love, and beside the "still waters" of unchanging peace.
