IT has been tersely put, "Conquest pursues, where courage leads the way." How necessary it is at all times to equip one's self with courage, the more efficaciously to meet the arguments of fear and lack so common to mankind. The world has always been in need of courage, but today that need is probably more apparent than it has been for some time. With false evidences of sick economic conditions at hand and with the common tendency toward depression and discouragement it is imperative that mankind awake to claim man's God-given heritage of dominion and freedom, and exercise it. In this important undertaking the Christian Scientist has a valuable part to play. And he takes his position armed with spiritual truth gained from his study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.
Courage is a quality of Mind, and like other divine characteristics has been greatly misunderstood, hence often despaired of or misused. Probably one of the most subtle arguments fostered by ignorance or misunderstanding of the term "courage" is that of its being difficult to get hold of when we most need it. It can be readily deduced that if courage is of any practical value it cannot be difficult of attainment in time of need. Indeed, Christian Science shows that true courage is of God. and the Scriptures assure us that He is "a very present help in trouble." Therefore, it is not overstating the truth to declare that regardless of position or environment, courage is here and now available for each one to use in carrying out every right endeavor.
In order to overcome any seeming elusiveness of courage, and to be able continually to avail ourselves of its blessings, it is first of all necessary that we realize what courage really is and also what it is believed to be. Typical of her watchfulness in protecting mankind from the dire results of mistaken concepts, and her readiness to guide them safely away from the maze of the material senses to the truth of being, Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook (pp. 28, 29), "There is too much animal courage in society and not sufficient moral courage;" and again (p. 327), "Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to proclaim the right." Thus she awakens us to distinguish between the courage which God knows, expresses, and supports, termed "moral," and its supposititious opposite, the concoction of erring mortal sense, or will-power, termed "animal." When we come to understand the reality and authority of the one—that is, the true—and the utter unreality and powerlessness of the other, we are well on our way to the demonstration of sufficient courage wherewith to meet every exigency.
