In the Bible, in the book of I Kings, we find the familiar story of how God, infinite Mind, revealed the stillness of His nature to the prophet Elijah. It was shown to him that God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. The divine presence could not be felt in the clamor of material turbulence, in the noise and dissonance of storm-tossed mortal thinking. But in the tranquillity and peace of spiritual knowing Mind's impartation became clearly discernible. The "still small voice" ^{I Kings 19:12;} spoke to him, and he listened and obeyed. Through his obedience he was led to Elisha, who was to become his disciple and to carry on God's work after Elijah's translation.

The Apostle Paul was well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures and undoubtedly familiar with the story of Elijah's experience. In his first letter to the Thessalonian church he urges the brethren to "study to be quiet." ^{I Thess. 4:11;} He clearly understood the importance of silencing the clamorous inner voices of our thinking if we are to hear Mind's voice, which is ever speaking to us if we will but listen.

The writer has frequently spent his holidays by a certain beautiful lake. It has been his habit to arise early in the morning, proceed down to the sheltering rocks by the water's edge, and devote a period of time to quiet study and prayer. At this hour the lake is often utterly still, and the glassy surface of the water perfectly reflects the beauty that surrounds it. And then a little breeze springs up and ruffles the water. The reflected image at once becomes indistinct. Then the breeze develops into a wind, the water becomes boisterous, and the reflection disappears.

In the same way, the quiet, unruffled thought most clearly reflects the divine Mind and is most vividly aware of man's true selfhood in and of the divine Principle, Love.

We learn in Christian Science that God is the infinite stillness. He is everywhere, so He can have no knowledge of motion in our human, material sense of the word. The divine Mind's movement is His knowing, His self-expression, and this knowing is utterly quiet, restful, unhurried, still. Mrs. Eddy's words bear this out, for she says: "Mind demonstrates omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves on a spiritual axis, and its power is displayed and its presence felt in eternal stillness and immovable Love. The divine potency of this spiritual mode of Mind, and the hindrance opposed to it by material motion, is proven beyond a doubt in the practice of Mind-healing." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 88, 89;}

What seems to hide Truth from our mental gaze is the hypnotic attraction of human events, the rush and hurly-burly of modern life, the constant dwelling in thought on person, place, or thing— all at the expense of that inner stillness where God's allness is seen and acknowledged.

It is only as we fasten our attention on the things of Spirit that we find rest. Isaiah wrote, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." ^{Isa. 26:3;} Claiming and knowing God to be our very Mind and denying that we possess a personal mortal mind subject to unrest act to correct the mental disturbance. We begin to feel the native peace and tranquillity which is rightfully ours as the expression of the restful Mind.

Several years ago a newspaper reported the result of exposing a group of people to complete stillness. When asked for their reactions, they gave answers ranging from "puzzling" to "upsetting." They found the experience a difficult one because their thought had become habitually immersed in the racket and feverish activity of contemporary human life. Noise was their protective armor against the presence of reality, which can be recognized only as we still the human mind.

We all need to be alert to the reluctance of the carnal mind to discipline itself. Paul says, "The carnal mind is enmity against God." ^{Rom. 8:7;} This false mind dislikes and opposes the stillness of spiritual knowing, and stubbornly refuses to face its own unreality and acknowledge God to be the only Mind. But the humble acknowledgment of this primal fact must be made if we are to escape the dissonance of mortal thinking. We must learn to control the action of the human mind as it darts about from the past to the future, and then back again. The harmony of divine being can be realized only in the now, and human thought must be tamed to the point where it abides quietly in the present realization of Truth.

Christ Jesus must have recognized the need of quiet, for he sometimes withdrew from others and went away to pray. If we are to be effective healers, we need to cultivate the quietude of thought that is consistently in tune with God. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent." ^{Science and Health, p. 89;} We must be still enough to hear the divine voice directing us and assuring us of Love's tender care. Then we shall understand that our treatment begins with God and therefore that it is irresistibly omnipotent.

The one Mind is the only healer. In the degree that we silence a personal sense of good, our thought becomes a transparency for the uplifting, strengthening light of Mind. We read in Isaiah, "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." ^{Isa. 30:15.}

Alan A. Aylwin