Article September 1, 1928 Issue

"Be still"

PRISCILLA W. OKIE

In the forty-sixth psalm occur the words, "Be still, and know that I am God;" and they are followed by the assertion, "I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."

Oh, the peace and joy that come from being still—just being still! It is a heaven-sent blessing, the ability to listen to the voice of God; and no one can deprive us of it, if we are alert. Only as we hearken to the disturbing voice of error, only as we fail to quiet the material senses, do we find ourselves fearful of the tempestuous billows. When Jesus was on the raging sea, he was undisturbed by it; so much so that he slept peacefully, confident that his heavenly Father was guarding him there as on the peaceful hills of Judea. Even when his frightened followers feared they might perish in the storm, he was undisturbed. "I am God," his Father had said; and he knew that no material place or condition could interfere with that omnipresent Life. "Peace, be still," were his words to the leaping waves; and the answer to his confident prayer that he knew his Father had heard came, when immediately "there was a great calm."

How we all need to "be still, and know"! God has said that He will be exalted among the heathen and in the earth; and He demands obedience and honor. God is not to be found in the great wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire, as Elijah learned; for these are manifestations of the carnal mind. In the "still small voice" of Truth, divine Mind, which comes after the material senses are silenced, is God found—God who is high above the illusory beliefs of mortals, exalted far above the earth-born tendencies of the Adamic race. Materialism must be stilled for us to know God. The world and the "still small voice" cannot be entertained in consciousness at the same time. Thought must be raised to meet the most high God, who knows not evil, but is Himself infinite good. We must rid ourselves of evil and its ways, and acknowledge Him only as real.

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