Article March 18, 1905 Issue

When the Winds are Contrary

BLANCHE H. HOGUE.

The human heart longs for ease, for present comfort of the flesh, saying within itself, that this world were quite heaven enough, could its promises be kept and its joys be made permanent. Such a life lifts not its eyes above the level of present achievement, nor sees the relationship between the immediate disappointment or trial and the wholesome lesson learned thereby. The youth, in impatience to realize all his dreams, looks to his future material existence as the arena for his triumphs, and only as time and experience expose the temporal and unsatisfying nature of things worldly and material, does he grow to see that nothing save the divinely good endures in the passing of the three-score years and ten. This supreme lesson, that spiritual dominion over the material self is alone great, is well learned when human loss and pain prove, of themselves, the powerlessness of matter to save itself from itself. And all philosophy and theology have united in declaring that humanity's most purifying lessons are learned through these paths of limitation and sorrow.

Christian Science, however, comes to the suffering sense which is striving to be resigned to the incurability of earthly discord, with the actual proof that the discord is curable; and it is just at this point, where material means are at an end and all merely human affection and effort are powerless to rescue and redeem, that the saving Christ-mind finds its opportunity to minister actively to the human need. In the sixth chapter of Mark's Gospel it is recorded that Jesus saw the disciples "toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them." And he came to them saying, "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid." Surely the Christian to-day can testify, as well, that he hears most clearly the voice of the Christ when the winds are contrary,—hears it most clearly because in such hours he needs it most sorely and listens most earnestly.

How many times poor human nature forgets its need of God, when the seas are calm! Perfunctory gratitude, perhaps, for all good fortune, characterizes the hours of ease, but the full awakening to the actual vital need for the Christ comes only when the winds are contrary. Thus driven heavenward the Christian learns eventually to trust not the smoothness of mortal mind's waters, and so strives always to lean upon his God. Under the action of Christian Science, the turmoil is subdued by a Divine presence above and beyond the realm of the discord. The contrary winds are not subdued by other winds of opposing direction, nor by the calm which follows in the wake of exhaustion, but are so stilled by the voice of the living Christ that never again can that same storm arise. Christian Science healing does not build for an animal sense of health in matter as against disease in matter, does not eliminate fear by material reasons for encouragement, does not dispel sorrow by bestowing an equally personal sense of joy. It makes no exchange of goods in the realm of materiality, but lifts thought beyond the reach of matter's laws for either disease or health, fear or courage, sorrow or joy. When Christ walks upon the troubled waters, material law is hushed, and that peace which belongs alone to Christ, which the world cannot control in the giving or the removing, comes, and abides. This is the true Christian healing. This is the spirit of that deliverance which is coming daily to the faithful student of Christian Science. The winds may in deed have been contrary, and the "toiling in rowing" laborious and painful; but the heart which is thus driven to desire its Christ, hears in the right hour, the loving "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid."

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