THE REPOSE OF TRUTH

John B. Willis

Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God, that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling.

In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.—Isaiah.

One of the crowning moments of the Master's earthly career was that in which, having been awakened by a clamor of tempest and of fear, he spoke to the raging elements about him, and immediately there was a great calm. Again and again in the most trying exigencies of human experience Jesus exhibited that perfect repose which most fittingly expresses a sense of spiritual power, and which speaks for far vision and conscious loyalty to Truth.

Much of human experience to-day, as in all the years, begets the temptation to anxiety, unrest of heart and of mind. The apparently unrestrained rapidity with which evil multiplies; the ignorance, weakness, and untrustworthiness of human sense; the oft-recurring assaults of disease upon those most near and dear, and the yet more continuous assaults of ignorance and malice upon the cause of Truth,—how often are Christian Scientists awakened by circumstances akin to those which threatened the Master and his little band of followers, and how imperatively do they need the calmness of that spiritual authority with which he met the storm and spoke it into silence.

The possible gain of any trial inheres in the opportunity it presents for the realization of mastery over material sense, the demonstration of power which both establishes one's own conviction and awakens conviction in others. It is in the overcoming that we are best able to see, and make others see the relation of spiritual assertion to spiritual advance, and it is thus that we come to understand St. Paul's declaration that he even gloried in tribulations. Apart from this mastery it is clear that there can be neither glory nor gain in tribulation, and Paul's exultation over it evidences that he understood the advantage, not of suffering, the stoical endurance of trail, but of Science, the demonstration of error's nothingness. Hence, even when bound and in prison, the night echoed his songs.

And may we not also sing, though the sea of mortal sense rage never so wildly? Surely the arm of the Lord is not shortened; therefore the answer to our query lies with us. If we are maintaining that consciousness of Truth which renders thought ever more receptive to the divine touch, which insures quiet command of self and of the situation, a husbanding of resources, a discriminating judgment, and that unfailing equanimity and loving kindness of word and bearing which befits a Christian Scientist and which disarms prejudice and antgonism ere it is aware,—then indeed may we sing as we stand and see "the salvation of our God."

This is the repose of Truth. It says to threatening error, "Be still," and there is fulfilment of the promise that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. The poise of true faith is both the most winsome and the most commanding thing in human life, and if to the oftrepeated assurances of the Master's abiding presence and support, we add our Leader's wondrous chapter on "Love Your Enemies" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 9), and give them frequent and thoughtful reading, and if with earnestness, sincerity, humility, and unfailing love we seek to manifest the gentleness and grace of Christ Jesus toward all, and especially toward those who misjudge and wrong us, we need not be troubled when the storms of sense arise. Our God is able to deliver us and to make even these things work together for good, and in this we may continually rejoice. John B. Willis.

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MAN'S POSSIBILITIES

January 5, 1907

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