Article February 7, 1953 Issue

GOD GOVERNS THE WEATHER

Jeanette F. Sutton

The remark was once made by Charles Dudley Warner that everybody talks about the weather, but that no one tries to do anything about it. The sincere student of Christian Science does not believe that he is helpless before the elements, for he knows that he is privileged to apply his understanding of the truths of spiritual, harmonious being to the weather, just as he is to any other department of daily living. He cannot control the weather and does not attempt to do so; he recognizes that God governs the weather and that His government is supreme, omnipotent, and wholly beneficent. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 427), "Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual."

The Bible states that God gave man dominion over all the earth (Gen. 1:26), and our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, demonstrated this dominion when he quieted the storm which arose over the lake he was crossing with his disciples. It is related (Mark 4:39): "And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." Apparently indicating that it was his companions' fear and lack of faith which prevented them from restoring harmony to the atmosphere, he gently chided them, "Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?"

The writer had relied radically on Christian Science for many years and had always found it efficacious to heal, yet she had considered it somewhat futile, even presumptuous, to endeavor to apply one's understanding of Truth to weather conditions, and consequently she had never entirely overcome a fear of windstorms. Then one day she found it necessary to take a definite stand on this question. A tornado struck the city in which she lives and was most severe in the section where her home is located. The student was alone in the house, and as the storm raged she repeated audibly and with conviction passages from the Bible and the writings on Christian Science. In the ninety-first Psalm the following verses stood out: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.... A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. ...There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Special assurance and comfort also resulted from the fervent repetition of our Leader's poem "The Mother's Evening Prayer" (Poems, pp. 4, 5).

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