It was evening by the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus was to go with his disciples to the other side of the lake. As they were crossing, a storm arose, and the disciples became fearful. Wondering at Jesus' apparent indifference to their safety, they woke him.

The Master arose, we are told, and with supreme authority he commanded the waves to be still. Immediately order was established in the elements: "The wind ceased, and there was a great calm." ^{Mark 4:39;}

Do we not all have occasional threatening experiences? What do we do when storms of disease, sickness, pain, distress, or fear arise to agitate our peace of mind and perhaps threaten our very lives? Do we tremble and in confusion and agony doubt if God cares? Or, if we are not Christian Scientists, do we run to the doctor or psychiatrist?

Peace and joy are quickly ours when we learn that creation is absolutely in accord with God's infinite goodness and order—entirely spiritual, instead of material. The knowledge of this truth begins at once to dissolve every discordant situation. Anyone in search of health and harmony in his life may find it in the understanding of the invariable law of divine Love, which allows for no disease or lack of harmony.

Christian Science shows the source of order, stability, health, to be divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind,—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." ^{Science and Health, p. 275;} From the basis of God's infinitude and all-power we reason that everything in His creation reflects His perfect nature and character.

Man, the Scriptures tell us, is made in God's image and has dominion over all the earth. This dominion over all, unlike the private, personal power of a pundit, is the infinite reflection and manifestation of the omnipotence of Spirit, God, which man inherits as the son of eternal Life and divine Love. We exercise it to the degree we know that all of God's children reflect the same dominion.

God's unvarying love for man means that we can encounter no storm His power cannot calm, no fear His love cannot quiet, no disease or pain the understanding of His law of harmony cannot heal, no need His goodness cannot satisfy. It is enough to know and understand that we can never be separated from the source of all good—the very source of our inheritance of spiritual substance manifested in health, peace, joy, morality, and dominion. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," ^{James 1:17;} we read in the Bible.

Since God is All and ever present, the gifts He bestows on His creation including man are forever available in infinite supply, and we really have no need to wait a long time for any good to come to us. The only time lapse between God's immortal expression of infinite good and its manifestation in our human experience is the time it takes us to awake from the dream of life in matter outside God and to lift consciousness into the realm of Spirit, above the chaos and darkness of material-mindedness and its consequent limitations.

But from "the starting-point of divine Science," this exercise of waking, or rising above the mortal sense of existence and life, need not be more difficult than it is to draw back the curtains of our windows and let into our rooms the bright light of the sun, which we know is there.

In fact, it is more difficult to try to navigate in the storm or the dark than to make the rewarding effort to invoke the Christ to still the waves or to let in the light, since our every effort in the right direction brings to light the loving aid of divine Love, our Father. "'Let there be light,'" Mrs. Eddy writes, "is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres." ^{Science and Health, p. 255;}

The divine commands "Let there be light" and "Peace, be still" speak to the darkness and chaos of mortal mind. The response always reveals the powerlessness of this so-called mind in resisting the omnipotence of divine authority. The answer to the one is, "and there was light" ^{Gen. 1:3;} and to the other, "and there was a great calm."

Our need always—not only in sickness and distress but also in health and quiet—is to realize the irreversible harmony of Soul's eternal reflection, forever dispersing fear and danger and bringing order to the disordered sense of human life. The spiritual understanding and demonstration of the supremacy of divine Mind establishes permanent peace and harmony in every area of our lives, in place of sickness, lack, and other forms of discord.

Our joy, health, and peace are always far above and beyond the reach of the storms of mortal mind's restlessness. Christ is the rock on which we are founded; and Christ is the spirit of Life, which animates and protects us all the way. Eventually the storm of error passes, and God is glorified.

Truth, divine and infinite, keeps us all as Love's ideas forever in the consciousness of Spirit, above all sickness, pain, sorrow, fear, and distress.

A reassuring message is found in Mrs. Eddy's poem "Christ My Refuge":

When we understand the operation and dynamics of Truth as always a healthful and peaceful influence; when we harmonize our thoughts and daily activities with the Christ; and when we know that nothing can hinder our attainment of absolute peace and harmony because Love is the divine Principle of our life; we will indeed live above "earth's troubled, angry sea." And sin, sickness, disease, discord, and death will lose their hold.

Let us accept divine Truth even now and prove God's blessings for ourselves and others step by step. It is a duty, and it is a privilege. Jesus did it all before, and in Christian Science the Christ still leads the way.

We may not start with commanding the hurricanes—though we know we live above the storms. But we can calm our fears and anxieties at every point in our daily round. That is where dominion begins in human experience. And it continues as we are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.