Article April 28, 1934 Issue

After the Storm

LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY COOK

There was once a little fishing boat which seemed in momentary danger of being dashed to pieces in the angry billows of a storm-tossed lake. It was centuries ago, and the men in that little boat were the disciples of Jesus the Christ, men destined later on to carry his gospel far and wide; and yet, on that occasion they had so succumbed to the mesmerism of the moment that they were crying aloud in fear. He was with them, but "asleep on a pillow." How could he be so indifferent when their very lives were in danger! It may have been almost with indignation that they roused him. And then, how quickly the scene changed! "Peace, be still," he said—and the little waves were lapping again softly against the sides of the ship. The warring elements of mortal mind had met their master, "and there was a great calm." Then, turning to them, he asked, "How is it that ye have no faith?"

Where is our faith today, we who are professed followers of the same great Master? Is it in Spirit or in matter? In the storm of general unrest through which the material world seems to be passing, are we standing helplessly by, like the disciples of old, overcome with fear? Or are we doing our part as they should have done in rebuking the error—in other words, denying it, each one in his own consciousness? The human Jesus is not here today, but the Christ has never left. The same spiritual power which Jesus utilized so long ago is ours to use now, today, at this moment, always, in all conditions, under all circumstances—power sustained by the ever available, ever applicable, ever operative, ever present law of God.

The true Christian Scientist knows that "there is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 134). He is proving for himself that it matters not what difficulties any situation may seem to present, and how many persons may be thinking wrongly about it, he can still be at peace, for he lives in a mental realm where storm and strife cannot enter. There is nothing in human experience, however overwhelming it may seem to be at the moment, which can ever change the eternal facts that man is because God is, and that he knows only that which God knows. This indissoluble union can never be broken by those various phases of mortal belief called "passing events." Beyond the reach of fear, anxiety, loss, sin, sickness, doubt, uncertainty, weariness, grief, and discouragement, the Father holds the son in his true spiritual identity, sinless, pure, upright, free, joyous, perfect, and complete—lacking nothing.

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