DISPELLING DISCORD

D. MURIEL SAVARY

"The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love." With supreme confidence in God's almighty power to deliver from all evil, our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, penned these dynamic words on page 224 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." And on a memorable occasion this same divine power delivered the writer from storm and tempest. A heavy gale had been blowing across the English Channel all night. As travelers journeying to England stepped over the gangway of their ship at the French port there seemed no possibility of the heavy seas abating. As soon as the ship left the harbor she lurched and tossed heavily. At first there was considerable merriment on board as people struggled to stand upright and walk. Then, as the ship plunged onward, a deep hush of fear fell over her.

To a student of Christian Science who longed to prove the power of God, ever-present divine Mind, to still the raging waters, came the comforting example of Christ Jesus when he and his disciples were in jeopardy because of the angry waters of the Galilean sea. He commanded, "Peace, be still," and we read, "The wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). Gratefully the student recalled that no storm, however severe, could withstand the Master's exalted recognition of his God-given dominion.

Realizing that the infinite ever-presence of God, good, was just as near and the all-power of divine Love just as supreme as when our Way-shower stilled the tempest, the Christian Scientist felt a great sense of calmness filling her consciousness. It was the stillness inspired by confidence in God's omnipresence and undisputed supremacy. Suddenly she saw that although in mid-channel, where all winds converge, the ship was now steaming peacefully and calmly to her destination. The storm had abated. Relieved of fear, the passengers moved about happily once again.

To Mrs. Eddy was revealed the present perfection of God's spiritual universe, including man, His immortal, harmonious likeness. In the light of Mrs. Eddy's God-inspired textbook, Science and Health, the Bible is illumined. Passages never before understood become clear and of practical daily use. For instance, we find that the new heaven and new earth spoken of by the Apostle John in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation is the real spiritual universe.

This universe is forever at hand, although it is not recognized until revealed through the teachings of Christian Science. We learn also that when the apostle speaks of there being no more sea, he is referring to erroneous material concepts of man and the universe and the discords which result from these false concepts. On page 536 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness."

The sea of unbelief and discord, which St. John envisioned, is proved unreal for us also through the spiritual understanding of man's inseparable oneness, or unity, with God, who is man's Life. Tempest-tossed seas of human fear, sickness, loneliness, and doubt, of lack or despair, are seen to be nothing more than false concepts of man and his environment. They are removed from experience proportionably as the truth regarding God and man pervades consciousness and our daily activity.

No longer must we see ourselves or others as sick, sinning, or unsuccessful mortals, swept about on the ocean of material chance and change. Man, the beloved and forever perfect son of the infinitely loving Father-Mother God, is permanently harmonious, joyous, whole, and at peace. He lacks no good, since his boundless source is God Himself. Just as the storm on the Sea of Galilee was calmed by Jesus' spiritual understanding of God's all-power, so will every kind of human tempest or distress be disclosed as no part of God's creation, hence unreal. Just as the discords of an unhappy night dream are proved unreal as soon as the sleeper awakes, so through the teachings of Christian Science all discordant claims vanish when we awake to the reality of man's wholly spiritual being, a being that can never be marred or disturbed by any lie of the suppositional carnal mind.

The beautiful words of Mrs. Eddy's poem "Christ My Refuge" (Poems, p. 12) portray the peace and spiritual understanding that come to the consciousness awakened to the ever-present Christ, Truth:

"And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea
I see Christ walk,
And come to me, and tenderly,
Divinely talk.

"Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock,
Upon Life's shore,
Gainst which the winds and waves can shock,
Oh, nevermore!"

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ACHIEVING TRUE EXCELLENCE

May 2, 1953

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