What does your barometer say?

What determines the mental climate for your day? The weather forecast? Stock market figures? Your horoscope? Perhaps you wait until you get to the office, to school, or wherever the day is spent, and let the general atmosphere decide whether you'll have a pleasant day.

If this is the case, you may become the unwitting victim of a limited, inaccurate view of what governs man and of what establishes the atmosphere in which he lives.

Even if we find ourselves in a stormy situation, we don't have to simply endure it. Although storms pass, and many are followed by sunshine, we can do more than wait them out. We can refuse to believe what the material senses are telling us and know that harmony is already present because God, good, is ever present.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, discusses the unreliability of the material senses. ''On the eye's retina,'' she writes, ''sky and tree-tops apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet and mingle. The barometer, - that little prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of the senses, - points to fair weather in the midst of murky clouds and drenching rain.'' n1

n1 Science and Health, p. 122.

Ideally, we should establish our own mental climate early each day - the climate of God's kingdom, of the peace and harmony native to all His children - before the economic, political, and social winds of the day blow about us. It's possible to do this because we have, in a manner of speaking, a built-in barometer that always points to harmony: our God-given spiritual sense. The Bible describes this capacity: ''There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.'' n2

n2 Job 32:8.

Throughout the ages, spiritual sense has revealed God, Spirit, to those seeking to understand Him and to obey His law. Through the exercise of spiritual sense great men and women of the Bible were able to promote the well-being of an entire nation.

Christ Jesus lifted the sights of his followers above the unreliable evidence of the senses, above myths and superstitions, to a perception of God's perfect spiritual creation. Through his healing work - and most persuasively through his own resurrection and ascension - he proved that man is really a spiritual being, reflecting the immortality, harmony, intelligence, and integrity of infinite Mind.

The Master's spiritual sense was not influenced by what the day brought. In fact, wherever he went the climate improved, mentally and physically. The Gospels tell of an occasion when the wind literally ceased, and the sea obeyed his commands. Jesus didn't lose sight of spiritual reality, of the Principle of man's existence. Nor did he lose sight of the divine source of his spirituality. When someone tried to attribute a finite, personal goodness to Jesus, the Master rebuked him. ''Why callest thou me good?'' he asked; ''there is none good but one, that is, God.'' n3

n3 Matthew 19:17.

When we wake each morning, we can choose a glorious day. Through quiet communion with God, we can acknowledge - and realize - His allness, His complete and caring control of His universe, including man. We can deny mortal, material beliefs about existence as subject to inevitable conflict, to cycles of good and evil, to the storms of hatred and violence. Our spiritual poise will help to harmonize whatever climate we enter. ''The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace,'' n4 Science and Health states.

n4 Science and Health, p. 506.

Going forth each day, conscious of the atmosphere in which we really live, will brighten our path as well as the lives of all those who cross our path. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Blessed art thou, O Lord . . . . Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Psalms 119:12,18