“I Met God in the Morning”

I met God in the morning,
When my day was at its best
And His presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered;
All day long He stayed with me;
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O’er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind.
When I too had loosed the moorings
With the Presence left behind.

So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.
— Ralph Spaulding Cushman

Mrs Eddy admonishes me in the Blue Book:
“WATCH – The first thing in the morning, call on God to deliver you
from temptation and help you to be awake.
Then do your chores, not as a dreamy hashish eater, but with a clear sense of what to do
and just how to do it.
Then sit down and first get yourself into a consciousness of your
power with God, and
then take up the outside watch.
Sit until this is clear, – [even]if [it takes] two hours.” [emphasis added]

So,the secret to bettering world conditions (taking up “the outside watch”) is not to rush precipitously into a watch every time I am made aware of a need or crisis. It took Queen Esther 3 days to get the Mind of God regarding the threat to her and her people, to shake off her human feelings of agitated, frantic concern. “First get yourself into a consciousness of your power with God.” Only then could she approach the King with her request, which a metaphor for anyone approaching God with a watch/request. Esther’s majestic quieting of her mortal mindedness is illustrated by her putting on her royal garments, because having the Mind of God about a problem is having dominion over that problem, which is true majesty.

If I take up any outside watch without first getting myself into a consciousness of my power with God, then my watch is in vain, and I am actually malpracticing on the world instead of uplifting it.

This is also the secret to making one’s individual life outside the prayer-closet a moment-by-moment demonstration of “harmony, health, holiness” that not only affects one’s own life, but is contagious.