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334 There is too much animal courage in society, and not sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up

arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple with sin, in themselves and in others, and continue this warfare until they have finished their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the crown of rejoicing.

Christian experience teaches faith in the right, and disbelief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly in times of persecution, because then our labor is more needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we may never receive it in this world.

There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to the authorities at Rome: “The disciples of Jesus

believe him the Son of God.” Those instructed in Christian Science have reached the glorious perception that God is the only author of man. The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus — that is, Joshua, or Saviour.

The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to silence material law, and its order of generation, and brought

forth her child by the revelation of Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recognition that Being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever as an ideal in the bosom of the Principle of the man Jesus, and woman perceived this idea, though at first faintly developed in infant form.

Man, as the offspring of God, the idea of Spirit, is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious, and man