Article September 25, 1915 Issue

"Stationary power"

FLORENCE STRATTON WEAVER

Two friends were sitting together in the country just at sunset, when one said, "Let us keep perfectly quiet for about twenty minutes and listen." They did so and were amazed at and impressed with the countless sounds from birds and insects—the very air seemed vocal with sound! One of the friends exclaimed, "Why, it is just as though another world were in our midst all the while, but we are too noisy to hear it!"

This recalled the fact that Christian Science brings to light the hidden things of Spirit. Mrs. Eddy says, "Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal" (Science and Health, p. 306). Thus we learn that the word of Truth is heard only as we endeavor so to quiet the material senses, our noisy tumultuous thinking, that we may be able to hear God's voice. Isaiah's words bear this out when he says, "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." And we find that we can carry this great truth into all the details of daily life. No occasion is too trivial for this "returning and rest" in God.

A simple illustration of this comes to mind. A Christian Scientist with her children was making a day and night's journey on the train. She had placed an envelope containing quite a large sum of money inside of her waist, and about an hour before reaching her destination, she became conscious that the envelope and money were gone. The porter searched the berth and the dressing-room, and the car was almost instantly in confusion, as the news quickly spread. The Scientist was in a vortex of worry, when she was suddenly awakened to the absolute lack of Science in her own attitude. She then asked all to abandon the search, and quietly and alone went straight to God. Her consciousness became flooded with comforting passages from the Bible and Science and Health, and she soon felt that if she did not find the money she would never regret the experience; that her present quietness and repose were worth more to her than all the money in the world. While in this uplifted state, the thought came to her to look in the large suitcase, and when she did so she found the envelope with the money in it. The suitcase had stood open in the dressing-room, and while leaning over to dress the children, the roll of money had evidently dropped into it. As there was nothing in the suitcase but the nightrobes, had it not been for this season of waiting on God it would not have been opened until night, and as it was then only eight o'clock in the morning, there would have been a whole day's sense of loss and anxiety.

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