Moral courage! Living up to a high standard of love. Unselfed deeds, perhaps performed under stress and without regard for personal safety, take us beyond counting on human capacity to reliance on divine aid.
The life of Christ Jesus is a model of moral courage. His love in the midst of hate stilled mental and physical storms, healed the sick in the presence of skeptics, protected the adulterous woman from a murderous throng, raised a dead child while others lamented and ridiculed. When he said, "I and my Father are one," the people "took up stones . . . to stone him." John 10:30, 31. With dominion Jesus faced every situation, including Gethsemane and the crucifixion. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Adoringly I discerned the Principle of his holy heroism and Christian example on the cross, when he refused to drink the 'vinegar and gall,' a preparation of poppy, or aconite, to allay the tortures of crucifixion." Retrospection and Introspection, p. 26.
In following the Master, Mrs. Eddy was a paragon of moral courage, both in her daily life and in founding the Church of Christ, Scientist. She continually fought mental, physical, social tyranny. During the last half of her life she resisted the currents of materiality in science, medicine, and popular religion to proclaim the Science of Spirit's supremacy on earth.
