Sunday, June 23rd, 2019 Roundtable

Each mental worker in the home occupied his own room, which was large, airy, and comfortably furnished, with private bath connected. The injunction, “Never forsake your post,” was one that was strictly obeyed by every mental worker in our Leader’s home. Each was always to be found in his own room, and when a change was proposed in the line of mental work to be taken up, Mrs. Eddy would give her secretary the lan­ guage of the “watch,” or perhaps it would be sent to his room by Mr. Frye, Mrs. Sargent, or Mrs. Eddy’s maid, whichever one happened to be convenient when the inspiration reached our Leader. Carbon copies were made of these “watches” and one was taken directly to the room of each worker, as a guide to him in his mental work. The subjects covered by these “watches” were endless in their variety. One thing in particular that our Leader requested her workers to care for was the weather, and this was done in addition to the work of the committee in Boston appointed for that special purpose. During some of the severe New England winters when a greater amount of snow than usual was falling, our Leader would instruct her workers that they must put a stop to what seemed to be the steadily increasing fall of snow which she looked upon as a manifestation of error. She had an aversion to an excessive fall of snow. She considered it as an agent of destruc­ tion, an interference with the natural and normal trend of business. We are quick to rec­ ognize the fact that an unusually heavy fall of snow in any community is a disastrous thing. It clogs the wheels of commerce, interferes with traffic, interrupts the regular rou­tine of business affairs, and breaks in upon the harmony and continuity of man’s peace­ful existence. Millions of dollars are spent annually in many places to remove the effects of heavy snowfalls, and so this was one of the points that was covered by Mrs. Eddy’s mental workers. One of the “watches” issued January 15, 1910, requested her mental workers to “Make a law that there shall be no more snow this season.”

When our Leader first came to live at Chestnut Hill in the spring and summer of 1908, thunder storms and electric disturbances seemed to be unusually prevalent. This was another form of error which our Leader disliked very much. A gentle rainfall was a delight to her, but a distructive, electrical storm she abhorred. She evidently looked upon it as a manifestation of evil and a destructive agency of mortal mind. Mrs. Sargent was the one to whom was especially assigned the work of watching the weather and bringing it into accord with normal conditions. For the three years during our Leader’s stay in Chestnut Hill, and for several years thereafter, the recollection of the writer is that there were fewer and fewer thunder storms until they almost ceased to be.

Upon one occasion after she had given her workers some instructions regarding the weather, and after we had all repaired to our several rooms to continue, a succession of taps on her bell called us all back into her sitting room, where, as was our custom, we arranged ourselves in front of her chair very much as the old-fashioned class in school arranged itself in front of the schoolmaster. Pointing with her finger to the first one in
the class, which happened to be myself, she said, “Mr. Dickey, can a Christian Scientist control the weather?” “Yes, Mother.” To the next person, “Can a Christian Scientist con­ trol the weather?” “Yes, Mother.” To the next, “Can a Christian Scientist· control the weather?” “Yes, Mother.” “Mr. Frye, can a Christian Scientist control the weather?” “Yes, Mother.” To the next person, “Can a Christian Scientist control the weather?” “Yes, Mother.” This question was put to each member of the class with the same reply. After we had all repeated our answers, an expression of rejection, not to say scorn, came upon­ her face, and she said with emphasis, “They can’t and they don’t.” This brought a look of surprise to the face of each member of the class, for we had just been instructed, as we thought, how to take care of the weather. She repeated the statement, “They can’t,” but immediately she added, “but God can and does.” “Now,” she said, “I want you to see the point I am making. A Christian Scientist has no business attempting to control or govern the weather any more than he has a right to attempt to control or govern sickness, but he does know, and must know, that God governs the weather and no other in­ fluence can be brought to bear upon it. When we destroy mortal mind’s belief that it is a creator, and that it produces all sorts of weather, good as well as bad, we shall then real­ize God’s perfect weather and be the recipients of His bounty in that respect. God’s weather is always right. A certain amount of rain and sunshine is natural and normal, and we have no right to interfere with the stately operations of divine Wisdom in regulating meteorological conditions. Now I called you back because I felt you did not get my for­mer instructions correctly and I want you to remember that the weather belongs to God, and when we destroy the operations of mortal, mind and leave the question of regulating the weather to God, we shall have weather conditions as they should be.”

Every Christian Scientist will see the force of our Leader’s instruction in this re­ spect. Mortal mind’s attempts to take out of the hands of the Creator of the universe His dispensation of weather should be met and overcome through the realization of what really constitutes God’s government regarding the weather.

I have heard our Leader describe in a number of instances how she has dissipated a thunder cloud by simply looking upon it and bringing to bear upon mortal mind’s con­cept of this manifestation of discord what God really has prepared for us, and she illus­ trated this by a wave of her hand indicating the total disappearance of the thunder cloud and its accompanying threat.

As time went on, the serious nature of our work at Chestnut Hill dawned upon my thought. I saw that we were there filling one of the most important positions that could be assigned to human kind.

— from Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy by Adam Dickey