Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.djvu/158

146 the wind screams through the tightened shrouds, and waves lift themselves to mountains. We ask the helmsman: “Do you know your course ? Can you steer safely amid the storm?” He answers nobly; but the brave, dauntless seaman is not sure of his fate. Nautical science is not equal to the Science of Mind; yet, acting up to his highest understanding, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on, and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and working, we should stick to the wreck, until the logic of events precipitates our doom, or sunshine gladdens the wave.

The possibility that animal natures give force to character is too absurd for consideration, when we remember that our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to obey him, through spiritual ascendency. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means or methods.

The manifest lack of spiritual strength in the limited demonstration of popular Christianity puts to shame the labor of centuries. Personal consciousness is not so much needed as spiritual. Think of thyself as the orange just eaten, of which only the pleasant idea is left.

Religious and medical systems maintain the necessity of personal pains and pleasures, but Jesus banishes the thought of any such pains or pleasures. The epoch approaches when this understanding will be the basis of true religion. At present we live ridiculously, for fear of being thought ridiculous. We are slaves to fashion, appetite, and sense. In the future we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, creates men and women who are too good to be blotted out. We ought to weary of