THERE is such a wide-spread feeling of terror regarding thunder-storms, that an experience in the overcoming of such fear in one who had always a great dread of them, may be helpful to others struggling with the same problem.
During a veritable tempest, with incessant vivid flashes of lightning and consequent heavy peals of thunder, it was an inestimable privilege to be able to "stand fast ... in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free," a freedom brought to so many through the better understanding of God gained in Christian Science. Then there came to mind the storm and stress through which Elijah passed after his experience on Mount Carmel, where, after years of waiting, his people turned back to God. Despite the great joy and thankfulness which this must have brought him (through the manifestation of the power of God where the worshipers of Baal so signally failed), it was soon changed to fear and anxiety when he was informed by a messenger that Jezebel sought to slay him because of his destruction of the prophets of Baal. Weary, grieving over the disasters which had overtaken the children of Israel because of their backslidings, it is with a sense of pity that we read a portion of the prophet's reply to the question, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" addressed to him in the cave where he had taken refuge. "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away," he answered.
Then the writer tells us of a mighty wind, so strong that the mountains were rent and rocks were broken, following this an earthquake, and after that a fire; but the comforting assurance is given that "the Lord was not in the wind;" neither was He in the earthquake or in the fire. After all the commotion and material upheaval had passed, however, there came a "still small voice," speaking to a consciousness bewildered and disheartened by all it had endured. It was the voice of God, insistent, quiet, assuring. It represented the only power there was then, the only power there is today, the only power there ever will be; for God, Mind, is all, and there is none beside Him.
