Flashes of wit and humor again and again appear in the works of the beloved Leader of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy. Here is a delightful bit from her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 339): "If people would confine their talk to subjects that are profitable, that which St. John informs us took place once in heaven, would happen very frequently on earth,— silence for the space of half an hour."

Would it not seem that if discussion of the weather and the state of one's health were to become taboo, a vast majority of the population would become mute? "Is this warm enough for you?" or, "Isn't this heat wicked?" exclaims a would-be Job's comforter when the mercury mounts. And who is not familiar with the oft-quoted quip that people are always complaining about the weather, but nobody does anything about it?

Now a Christian Scientist should know that there is something he can do about it. First, he should learn how to order his thinking and his speech in connection therewith. Certainly matters are not helped by iterating and reiterating how hot or how cold it is. To the student of Christian Science, atmosphere is becoming a thing of thought. Heat and cold are mental concepts. Do not the Scriptures aver that as one "thinketh in his heart, so is he"? Who has not seen proofs of this when a mortal allows fear of heat to prostrate him or fear of cold to play havoc with his well-being?

A most profitable activity for a sufferer from the elements is to take the Concordances to Mrs. Eddy's writings and ponder some of the enlightening statements found under the word "atmosphere." Consider, for example, the important passage in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 265) wherein she declares "that the atmosphere of the human mind, when cleansed of self and permeated with divine Love, will reflect this purified subjective state in clearer skies, less thunderbolts, tornadoes, and extremes of heat and cold." Never again should the student of Christian Science feel helpless or hopeless in the presence of inclement weather. There is something he can do about it. He can lift thought into the atmosphere of Soul, which is the opposite of material sense or sensation. He can declare that man is the expression of Spirit and dwells in harmonious Mind, untouched by the discords of sentient matter. When thought becomes "cleansed of self and permeated with divine Love," the argument of extreme heat or cold is more readily silenced.

There is no question but that fear is the enemy responsible for much of mortals' suffering in connection with the weather; and in the fifty-sixth Psalm, David sets forth a sure remedy for fear: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." Fear of heat prostration, as well as fear of cold, is annulled when thought is turned intelligently Godward. Certain it is that the flesh, which is but the externalization of carnal beliefs, fears, and limitations, cannot continue to tyrannize over those who steadfastly strive "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," to use Paul's words (II Cor. 5:8).

And may not physical discomfort from the weather also be found in unbridled human will? As a rule, a fretful, willful, selfish mortal is almost certain to be easily disturbed by inclement weather conditions. If the permeation of human consciousness with divine Love ultimates in "clearer skies, less thunderbolts, tornadoes, and extremes of heat and cold," is it beyond the realm of possibility that storms, earthquakes, and other disturbances of nature can be traced to upheavals of the human mind?

Into the mouth of King Lear, Shakespeare put these revealing words: "I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 484), "The physical universe expresses the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals." Small wonder, therefore, that the human family experiences waves of intense heat or cruel cold, when the carnal mind manifests, as it does, the fire of hate at one time or the chill of stubborn selfishness or cruelty at another.

Is it surprising that there are hurricanes and vicious electrical storms when passion and hatefulness are unleashed in mortal thought? That the devastating convulsions of nature are not in accordance with God's law was proved when Christ Jesus, who came to exemplify the Father's will, quieted storms with his mighty "Peace, be still." And did not the Master plainly teach that those who understand the Christ, Truth, are also endowed with "power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy"? (Luke 10:19.)

Therefore, let us as followers of the great Way-shower watch well our mental atmosphere at this hour, when mankind so sorely needs surcease from the storms and upheavals of material sense. Let us be zealous in our denial of self-love and self-will. Let us pray for the permeation of the affections by Love divine, knowing that heaven, harmony, is here, and that in truth all of God's ideas dwell serene in the atmosphere of spiritual consciousness.

He who abides in Soul will be less and less disturbed by the mortal beliefs of heat or cold, and his exalted thought will aid in ushering in better concepts for all humanity. What a healing prayer is given by the gentle Quaker poet in these lines:

John Randall Dunn