WHO that has studied the Bible has not at some time thought upon the story of the storm on the lake of Galilee, so graphically described in three of the Gospels? One pictures the frail boat, tossed and buffeted by the angry waves, and driven this way and that by the relentless wind. Matthew says that "the ship was covered with the waves;" and one can well imagine the sense of terror experienced by the disciples, whose lives, from a material standpoint, appeared to be in extreme danger. But amid all the noise and confusion, there was one who remained undisturbed. We read in Mark that Jesus "was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow," and that it was necessary for his disciples to wake him before he was aware of the storm which raged around.
An earnest student of the Scriptures might well ask why the Master awoke with such consciousness of harmony. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has answered the question in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 61), where she says: "If you fall asleep, actually conscious of the truth of Christian Science,— namely, that man's harmony is no more to be invaded than the rhythm of the universe,—you cannot awake in fear or suffering of any sort." This, then, was the secret of the Master's peaceful slumber in the midst of the storm. He had fallen asleep supremely conscious of ever present and invariable harmony; and every follower of Truth to-day may experience this same sweet, calm consciousness, which neither the buffeting winds nor the tempestuous waves that mortals encounter on life's stormy sea can disturb.
But how is this wonderful blessing to be found and appropriated as one's own? By gaining the spiritual understanding of what constitutes man and the universe. On page 337 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes, "The visible universe and material man are the poor counterfeits of the invisible universe and spiritual man;" and it is to this invisible universe and this spiritual man that she alludes in the passage first quoted. The spiritual universe is the only real universe. It is created by God, divine Mind, and consists of spiritual ideas; and nothing can ever interfere with its perfect harmony. This is the universe in which in thought Christ Jesus lived so greatly, and of which he was profoundly conscious.
