Among the many interesting characters of the Old Testament, Joshua, the son of Nun, stands forth distinctly as one faithful in service to God and completely fearless in voicing the truth, regardless of the seeming multitude of enemies or strength of opposition. When called by Moses to lead the army of Israel against Amalek, he went out, confident in the power of God to give him the victory. When commissioned to go and spy out the land of Canaan, he and Caleb alone reported favorably, facing the clamor of their fellow spies and the people with the calm assurance which comes only as the result of a certain knowledge of truth and right. Urging the people to trust in God and fear not the inhabitants, he pleaded with them to go in and possess "an exceeding good land."
Obedience to calls to service and the faithful fulfillment of trusts strengthened him and prepared him well for the greater responsibilities of leadership, which was later placed upon him, at God's command, with the charge, "Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them." "For the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." He assumed command of the people, and throughout his leadership he listened for and obeyed the commands of God as to all his activities. The story of the encompassing of Jericho and the fall of the city is familiar to every Bible student. Tribe after tribe was conquered under Joshua's divinely inspired directing. We find him at the close of his faithful, successful leadership, calling his people to assemble in order that he might rehearse to them all the wonderful proofs of God's love and care, warning them against the dangers of other gods and disobedience and disloyalty to the one and only God. There he bade them, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Placing the facts clearly before them, he considered his work complete, and fairly and squarely he placed the responsibility of decision upon the individual.
As the student of Christian Science studies and seeks guidance from the writings of its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, he realizes more and more that therein the great truths of life, the rules for healing and correcting every phase of disease, discord, and misconception are stated in the most simple, concise, and convincing words possible. She speaks of the inadequacy of words to express the spiritual truth. The humble, fervent desire to serve God, and God only, which was the unceasing prayer of our Leader, resulted in such manifested wisdom, spiritual insight and inspiration as to enable her to establish and provide for the onward march of Christian Science. Her life and work are surely examples of truest humility and service, and clearly she sounds the call for each one to take up, fearlessly, the cross of individual responsibility and unfoldment, true service to Principle. Again and again she warns against the dangers of following or looking to personality instead of Principle. She iterates and reiterates the absolute and constant impersonality of both good and evil in divine Science. "In founding a pathological system of Christianity, the author has labored to expound divine Principle, and not to exalt personality," she says on page 464 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
