Man Is Always "Safe above life's raging sea"

An injudicious flagging in the vigorous pursuit of growth in grace can result in experiencing the "foam and fury" of "earth's troubled, angry sea". It may be little comfort to the storm-tossed mariner that Christ walks serenely over the waves while he must struggle manfully against them until their unreality and the peace and calm of God's omnipresence and omnipotence are finally glimpsed.

Depending on the measure of grace or gracelessness one expresses, the storms he endures may be of longer or shorter duration and ferocity, but their falsity cannot delude forever, despite carking fears they will persist like that centuries-old storm on Jupiter. Life's "dirty weather", as Captain MacWhirr calls it in Joseph Conrad's "Typhoon", exists after all only as the dyspepsia which follows yielding to the temptation to taste the forbidden fruit on the tree in the midst of the garden.

Should one find himself flung willy-nilly, to and fro on an ocean of troubles, he should heed Captain MacWhirr's sound advice: "Keep her facing it. They may say what they like, but the heaviest seas run with the wind. Facing it--always facing it--that's the way to get through." "The foam and fury of illegitimate living and of fearful and doleful dying should disappear on the shore of time; then the waves of sin, sorrow, and death beat in vain." (S&H 203: 27-30) Resolutely facing adversities, realizing they are all ultimately unreal and powerless, will also aid in breaking the illusory grip of aggressive mental suggestions that things or conditions which aren't God exist now or ever existed.

Note: The last wicket in the previous entry was added on the spur of the moment and may be a little too cute. I think LowlyWise got it. It is simply Christian Science with Christ removed. The short-sheet also implied the need for study of Prose Works, the Church Manual, and poems of Mrs. Eddy, plus, of course, OLD periodicals, class papers, Bible commentaries, etc.