“There is too much animal courage in society and not sufficient moral courage.” by Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health p. 28
I am grateful for this Lesson on moral courage and the many posts on the forum this week. It again got me to think deeper why human do-goody is dangerous. On top of that I realized the motives driving my “do-goody” were not based on reflecting God but instead in the the First Degree (see below) and is likely what Mrs. Eddy called, “evil at work in the name of good.”(Misc. p 335) The ironic thing is that is took moral courage to break out of this pattern. I also had to hit the wall where my “do-goody” was failing to bring peace, healing, joy, and health. The most difficult part of being a “do-goody” was my strong belief in evil as a power which needs to be overcome in order to demonstrate this Science of Christ. It took the strength of a practitioner here to break through this stubborn sense that I was “good” so I could see the many errors holding me and begin to live in the way God wanted not what Lynda prescribed and He sure did not need my interference. Once I started to break down this wall of resistance to the Christ, true healing started taking place in my life in profound ways. I am sure many of us can come up with many examples of a person with an evil character seeming pleasant and “doing good” and people with trustworthy character traits that are very rough on the edges. Jesus and others have warned that evil will attempt to hide under the mask of good. Having seen the necessity of doing things contrary to the human mind reasoning in order to bring healing I now want to get away from human “do-goody” as fast as possible and to cultivate spiritual sense because only God knows the true motive of the heart.
“First Degree: Depravity. Unreality PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, death.
Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing. Transitional qualities MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.
Third Degree: Understanding. Reality. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.” by Mary Baker Eddy on page 115 Science and Health