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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Right Knock, by Helen Van-Anderson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Right Knock
+       A Story
+
+
+Author: Helen Van-Anderson
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 5, 2008  [eBook #24177]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT KNOCK***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+_Price, $2.00._
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK
+
+A Story
+
+by
+
+HELEN VAN-ANDERSON
+
+Author of "It Is Possible," "The Story of Teddy," "The Journal of a Live
+Woman," etc., etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      "Go to your bosom;
+    Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know"
+
+    --SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+_THIRTEENTH EDITION_
+
+Published by
+_The New York Magazine of Mysteries_
+22 North William Street, New York City
+
+Copyright, 1889, by Helen Van-Anderson
+All rights reserved
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK
+
+Copyright, 1903, by
+The New York Magazine
+of Mysteries
+All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER.                                              PAGE.
+
+       I. MRS. HAYDEN,                                      9
+
+      II. THE GIRLS AT HOME,                               17
+
+     III. A FIRE AND A RETROSPECT,                         25
+
+      IV. BEGINNINGS,                                      30
+
+       V. THE OLD DOUBTS AGAIN,                            36
+
+      VI. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE,                             44
+
+     VII. A NEW HOPE,                                      59
+
+    VIII. WHAT THE WORLD SAID,                             63
+
+      IX. A STRUGGLE WITH SELF,                            70
+
+       X. HINTS OF HELP,                                   79
+
+      XI. LEAVING HOME,                                    83
+
+     XII. MRS. PEARL'S LECTURE,                            90
+
+    XIII. THE TRUE FOUNDATION,                             95
+
+     XIV. QUESTIONINGS,                                   104
+
+      XV. WHAT IS NOT TRUE,                               112
+
+     XVI. STUDYING AND PROVING,                           125
+
+    XVII. WHAT IS TRUE,                                   131
+
+   XVIII. IT MUST BE SO,                                  141
+
+     XIX. THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH,                            151
+
+      XX. TANGLES AND TALKS,                              162
+
+     XXI. INSPIRATION AND THE BIBLE,                      172
+
+    XXII. A CHURCH COMMITTEE,                             184
+
+   XXIII. PRAYER,                                         192
+
+    XXIV. EVERY-DAY PRACTICE,                             202
+
+     XXV. UNDERSTANDING,                                  211
+
+    XXVI. A NEW PROBLEM,                                  222
+
+   XXVII. UNDERCURRENTS,                                  228
+
+  XXVIII. THE POWER OF THOUGHT,                           234
+
+    XXIX. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING,                          243
+
+     XXX. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          249
+
+    XXXI. CONFIDENCES,                                    257
+
+   XXXII. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          262
+
+  XXXIII. GRACE,                                          274
+
+   XXXIV. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          281
+
+    XXXV. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          291
+
+   XXXVI. FOUND AT LAST,                                  300
+
+  XXXVII. AFTER THREE YEARS,                              308
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Although most excellent food is to be found on the table of metaphysical
+thought, there has never yet been a metaphysical story setting forth a
+picture of every-day life, in its search for, and attainment of
+satisfaction through the knowledge of Christ Philosophy.
+
+Knowing the pressing need of such a book among the many inquirers and
+students on this theme, and with the hope of helping to fill that need,
+this story is told.
+
+It is a book of facts, not fiction, although wearing the dress of
+fiction. Every case of healing, every seemingly marvelous experience has
+come under the observation of the writer and can be authenticated as a
+veritable fact.
+
+That there are hundreds, yea, thousands to-day, who leave their homes
+and go to distant cities for the sake of pursuing the study of Christ
+Philosophy, or receiving the benefit of its healing ministry, is proof
+enough that the story of one woman's experience will be interesting and
+helpful to all.
+
+While the lessons contained in Mrs. Hayden's letters are not exhaustive,
+they are valuable for their very simplicity, and are thoroughly
+practical, complete instructions for the beginning and continuance of
+the study of this wonderful truth.
+
+With every lesson supplemented by personal experiences, the reader sees
+not only the theory but the practice demonstrated, and in this simple
+story he may find the mirror of his own inner hopes and aspirations,
+with a broader view of their possible attainment than he has yet seen.
+
+Carlyle says: "If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach
+other hearts." "The Right Knock" is presented with no other apology than
+this: it has come from the heart.
+
+  HELEN VAN-ANDERSON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
+
+
+To a new and awakened public the author gives greetings and begs to say
+a few more words about THE RIGHT KNOCK.
+
+After all these years of work along the lines laid out in the book and
+with a wide knowledge of prevailing systems of mental training, the
+author is happy to be able to say with unbounded confidence that there
+is nothing to excel this system for beginners, for those desiring to lay
+a lasting foundation. The emphasis laid upon the necessity for
+persistent, regular and systematic practice of word speaking by audible
+repetition, is great, but none too great. For the faithful student this
+never fails to bring results, never fails to put him in the way of
+understanding and demonstration. With regular practice and constant
+application in the daily life, with good judgment as to the details of
+practice, length of time at one exercise, etc., the pupil is assured in
+one way or another certain convincing experiences which develop
+individuality and, with that, his God-like gifts. Thousands have proven
+this.
+
+The unnumbered letters of gratitude, the kind words, the warm
+hand-clasps, the many testimonials of sick beds forsaken, depressed
+spirits revived, vices discontinued, of physical and moral strength
+regained, prove that the work of the Spirit is not to be measured by
+puny human standards of judgment, prove that simple things--the things
+from which we expect the least, in which we put the least ambition or
+worldly desire may be those which will yield the "hundred fold" of real
+blessing.
+
+The test of any spiritual truth lies in its demonstration and in the
+inspiration and faithfulness with which it can be lived. Be true to the
+truth and you will demonstrate it. Live the Christ life and the works
+will follow; yet seek truth for its own sake, not for its power.
+
+A word about Christian Science. Sometimes persons aver of THE RIGHT
+KNOCK that it teaches Christian Science pure and simple. With all due
+respect and a recognition of the grand and marvelous work done by Mrs.
+Eddy, the author feels called upon to say, in justice to Mrs. Eddy as
+well as herself, that this is not true.
+
+There are undoubtedly many similar statements, yet there are many
+differences which the careful reader will discover. Please note, for
+example, that not matter itself, but matter as the real substance or
+power, is denied. Not sickness of the body, but sickness of the Spirit,
+is a falsity, etc., etc.
+
+In brief, the author of THE RIGHT KNOCK believes there is a name, place
+and condition for _everything_, and that the discrimination of the plane
+on which a thing or condition exists, is the key to placing it in the
+right relation to the whole.
+
+In conclusion, the author would say most earnestly, study one writer or
+teacher at one time, just as you would study music of one instructor at
+one time. It is not the many books but _the Book within_ which is to
+reveal all things.
+
+  God speed you.
+
+  HELEN VAN-ANDERSON.
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK is now in its THIRTEENTH edition, a fact which speaks
+for the _great helpfulness_ of the book, and proclaims without further
+comment its _world wide Scope_.
+
+
+
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     "When you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not
+     weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world."--_Emerson._
+
+
+There was a brilliant light in all the windows at Terrace Hill. Even the
+verandahs were gorgeous with the gayest Chinese lanterns, and every bush
+and tree in the lawn did duty as chandelier. Flowers, too, festooned
+every arch and embowered every corner, while rare vases fulfilled their
+esteemed privilege of holding and showing fragrant blossoms.
+
+Everybody declared the decorations superb, and agreed that no one but
+Mrs. Hayden could display such exquisite taste and such perfect judgment
+in selection and arrangement. Animated groups of gayly attired guests
+sauntered up and down the rose-bowered walks, or promenaded the
+verandahs, while sounds of music and merriment from the house proclaimed
+the joy that reigned throughout.
+
+"Oh, how beautifully Mrs. Hayden entertains!" remarked Kate Turner to
+her friend Grace Hall, as they stopped beside a marble fountain to
+survey the scene. "I wonder what place such a woman would take in
+society without her wealth," she continued.
+
+"Probably wouldn't have _any_ place, I am sorry to say, because there
+are thousands of women just as capable and bright as Mrs. Hayden, yet
+because they have no social position, or rather no money to buy
+themselves one, they are unrecognized and alone," said Grace, with a
+tinge of bitterness in her tone.
+
+"I could never fancy Mrs. Hayden alone or unrecognized, although I only
+know her as a society lady, and that mostly through Mrs. Nottingham."
+
+"There is no telling what a person really is till they have gone through
+a trial of some kind, or had something disagreeable to bear. _Then_ one
+of two things happens: you will see either a saint or a sinner, and I am
+not sure which Mrs. Hayden would be. She hasn't yet seen a flame from
+the fire of adversity, I'm sure. See how wonderfully she is blessed with
+this beautiful home, a good husband and three nice children."
+
+"Oh! it must be lovely to have everything you want," sighed Kate, under
+her breath.
+
+Poor Kate! She was alone in the world, making the best of life with her
+talent for music and through a mutual friend had been introduced to Mrs.
+Hayden, who, after hearing her play, immediately engaged her for Mabel,
+and always invited her to the parties, more as a musical attraction,
+than out of any real regard, for Mrs. Hayden had an abundance of friends
+without troubling herself to cultivate in any warm fashion, the
+friendship of a poor little music teacher, thought Kate, somewhat
+bitterly.
+
+"But after all, Kate, life would need more than luxuries to make it _my_
+ideal of happiness. I should want every human being to be agreeably
+employed; every woman, no matter how much or how little she might have,
+should be occupied with something that she could put her heart into and
+speak to the world through her work, whether it be painting pictures or
+darning stockings."
+
+"Now Gracious, you are riding your hobby and you ought to see you can't
+ride with all these fine people in your path. Come down at once or I'll
+desert you! Let's go in and hear that waltz," and Kate laughingly pulled
+the hobby-rider into the path that led to the conservatory where they
+could listen to the music.
+
+"What a beautiful home Mrs. Hayden has!" said Mrs. Ferris to her
+neighbor with the severe collar and plain hair, as they examined the
+exquisite frescoing on the parlor ceiling.
+
+"Yes, but she ought to look into poor homes once in a while. She don't
+use her money in the right way. Just think of the good she might do for
+our church, if she would contribute to the charity fund, or take some
+poor families to look after."
+
+The fat neck folded itself over the severe collar and the face settled
+into rigid lines of judgment. Mrs. Dyke was a practical woman and talked
+in a practical way. Being a wonderful church worker she naturally
+considered it everybody's duty to give when they did not work for the
+cause of religion. She belonged to the First Methodist Church on High
+St., and talked about "our church" as though there were no other.
+
+Mrs. Ferris was at a loss. She had said something that had not brought
+forth a pleasant result. She merely wished to be sociable, and what more
+convenient topic than these beautiful surroundings? She was a meek
+little woman, who always wanted to say something agreeable or soothing,
+and she felt quite frightened at the mistake she had made. She wished
+somebody would come to the rescue, but there was no immediate prospect,
+and she scarcely knew how to proceed again, but ventured to ask if there
+were many poor people who needed attention now.
+
+"Yes, indeed there are no less than fifteen families in the mission
+quarter nearest Mrs. Hayden who would consider it a privilege to pick up
+the crumbs from her table, and I am afraid she'll have to give an
+account _some_ time when the reckoning day comes, for those who have not
+'given cups of cold water, or visited the sick languishing in prison.'"
+
+The air almost trembled with a suggestion of something. Little Mrs.
+Ferris looked longingly towards the door and just then spied her husband
+who was seeking her. After she was gone, Mrs. Dyke looked grimly about,
+and not finding any one to listen, she relapsed into a meditative
+silence. People always wondered what made Mrs. Dyke so popular that she
+received an invitation to every aristocratic party, but it was according
+to the old adage, "Where there is a will there is a way."
+
+This was a _gala_ night for Hampton. Such large social parties were
+always an event, and no one refused an invitation to Mrs. Hayden's, for
+it always meant beautiful rooms, carpets, pictures and _bric-a-brac_,
+superb refreshments, and a splendid time generally. Mrs. Hayden was a
+favorite with the world because she fed the world with sugar plums, and
+after smacking its lips it was always ready for more. And she usually
+had one to drop in. To-night it was a remarkably sweet one. This was a
+general affair, and every big body and big body's cousins and friends
+were there. To be sure they discussed their hostess as freely as though
+they were not big bodies, but with rare exceptions the discussion was
+complimentary in the extreme. Mrs. Hayden, what she said, what she did,
+what she wore, what she served as refreshments the last time, what were
+the probabilities next, her children, her husband, what they all did and
+said and how they acted, etc., were always interesting themes.
+Sometimes, to be sure, there were adverse remarks like Mrs. Dyke's, but
+few made them.
+
+Yes, Mrs. Hayden was decidedly popular, and although no one was ever
+heard to tell of any particularly grand or noble deed she had done, she
+was supposed to be doing good all the time. There were those who, in
+earlier years, would have pointed her out as an enthusiastic
+philanthropist, eagerly helping whatever project needed her most, but
+gradually she had dropped it all, no one knew why, and now her principal
+work was to shine in society, at least this was the general verdict of
+the adverse few who judged from the superficial standpoint of the world.
+Of her inner life they knew nothing as the world knows nothing of any
+one's inner life. There may be depths or shallows in any character never
+dreamed of by the most intimate friend, much less by the babbling world.
+
+Mrs. Hayden moved about among her guests with a stately grace. She had
+always a pleasant faculty of adjusting the broken links of conversation,
+supplying a _repartee_ or asking a question, introducing strange
+gentlemen and reviving timid _debutantes_ with a pretty compliment or a
+gracious smile.
+
+"My dear, I wish you would play something," she whispered to Miss Turner
+as she passed her, "I think the group in the drawing room need a little
+change;" and no wonder, for there was Mrs. Dyke in a hot dispute with a
+Unitarian over Robert Elsmere, while her pastor sat near, occasionally
+adding something to Mrs. Dyke's emphatic remarks.
+
+"It's a most blasphemous piece of presumption to present such a picture
+as that of the church. As if it were in its last stages of decay,
+indeed! It was well such a weak-minded idiot as Robert Elsmere died at
+the beginning of his career. I could never forgive the author if she
+hadn't killed him," she was saying in an angry voice.
+
+"We can take it simply as a symbol of the decay of his religion, and
+that is comforting," added the minister, complacently.
+
+"I am not at all in sympathy with the holy Catherine, with her prejudice
+and bigotry. If it wasn't such a true picture of the many Catherines we
+find in real life, I should be quite disgusted, but I do love to see
+real people in novels, then I know so much better how to deal with
+them," said a pretty young lady who aspired to be called intellectual
+because she liked to study character.
+
+"Indeed, Catherine had a deep religious nature, which might be worthy of
+emulation in many respects, and she is certainly a high ideal of wifely
+love," Mrs. Hayden interposed at this critical juncture.
+
+"Well, I didn't read the book for Catherine, but for the sake of knowing
+Robert and what he did to make such a stir in the world. I'm opposed to
+novels, as a rule, and read as little of one as I can," said Mrs. Dyke,
+smoothing her lap and looking at the minister. Mrs. Hayden motioned to
+Kate to play, and presently the rooms were filled with harmony.
+
+Kate Turner was a natural musician, and to-night she fairly excelled
+herself. The little passage at arms just recorded had inspired her with
+emotions that could only be expressed in music, and she played some time
+to the continued delight of her listeners. She finished at last with a
+song that stirred every heart, and even Mrs. Dyke was visibly softened.
+"Verily 'music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,'" murmured the
+intellectual young lady, who was sorry that discussion of Robert Elsmere
+had been interrupted. She rather enjoyed Mrs. Dyke, for she was an
+immensely interesting "character."
+
+This reception, like all others, came to an end at last. Everybody
+expressed themselves as highly delighted with their entertainment, and
+one by one reluctantly took their departure; the gay lanterns on the
+lawn and among the shrubbery went out, the lights inside the splendid
+mansion were finally extinguished, and only the quiet starlight
+illumined Terrace Hill.
+
+Mrs. Hayden, from her high bay window, looked out over the sleeping
+city, then at the North Star that beamed so brightly above her--that
+unerring beacon-light that guides so many lost mariners into port. Some
+deep thought must have moved her, some hidden impulse stirred her mind.
+She sighed. There was no visible reason for it. Then she turned and went
+down the stairs to the nursery. Her two babies were sleeping sweetly.
+Mabel was asleep in her room, and all was quiet. The hush seemed
+oppressive after so much gay confusion. Now she was in another element.
+Now she was the mother, then she was a fashionable woman. She hastened
+back to her room, once more gazed without and then thoughtfully
+retired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "Christianity is not a theory or a speculation, but a _life_; not a
+     philosophy of life, but a life and a living process."--_Coleridge._
+
+
+Kate Turner walked slowly along the street at the foot of Terrace Hill.
+She looked up at the beautiful home where she had spent the previous
+evening, and as she saw the velvet lawn and terraced walks bordered with
+bright flowers, she half pitied herself because she was only a plodding
+music teacher. She was not envious, but she had such longing aspirations
+to be somebody in the world; she wanted so many things, needed so much
+to complete her education, and starved herself in so many ways for the
+sake of completing it, that sometimes she grew discontented with her
+lot. Fortunately her moods did not last long, however, and especially
+when she went home to her artist friend, Grace, with whom she shared
+rooms. They were both making their own way in the world, and were a
+great help to each other, as well as a great comfort.
+
+Kate was wondering what Mrs. Hayden did every day with her leisure. She
+should think she would be tired always going to parties and lunches and
+operas, or receiving calls. "But then, I am thankful to know her," she
+concluded, casting a last glance at the stately mansion before turning
+the corner. "After all, life might be worse for me, and I can be a happy
+nobody if not a famous somebody," she said to herself, as she ran
+upstairs, after stopping at the baker's for a loaf of bread and a pot of
+jam.
+
+"Well, Gracious, what noble message have you given to the world through
+your work to-day?" she cried, a moment later, gaily peering into the
+studio through the _portières_ that separated their parlor from the work
+room.
+
+"Is that you, Kate? Well, I've been trying the whole afternoon to make
+this Hebe look like a modern Hypatia, but----"
+
+"In other words," interrupted Kate, "you would change innocence into
+intellect. Now, look here, Grace, just leave this dainty girl alone. She
+would never do to serve the gods if you gave her the aspect and bearing
+of a goddess. Let her alone, or the world would not recognize her as a
+representative woman," laughed Kate, inspecting the picture with
+critical eyes.
+
+"Kate, stop laughing, and tell me truly if you think it would not do to
+give her a little more independence."
+
+"You know it's the worst thing in the world to give a woman even an
+inkling that such a thing exists," said the mischievous Kate, with a
+total abandonment to consequences as she gave the artist an impetuous
+hug.
+
+"Well, let us have tea, and we'll discuss the subject later," said
+Grace, somewhat mollified.
+
+"I am afraid, Gracious, you are something in the same mood I was when I
+started home to-night, but I concluded to let 'dull care' take care of
+itself, and be merry while the sun shines, which means as long as we
+have enough to pay our rent, and the prospect of a little more next
+month," continued Kate as she brought a tiny oil stove from the depths
+of a closet and proceeded to "put the kettle on."
+
+"I have been so full of thoughts of the nineteenth century that I found
+it hard to go back to the Pagan ages, but here this picture is ordered,
+and I must finish it by next week, so I guess this one will have to go
+without my message," said Grace, a little gloomily, for above all things
+she loved to put her own individuality into her pictures, which she
+generally did with rare success.
+
+"You mustn't have just one ideal of woman, or you'll lose the art of
+painting the sweetest phases of womanhood," replied the busy housemaid
+from the sepulchral closet.
+
+"Oh! if I have such excellent models as you make in that checked apron
+and dusting cap, I can do nobly."
+
+Grace laughed good humoredly as she cleaned her palette and set Hebe in
+one corner.
+
+"Now, my dear, isn't there something I can do to help arrange the
+feast?" as she went into the little back room they used for a kitchen.
+
+"Yes, wash the grapes and open the jam while I cut the bread and pour
+the tea."
+
+A few minutes later they were _tête-à-tête_ at the little table, and as
+they sat down Grace said with a comical smile: "Quite a difference
+between our banquet of last night and this, isn't there?"
+
+"I should remark there is, but after all, Grace, I believe I am quite
+content. As I was passing along at the foot of the hill this evening a
+momentary dissatisfaction came over me that I couldn't have a few
+advantages _like_ Mrs. Hayden's, not hers of course, but similar ones,"
+with a smile at the distinction, "and then I wondered how she spends all
+her leisure, for of course she has the whole twenty-four hours at her
+disposal, and--well, to be brief, I would not want to live without some
+object in life, and so I thought it best the way it is now."
+
+"Very wise conclusion, Kate, that's just what I always say, and really
+who is there with whom we would care to exchange places? There are so
+many kinds of people and so many things for humanity to contend against,
+I don't know that I should want to change burdens with anyone."
+
+"Mrs. Dyke, for instance, would you not think yourself fortunate to be
+like her?" said Kate, with a merry twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, deliver me from that comparison! Why, she carries everybody's sins
+on her shoulders; I even heard she had taken Robert Elsmere to throw at
+the world!" laughed Grace.
+
+"But not his wife; she didn't read about her. Wasn't it too funny to
+hear her go on last night, and the way she looked at the minister to
+emphasize her position?"
+
+"Yes, but how many there are like her--read just enough to know there
+are such and such characters and such and such incidents. Now of course
+she has heard the minister define Robert's crime, as he would call it I
+suppose, so she thinks she can use the whole argument," replied Grace, a
+little scornfully.
+
+"Mrs. Hayden interposed just at the right time. I was glad she did, too.
+It seems she has considered Catherine's position and could speak a good
+word for her," said Kate, sipping her tea, thoughtfully.
+
+"Well, if she calls her an ideal of wifely love, I don't admire the
+reality," exclaimed Grace, with more vigor than elegance, as she put
+down her tea-cup.
+
+"I got positively impatient," she continued, "when I read about her
+cruelty to Robert, judging him in that inquisitor's fashion. Poor
+fellow! _I_ think he died of a broken heart."
+
+"But, Grace, she did what she thought was her religious duty, and it
+must have been hard for her to withdraw herself so completely when she
+loved him so much," said the more charitable Kate.
+
+"Do you call that love which would let him go tramping off alone, with
+not even a word of sympathy, and so afraid that her religion would be
+contaminated she could not even hear him preach? I don't pretend to be
+religious, but any religion stands on a poor foundation if it can be
+swept away by anybody's opinions."
+
+"It wasn't that; it was because she thought it was wrong to listen to
+heresy, as she supposed it was, and----"
+
+"How did she know? Had she taken pains to find out? Did she study it
+carefully and have a reason for her cruel judgment?" interrupted the
+wrathful Grace.
+
+"Well, she was conscientious and was doing what she had been taught was
+right."
+
+"Kate, if there is anything that makes me out of patience with people
+it is when they hang all their actions on what somebody else says, and
+that excuse is simply barbarous in this case."
+
+"Remember that in religion one must follow what he thinks to be right,
+and Catherine Elsmere represents a large class of people; in fact, the
+majority of religious people."
+
+Kate was naturally inclined to be charitable, and this, added to her
+early training in a religious home, as well as her position as a church
+member, made her understand Catherine's position from a conscientious
+standpoint much more than Grace. She could readily appreciate the fixed
+law of conscience Catherine had made for herself by pledging her sacred
+word of honor to her father, whom she revered as an infallible
+authority, as most people revere the legends and doctrines of the
+church.
+
+"I admit that it is right to follow the dictates of one's own
+conscience, but I believe in having an enlightened conscience, and a
+reason for opinions. For that matter, so did Robert have a conscience,
+and while I don't understand his religion, I respect his honesty and
+effort. There are a great many beautiful things in what he says, but
+there must be a mistake somewhere in a religion that can not save to the
+uttermost, and his didn't. I haven't found one that does," said Grace,
+with some irony.
+
+"Nevertheless, Grace, there is nothing to warrant your assertion in the
+Bible. The Christian religion is full of the most blessed promises of
+salvation in _everything_," said Kate, gently, but flushing a little as
+she spoke, for she disliked talking religion with Grace, who was so
+skeptical, although if compelled to do so, it was a matter of duty to
+stand up for her Christian principles.
+
+"Yes, I admit it gives many wonderful promises, but where are they
+realized? It seems to me the very fact that the church has not proven
+them, made such people as Robert Elsmere doubt them even as possible of
+fulfillment."
+
+"Why Grace, surely _you_ don't disbelieve in the power of God to fulfill
+the promises?" exclaimed Kate, deeply pained.
+
+"I am talking from Robert Elsmere's standpoint," answered Grace,
+evasively.
+
+"My sympathy is with Catherine, for to her, religion was a living answer
+to her deepest needs and feelings, and to doubt that answer was nothing
+less than sacrilege," said Kate, with a bright red spot on either cheek.
+
+"Well," answered Grace, throwing down her napkin, "I want to see a
+religion that will stand infinite investigation without falling into
+ruins, and Robert reasoned himself away from the old beliefs and dogmas
+because he investigated them. He used his God-given reason, and I think
+that is to be used as well as the blind, unquestioning faith of
+Catherine."
+
+"There are times when we need faith and times when we need reason, but
+faith applies to religion and reason to the things of the world,"
+replied Kate, recalling what she had heard a few Sundays before.
+
+"Well, to me the ideal of religion is a marriage, a union of faith and
+reason--but this is idle talk. What does anybody know of such perfection
+as I demand anyway?"
+
+Grace impatiently pushed her chair away from the table, and went to look
+at her picture again, in a decidedly gloomy mood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "Such is the world, understand it, despise it, love it; cheerfully
+     hold on thy way through it, with thy eye on highest
+     loadstars."--_Carlyle._
+
+
+It was a week since the party. Mrs. Hayden had been to the opera and
+returned late. Her husband was absent on a business trip, and she felt a
+vague uneasiness come over her as she entered the room. She knew not
+why, but it seemed unusually lonely without him. She seldom went out
+alone, but to-night she had gone out as much to while away the time as
+to hear the music. After paying her usual visit to the nursery, she went
+to bed, but slept little for several hours.
+
+About 4 o'clock she was awakened by stifling fumes of smoke and
+startling cries of fire. Was it too late? She sprang up and ran to the
+nursery stairs, but the scorching flames met her, and she retreated to
+the window, shrieking for help, only to get a glimpse of someone through
+the smoke climbing toward her.
+
+"Hold on!" cried the fireman, and reached out his arms for her just as
+she fell back fainting. Grasping her firmly, the brave man dragged her
+out of the window, and began his perilous descent. When about half way
+down, the ladder fell, but its burden was expected, and mattress and
+bed-clothing saved them from what might have been worse. As it was, the
+fireman escaped with a few bruises and slight scorching, and Mrs.
+Hayden with a broken limb. First they feared she was dead, but after a
+few moments she revived and moaned feebly for husband and children.
+Little Mabel clung desperately to her mother, and sobbingly told her
+"only the house was burnt. Fred and Jamie were safe, and now she must
+get up and be glad." Poor child, instinctively she knew the value of
+life above all other things.
+
+"How did it happen, where did it start, and who saw it first?" were the
+queries on every side. Some one down at the foot of the hill had seen a
+tiny blue flame licking the corner of the roof. The fire alarm was
+touched, the bells set to ringing, and the observers leaped up the
+terraced stairways and arrived at the top just as the whole house burst
+into flames. The fire company had not arrived in time to do anything, as
+it was impossible to climb the hill with their heavy trucks, and their
+hose was not long enough to reach the flames, so the house was gone.
+Many people had gathered from all quarters in the fashion peculiar to
+fire crowds, but now they had seen the spectacle, and, as there was
+nothing further to see or do, they slowly dispersed.
+
+Mrs. Hayden and the children were removed to the hotel and a telegram
+sent to Mr. Hayden, informing him of the catastrophe.
+
+When he arrived, twelve hours later, he found his wife confined to the
+bed with a nervous fever and a broken limb. The children were safe and
+well cared for, and though his elegant home was in ruins, John Hayden
+was deeply thankful. Marion would, of course, get over the trouble, and
+things were much better than they might have been, he said. So he tried
+to look on the bright side, and after a few cheering words and a loving
+kiss he left her, to run up the hill and view the ruins.
+
+It was early twilight, and as he beheld the smouldering _debris_, and
+realized that the comforts and luxuries, possibly the necessities of
+life had gone up in the smoke that even now curled in sullen wreaths
+from the blackened heaps, he bowed his head and wept.
+
+It was but a moment, but that moment was the bitterest of his whole
+life. He knew better than anyone else that this was probably the
+beginning of financial misfortune, for a very important transaction was
+even now pending that he feared would take his all. As a merchant he had
+an honorable reputation and position, but this unfortunate speculation
+would ruin him. Failure seemed inevitable. But he hoped to save enough
+to pay every debt and still be able to live, even though in a modest
+way. Now he would not even get his insurance on his house, for in his
+financial embarrassment he had failed to renew his policy, which had
+expired but few days before. He would now have little besides this spot,
+this beautiful hill. Yes, it was valuable, and in time could be sold for
+what it was worth, but not now, and in the meantime what should he do?
+How would Marion take it? Why had he not told her before he went away?
+But he had known it himself only a few days.
+
+"Oh, my dear wife, would that we could commence life as we did when we
+were first married!" he groaned.
+
+His mind went back to the past. He looked again into her sweet, girlish
+face, into her clear, earnest eyes. He remembered how they had both
+desired to live a religious life, how he, having been brought up in a
+religious home, undertook in vain to explain the Bible where it was dark
+and unreasonable to her. He remembered how fruitlessly she had tried to
+be converted, and that he had found even through her earnest seeking
+that he had naught but the letter of religion and was also as helpless
+as to the manner of salvation. And then they had given up trying. She
+sought, for a while, to satisfy herself by doing for others, giving her
+time and energy to the poor that found her out and besieged her for
+favors, while he had been satisfied to let religion alone and believe
+with the majority concerning the doctrines and dogmas.
+
+As the years went on, and prosperity came to them, he had grown more and
+more indifferent, and finally, when they moved away from their early
+home and entered a new city, they had begun a new life, as it were.
+
+He remembered, regretfully, that she had entered the competitive ranks
+of society, at his wish at first, because he thought it would add to his
+popularity as a merchant and increase the number and quality of his
+customers. Too well he remembered that the elegant parties and party
+costumes were first his own instigation, and now that these were likely
+to be taken away, he felt responsible for her happiness, and had a
+secret misgiving, born of his early religious training perhaps, of
+retribution and judgment. He hoped indeed that she would be able to
+rise above circumstances, but he was utterly at a loss to know how she
+would take it, for although he knew that deep down in her heart were
+still traces of the early longings, he felt vaguely there was no way to
+satisfy them any more now than in the past, and probably they would only
+increase the difficulty of finding happiness.
+
+John Hayden was kind-hearted and upright in all his ways, strictly
+honest and conscientious, but apt to be a little one-sided in his
+judgments, simply because, as a rule, he reasoned from one standpoint,
+thought in one groove. He had never considered the questions from this
+point of view, and therefore they were seriously perplexing. Like many
+another he lived within his own world, and knew naught of any other. In
+the later years of their married life he and Marion had grown a little
+apart in the closest confidences, but it was caused by circumstances
+more than anything else, and notwithstanding the present misery he was
+sure of her love.
+
+"Poor girl, I must hasten back to her," he murmured, as he rose from his
+uncomfortable position. "After all, I can thank God for my family, my
+health, my honor, for no matter how much _we_ may suffer, no one else
+shall suffer through me."
+
+There was a little pang at the thought of the privations in possible
+store for the family through him, but he had resolved to make the best
+of circumstances and be brave as possible. Once more he looked over the
+scene, but there were only dim black shadows in the starlight, and he
+went down toward the twinkling lights of the city below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     "Society is like a piece of frozen water; and skating well the
+     great art of social life."--_Letitia Elizabeth Landon._
+
+
+"Too bad about Hayden, isn't it?" said one business man to another after
+the crash came.
+
+"Yes, I am sorry for him, but he is coming out honorably, and I hope
+he'll commence again before long."
+
+"Well, he is made of the right stuff if he did make one mistake, and I
+guess he will never make the same blunder again. Too bad though about
+his house. No insurance at all, and that was a magnificent property."
+
+"Indeed it was, and I hope for his wife's sake he can sell the lot and
+get another home for her."
+
+"Can't do it now though--real estate is too low for any use in Hampton."
+
+"Yes, that's so. The only way is to mortgage, and that seems a pity in
+this case--" and they passed on out of hearing.
+
+John Hayden, standing within the doorway of the open store, had
+overheard the remarks, and while they pained, they cheered him. From
+that moment his resolve was taken, and as soon as everything was
+honorably settled he applied for credit of his old friends in the
+wholesale houses and they gladly gave it, for his reputation was
+unimpeachable.
+
+Then he rented a modest little store and began anew.
+
+Mrs. Hayden lay sick seven weeks, and arose a weak and nervous invalid,
+"doomed to carry a still limb all her life," the physicians said. They
+could not discover why her limb was stiff, but there was no help for it.
+
+How did she bear the change in her life and circumstances? When her
+husband told her, she just put her arms around his neck and whispered;
+"All right, John, I shall do the best I can to help you bear it." And
+from that moment they began life again. She did not even complain when
+they were obliged to move into a small cottage in the suburbs, but it
+was hard for her to be ignored and forgotten by the elegant social
+world, where she had so recently been an acknowledged leader.
+
+Alas! she had no sugar plums for society now, so it soon forgot her
+existence. There were, however, some exceptions among her former
+friends, and she was glad to welcome among her few visitors, Kate Turner
+and Grace Hall, who had grown to love Mrs. Hayden more than they would
+have thought possible when she seemed so high above them in the social
+scale.
+
+"She is turning out a saint rather than a sinner," said Kate one
+evening, as they were discussing the Haydens and recalled the
+conversation of the night of the party.
+
+"Just wait awhile. Many people can be heroic in great things, but are
+sadly deficient when it comes to the little things," said Grace, with
+her usual caution. "I believe I could be a heroine myself, if some grand
+opportunity came," she added, smiling.
+
+"Oh, Grace, don't trifle so; you know this is a very serious matter with
+Mr. and Mrs. Hayden, and they are both doing nobly," cried Kate, with
+tears in her eyes.
+
+"Well, queen Katherine, I don't mean any harm, and you must not think
+anything of my brusque speeches. As you know, there is a tinge of
+skepticism in me which I can not help, and my ideals are so much higher
+than the realities of life, that I am always painfully conscious of the
+difference."
+
+"Well, what would you wish Mrs. Hayden to be like, for instance, in
+order to come up to your ideal of the heroic woman?" asked Kate in a
+softened tone.
+
+"Kate dear, I love Mrs. Hayden as much as you do, and would not for a
+moment disparage her virtues, but it strikes me as a philosophical fact
+that as a rule, human nature can and does display wonderful courage in
+great emergencies, but fails miserably in details, and this ought not to
+be so. Nothing would please me better than to see one life prove that I
+am wrong."
+
+"That is all true, Gracie, about humanity in general, but she is lovely,
+and I am sorry for her having to be lame all her life. It's a perfect
+shame that she must lose even her health, for of course she will never
+be strong again."
+
+"Another defect to be noted somewhere in the universal economy. It seems
+to me we are pretty helpless creatures, generally speaking, for it all
+appears to be a matter of chance whether we get well or not, when we
+_do_ get sick," mused Grace, bent upon drawing her own conclusions.
+
+Poor girl! Life had been rather hard for her, and she judged it as it
+appeared, and there _did_ seem a great flaw somewhere which she was
+trying her best to solve by noting every phase of life as she found it.
+Naturally bright, keenly intellectual and very independent, she was a
+philosopher as well as an artist, and always ready for a tilt with the
+world on its most petted opinions. Hers was a reasoning mind that
+observed all inconsistencies and discrepancies in anything she studied,
+and there was generally a little acidity in her judgment of the world
+and its bigoted ways.
+
+"I can't see why Mrs. Hayden should not be cured completely," continued
+Kate, ignoring her companion's last shot, "for it wasn't so bad that
+anybody knew of until she got up."
+
+"My dear madam," said Grace, striking an owlish attitude, "you have not
+read the latest opinion expressed by one of the most learned professors
+in the Allopathic school of medicine in Paris. He stood before the class
+of graduating students and said: 'Gentlemen, you have done me the honor
+to come here to listen to a lecture on the science of medicine. I must
+frankly confess I know nothing about it, and, moreover, know of no one
+who does. Any one who takes medicine is fortunate if it helps him, but
+more fortunate if it does not harm him.' Whether our friend is fortunate
+or unfortunate is a question hard to decide. I move we discuss another
+subject."
+
+Kate laughed in spite of herself, and Grace got up to take another view
+of the "Modern Hypatia," which at last was growing into a visible
+creation under her skillful brush.
+
+"Isn't that a woman for you?" she said, pointing to the picture
+admiringly, as she held it under the gas light.
+
+"Yes, I like her better than Hebe. She has a look of reserved power
+about her that is captivating, but there is something in her face that
+makes me sad, something that is lacking."
+
+"What is it? Tell me, for _I_ can see nothing!" Grace questioned
+impetuously.
+
+"Wait a minute, perhaps I can define it. There! hold it so. Let me see,"
+and Kate walked off a few paces.
+
+"Yes, it is dissatisfaction, an incompleteness, as though she had not
+found what she sought."
+
+"Can you see that, Kate? Then I am at the same time the most happy and
+unhappy creature alive," cried Grace, breathlessly dropping into a chair
+and holding the picture fondly near her face.
+
+"Why?" said the astonished Kate.
+
+"Don't you know I am forever putting myself into my pictures? And I've
+succeeded too admirably with this one. The poor thing has caught my
+unconscious fault of finding defects everywhere. Oh, I must get it out
+of her some way; how shall I, when to me she looks so perfect?"
+
+"You better get it out of yourself first, if that is the trouble,"
+replied Kate, with a great wave of pity in her voice.
+
+"I wish I could. Oh, why do I have to see everything in the wrong way?
+It seems to me life would be heavenly, if I could know only the good in
+everything." Grace put down the picture and gazed at it with stern,
+accusing eyes. "I shall leave this one and begin another to-morrow," she
+finally announced in a subdued tone.
+
+"I am glad you won't rub this out, for she is too lovely," said Kate,
+softly, as she went about, gently putting things in order, picking up
+her music and arranging the books.
+
+Grace sat there brooding over her life problems with a new thought in
+her mind. She dimly realized that a woman must have a genuine message
+herself before she tries to give it to the world. And alas, her message
+was sadly deficient, she found. Mechanically she took a book from the
+table and opening it at random, read:
+
+  "If the whole is ever to gladden thee,
+  That whole in the smallest thing thou must see."
+
+"That is not bad philosophy, whose is it?" she thought. She looked at
+the book. It was Goethe's poems, but she was not in the mood for
+reading, and she sat thinking till late at night. This was a new
+sentiment. She would digest it and test its practical truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  Take up the threads of life at home,
+   Let not the stitches drop;
+  The busy world will know 'tis done
+   Though ne'er it pause nor stop.
+
+"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace
+but the triumph of principles."--_Emerson._
+
+
+A year passed away, and Mrs. Hayden grew no better. She was not as
+cheerful as she had been at first, and instead of growing into the
+brave, patient woman she longed to become, she had grown fretful and
+irritable, and was in many ways different from the Mrs. Hayden Kate and
+Grace had talked about so enthusiastically. None knew better than she,
+how miserably she had failed to live the life that was soul
+satisfying--the life that brought forth fruits. In all the years of her
+prosperity, in the midst of the gayeties and luxuries, she had secretly
+longed for something she never found, and in one sense it had not been
+hard for her to give up the life of ease and idleness, because she had
+hoped to find in the new duties a new peace and satisfaction, had hoped
+to live up to her ideal of a noble woman, and it was with her whole
+heart she had promised her husband her help and sympathy, but in all the
+eighteen months, she had been but a burden; even calm forbearance and
+cheerfulness had ceased to be virtues. The children, not having a
+nursery, must needs be anywhere and everywhere, and in spite of her
+efforts to the contrary, their noise annoyed her.
+
+To-night she sat thinking it all over, in one of her most despondent
+moods, for be it said to her credit, things did not always appear as
+gloomy as she represented them to herself.
+
+The ruddy firelight flickered over her in fitful gleams of light and
+shadow. The children were out romping in the twilight, enjoying the
+first snow of the season. Her husband had not yet returned from the
+store.
+
+What was the use, anyway, pursued the relentless conscience--even the
+wish to be good was always choked by a complete forgetfulness; and
+before she could catch her breath the words were out, so, although she
+had believed nearly all her life that one might grow into goodness, she
+was quite rebellious to-night with the thought of its impossibility, and
+she felt bitter, too, to think of the long years of uselessness
+stretching out before her. Scarcely thirty-five and yet she felt like a
+cross, crabbed old woman, and shuddered to think of all the years to
+come, if they were to be like the past, and there seemed no help for it
+unless she could conquer herself. The doctor had done what he could to
+cure her dyspepsia but she was a veritable slave to her capricious
+stomach. She felt one of her oft-recurring sick headaches coming on and
+every thought grew blacker and more disconsolate. Oh! she wished supper
+were over and the children safe in bed, so she could be free from their
+noise, and here they come! she thought, as a great stamping and laughing
+was heard in the hall.
+
+"Oh, mamma! such lovely snowflakes, just like a fairy's quilt, and they
+have been falling all over us till we're like people in frost land. Just
+look, mamma!" cried Mabel, who liked a romp as well as the boys,
+although she was thirteen. Three-year-old Jamie and five-year-old Fred
+came trooping in behind.
+
+"Well, mamma, God has turned on the snow faucets," announced Fred, with
+characteristic importance.
+
+"An' all 'e fevvers is tummin' down fum 'e 'ky," shouted Jamie at the
+top of his voice.
+
+"And mamma, _can't_ we have a sled and go coasting this winter?" queried
+Mabel, not noticing in her eagerness that her mamma was very sick.
+
+"Oh, _don't_ make so much noise. Take them away and keep quiet, Mabel. I
+can not endure so much confusion."
+
+They went out clanging the door behind them in spite of their efforts to
+keep quiet, and as their voices grew fainter, she thought with another
+remorseful pang: "I have sent them away again. Why must I yield always
+to self instead of overcoming?" Presently, however, all attempts at
+thinking were lost in the efforts to get the camphor, bathe her head and
+find some comforting spot whereon to rest her aching temples.
+
+A subdued family gathered around the table that evening and everyone
+felt the necessity of being quiet as possible. Even Fred and Jamie
+understood that they _must_ keep still, and managed to keep their voices
+down to something less than a shrill whisper.
+
+Mrs. Hayden partook only of a small cup of tea and was then assisted to
+her room, where she expected to remain for at least two days--the usual
+time. Her husband spent the evening rubbing her head, bathing it with
+camphor and keeping the house quiet as possible.
+
+The next day dawned cloudy and grey, with a faint mildness in the air,
+indicating a thaw. Mabel went to school, Fred and Jamie amused
+themselves in the back parlor until they were tired and then flattened
+their noses against the window, trying to see how many drops of melted
+snow fell from the porch roof.
+
+"I want a snow man," wailed Jamie, suddenly remembering what papa said
+about the snow long ago.
+
+"Well, you can't have it," said Fred, with great decision, who generally
+opposed anything on principle.
+
+"Yes, we can. We can go out and make one," persisted Jamie.
+
+"Jack Frost'll bite your fingers."
+
+"No he won't."
+
+"He will--"
+
+"He won't eever--"
+
+"He will, 'cos mamma said so," said naughty Fred.
+
+Jamie's little face clouded and the lip began to quiver; then a sudden
+thought striking him, he jumped up, beaming with delight, and cried, as
+he ran towards the hall:
+
+"Mamma said Jack Frost couldn't find me when I had my overcoat and wed
+mittens on, and my wed cap."
+
+"You can't reach your coat an' you've lost your mittens," insisted Fred,
+with perseverance worthy a better cause.
+
+"O, yes I can. I can 'tep on my high chair," dragging it after him.
+
+"I can get my things on first," said Fred who suddenly decided in favor
+of the snow man, and hurriedly suiting the action to the word, rushed to
+get his coat which hung under Jamie's, just as Jamie reached his little
+hands up to get his. Fred gave a tremendous flirt and pull at his coat
+which overbalanced his little brother and down came the high chair and
+Jamie plump upon the luckless Fred, whose angry squeals and kicks,
+mingled with Jamie's loud shrieks of terror made a commotion that
+brought Anna, the housekeeper, to the rescue.
+
+"What _is_ the matter?" as she plucked Jamie from the general _debris_.
+
+"Fred pulled me down--"
+
+"Jamie jumped on me," said both at once as soon as they could get their
+breath.
+
+"An', I aint lost my wed mittens, an' my little white leg is broke off,"
+cried Jamie suddenly, spying the oft-mended leg of the high-chair, which
+in this _melee_, had completely severed company with the rest of the
+chair, and now mutely appealed for help to be put on again.
+
+"There, there, papa can mend it all right again. Don't cry, little man.
+Now Fred, you must stop crying and play nice with Jamie and not quarrel
+so much. There! I hear mamma's bell; I must go see what she wants. Run
+away and be quiet, for mamma can't stand a _bit_ of noise to-day," and
+Anna left them again to their own devices. Jamie carefully laid the
+little white leg away in his box of playthings, and then both children
+went back to the window to watch the drops again.
+
+"I see one, two, three, seven, four, ten--" slowly counted Jamie as the
+crystal drops fell.
+
+"Oh, I see a ice berg, an' I'm goin' to get it for candy," shouted Fred
+as he ran out on the porch and seized an icicle. It seemed so nice out
+there that he stayed and called Jamie to come, too. They were delighted
+with the new plaything and new sights, and any thought of being cold or
+needing their coats never entered their minds, so the icicle, the
+beautiful drops, and finally the snow claimed their attention until they
+were at last happily engaged in the much-desired occupation of making a
+snow man.
+
+It was near noon and the sun had finally rifted the grayest clouds, and
+was sending such warm smiles on the snow-laden earth that trees and
+fences, roofs and ridges burst into tears of joy. So, often does the
+sun-shiny smile melt the ice-bound prison of discontent or
+misunderstanding.
+
+Fred and Jamie were in the midst of their interesting creation when Mr.
+Hayden came home to dinner.
+
+"Boys! boys!" he called from the gate as soon as he saw them. "You'll
+catch your death of cold; run into the house, quick! Why haven't you
+something on your heads and rubbers on your feet?" and without waiting
+to hear their vociferous reply, he hurried them into the house.
+
+"Oh, but it was such fun, papa, an' we was goin' to put two coals in his
+head, cos' his eyes was black, you know, an' your old mashed hat for his
+head, an'--"
+
+"An' me foun' a 'tick for his arm," interrupted Jamie, who must be sure
+papa knew all about this wonderful man.
+
+"Yes, he looks very promising, and I guess I'll have to finish him for
+you; but you must not go out again to-day. Just think what would we do
+if you should be sick while mamma must be in bed. Poor mamma, she would
+feel bad and cry because she couldn't help you, and it would make her
+feel very sorry indeed to know her little boys went out without somebody
+saying they might."
+
+"Well, papa, we didn't mean to go 'thout our things on, but two of the
+_beautifullest_ icebergs hunged down an' we played they was candy an'
+all the pretty drops said stop, stop, stop, an'--"
+
+"Yes, an' the 'no was full of 'tars 'at shined right up at us an'
+laughed an' played hide an' seek wiv each other."
+
+"An' Jamie wanted to make a snow man," suddenly remembered Fred.
+
+"Cos papa did when he was a little boy, an' he telled me sometimes so
+could I--"
+
+"Oh, you little rogues, it is well you can trace it back," laughed papa,
+catching each small man, and placing upon his knees.
+
+"Why, look here, your shoes are all wet, and your fingers red, and your
+clothes sprinkled with water. This will never do. Take off your shoes,
+Fred. Here, Anna," he called, as he heard her in the dining room,
+"bring some dry stockings and aprons. These boys have been out in the
+wet snow, and must be changed right away. Put a flannel round their
+necks, too. I'm afraid they'll have the croup to-night." With as much
+haste as possible, he stripped off their wet clothes, chafed their hands
+and feet, and with an anxious look left them, to go and speak to his
+wife who, when suffering from headache could allow no one to enter the
+room except her husband or Anna.
+
+That night the whole household were aroused by the hoarse and
+unmistakable cough of croup. Jamie had taken cold, as his father feared
+he would. The doctor was sent for in wild haste, and after several hours
+of watchful care and frequent taking of hive syrup or ipecac, Jamie was
+at last sleeping quietly, and every one felt that after this, at least,
+those children should be so well guarded that escape would be
+impossible, and the dreaded enemy kept out. This was always a result of
+exposure, and Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had often wished for the time when
+Jamie would outgrow the attacks as that really seemed the only thing in
+which lay any hope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  "Build thee more stately mansions
+  Oh my soul,
+  As the swift seasons roll,
+  Leave thy low vaulted past.
+  Let each new temple nobler than the last
+  Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
+  Till thou at length art free:
+  Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea."
+
+  --_O. W. Holmes._
+
+
+"How do you do Mrs. Hayden? You see I come in without ceremony as usual,
+but I heard you'd had one of your headaches again," and Mrs. Reade
+seated herself cosily on the sofa near which Mrs. Hayden sat languidly
+trying to read.
+
+"Oh, I have about recovered my usual strength, but of course I must be
+careful and not get excited or overworked, though my work I am sorry to
+say, does not amount to much." After a few moments commonplace
+conversation, Mrs. Reade said, carefully:
+
+"Now Mrs. Hayden, I believe there _is_ a help for you somewhere.
+Wouldn't you like to try something new?"
+
+"Why, you _know_ I would try anything that would give relief, but I have
+exhausted everything that ever was heard of, and now every remedy seems
+very transient or of no effect at all."
+
+Mrs. Hayden leaned wearily back in her chair and seemed to think there
+was no use discussing the subject any longer. After a few moments
+thoughtful silence, Mrs. Reade looked up at her friend and said,
+timidly:
+
+"Mrs. Hayden, have you ever heard of Christian Healing?"
+
+"No. What is it?"
+
+"I can't tell, only that it is just the most wonderful panacea for all
+ills that ever was discovered and they say it can be learned, and
+applied by everybody."
+
+"Do you mean that I could learn it and could then cure myself?"
+
+"Yes, that is what they claim."
+
+"Why, Mrs. Reade, what is all this wonderful news, and if it is true,
+why hasn't the world heard of it before?" exclaimed Mrs. Hayden with an
+amused smile.
+
+Mrs. Reade did not return the smile but a still more earnest look came
+into her eyes. She bent over her bit of sewing for a moment and then
+looking up, as though resolved to speak the truth at any cost, she went
+on:
+
+"Mrs. Hayden, it is the fulfillment of the promises in the Bible, that
+to them that believe, these signs should be given. You remember the
+passage don't you, where Jesus gave His disciples the same power to heal
+that He had?"
+
+"Well, but that was long ago, and the promise was for the disciples, I
+suppose."
+
+"No, it was for everybody; and do you know, Mrs. Hayden, I can hardly
+wait to learn this new method, I am so interested."
+
+"How did you hear about it?"
+
+"When I was down to Mapleton last summer I heard something about it
+through a friend of mine, who was cured of chronic congestive headaches,
+and now my cousin, Miss Greening, from Norfolk, has come on to spend the
+holidays with us, and strange to say, she has been cured of weak
+eyes--just came straight from Princeton where she was treated,
+and--and--well, the fact is, I want you to come over and see her and may
+be _you_ can be cured."
+
+Mrs. Reade was quite frightened for having said so much, but was
+reassured by the growing interest in Mrs. Hayden's eyes.
+
+"And you know these things to be true? Why, it _is_ wonderful. How is it
+done, by prayer?"
+
+"Not exactly, but it is by some process of thinking. Oh, I can't begin
+to tell you, only that it is wonderful, and you must come over and talk
+with cousin Helen."
+
+"I am afraid to trust myself out in this uncertain weather. Can't you
+both come and take tea with us to-morrow? I hope to be well enough then,
+and it would be a great pleasure, for if there is any truth in this, I
+want to know it. Do come."
+
+This was a good deal for Mrs. Hayden to say, but she was very earnest
+when aroused to interest.
+
+"Yes, we will," said Mrs. Reade, as she rose to go, looking straight
+into her friend's eyes with joyful earnestness, "and I am so glad. Good
+bye," and she retreated as unceremoniously as she had come, leaving Mrs.
+Hayden to wonder why she should be so childishly pleased over that
+invitation. It never occurred to her that Mrs. Reade should be so glad
+to come merely to tell more about this new way of getting well.
+
+Mrs. Reade was a young housekeeper, who, living just across the street,
+was in the habit of often running in to Mrs. Hayden with her little
+vexations, her triumphs of cookery, her questions of how to manage
+little May, or what to do in matters of household furnishing. She was a
+very progressive little woman, and, perhaps owing to the influence of
+Mrs. Hayden, was ready at least to give everything a fair hearing. This
+new "craze," as some called it, had been presented to her in a way that
+compelled her attention and commanded her respect, and especially since
+her cousin's coming had she been intensely interested.
+
+Particularly was she desirous of enlisting the attention of Mrs. Hayden,
+who not only needed the physical help to be obtained, but who would be
+an excellent advocate of the principles, providing she could endorse
+them, as Mrs. Reade was sure she would, if she could only be made to
+understand.
+
+So it was with great anticipated pleasure Mrs. Reade introduced her
+cousin to Mrs. Hayden as they went in the next day.
+
+"Now, Cousin Helen, just tell Mrs. Hayden how you were cured. I am so
+anxious to set the ball rolling," said Mrs. Reade, with an arch look at
+Mrs. Hayden after they were comfortably settled for their talk.
+
+"Yes, indeed," added Mrs. Hayden; "if you have half as wonderful a
+message as Mrs. Reade fondly imagines I shall be delighted to hear it,
+but I would first like to ask what was the trouble with your eyes, and
+something as to their condition when you first looked into this method
+of healing."
+
+"I had been obliged to leave school because they were so weak. They were
+inflamed and bloodshot. I could not bear to go out in the wind, ride on
+the cars, or have any excitement whatever. The occulists said the
+trouble was caused by a physical defect that could not be remedied, so
+you may imagine my despair. Father and mother came home from a visit in
+Kansas, and while there they had heard of a lady in Princeton who was
+having remarkable success with mind-cure, as they called it. They coaxed
+me to go and try it. I had no faith, but to please them thought I would
+go. It could do no harm, they said. The journey, though only sixty miles
+from home, was very hard for me. When I arrived at Mrs. Harmon's it
+seemed as though I could hardly bear the pain caused by the journey.
+
+"Mrs. Harmon allowed me to stay right at her home, and though only there
+a week, I was not only cured, but learned the principles and how to
+apply them. After the first treatment I felt so well and happy she told
+me I could use my eyes to read an hour or so. From the second treatment
+I could use them all I wished. It was perfectly wonderful. When I went
+home I was cured. That is now three weeks ago, and I have been using my
+eyes constantly, have taken several journeys on the cars, and gone out
+day and night."
+
+Mrs. Hayden had listened with the greatest interest, her mind filled
+with varying thoughts. Sudden glimpses of wonderful might-be's, mingled
+with doubts and hopes, had chased each other in wild confusion through
+her bewildered brain.
+
+"Tell me," she found breath at last to ask, "what is it, and how is it
+done, and can anybody do it?"
+
+Miss Greening was delighted to find so willing an audience, for in spite
+of her remarkable cure, most of her family and friends ridiculed her new
+"cure all."
+
+"Oh, I wish I could explain to you as Mrs. Harmon does. I am so very new
+in the thought, but I will do the best I can to give you some idea. The
+main thing in the beginning is to know that you know nothing," continued
+Miss Greening, with a smile. "The world believes in the character as it
+appears, to be the real character, that the person who suffers sickness,
+sorrow, disappointment, anger or pain is the real self. We have always
+taken the people of the world, as they appear, to be the children of
+God. This truth teaches that the real child of God is in His image and
+likeness and in Him lives, is moved and has His being. According to the
+laws of thought, the thought of one individual affects another, and on
+this principle the treatments are given, but it is the omnipresent life
+Principle that does the work.
+
+"Oh, it is perfectly wonderful, and if you could see what I saw while I
+was with Mrs. Harmon, you would not doubt a moment. She was busy from
+morning till night with patients. Hardly had time to eat or sleep. It
+seemed like the times of the New Testament come back again. Mrs. Harmon
+cured a man of rheumatism, where the joints had been stiffened and
+contracted for years, in seven treatments. The first week the
+treatments did not seem to have any effect, but the second week he
+suddenly recovered the use of his arm and limbs, so that he could run
+and jump or do anything else that a healthy man can do.
+
+"One young girl, who was suffering from lead poisoning so that she was
+given up by three or four prominent physicians, received nine treatments
+and, although not perfectly strong and robust, was able to walk several
+blocks and was so well that she did not need further treatment.
+
+"Mrs. Harmon treated an old lady of seventy, so that she laid aside
+glasses and could see to sew on black cloth. A lady who had been an
+invalid for sixteen years was cured so that in a week she was able to
+ride a mile and a half to the lectures.
+
+"All these things I saw with my own eyes, and if the evidence had not
+been enough in my own case, there were all these proofs. And the
+teaching! Oh, it is beautiful. If we could only live up to that the
+millenium would surely be here."
+
+In her enthusiasm Miss Greening scarcely noticed the effect of her
+words, else she would have seen Mrs. Hayden's expressive eyes full of a
+yearning, silent and strong.
+
+"Can it touch anyone's character or moral life?" she asked after a
+moment's pause.
+
+"Yes, indeed; there is not one thing in life that is not amenable to its
+discipline. Mrs. Harmon says it is a great advantage in governing
+children, that every mother ought to know it, for the help in that
+direction, even if not for their health."
+
+"What a wonderful thing it must be; and yet I always thought the days of
+miracles were past, if indeed they ever were," said Mrs. Hayden,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"These are not miracles, as the ordinary understanding of that word
+would imply, but are done in accordance with Divine Law, the highest
+law,--not the setting aside of any law," interposed Mrs. Reade, who had
+been deeply interested in the conversation, but hitherto had been a
+silent listener.
+
+"Oh, mamma, I wish supper was ready; I'm so hungry!" cried Fred,
+bursting into the room, followed by Jamie and Mabel.
+
+"Mamma, can't we have some--" began Jamie, and then stopped, abashed at
+the size of the audience.
+
+"No, dears; mamma don't want you to eat anything before supper. You know
+what Doctor Jackson said about the little stomachs that were overworked.
+Now, run away and be good; when everything is ready mamma'll call you."
+
+"But we want it _now_. Doctor Jackson don't know everything. It's only
+God that knows everything," said Fred, with unanswerable argument.
+
+"Come away, Fred," whispered Mabel, giving him an impatient twitch.
+
+"It's so, anyway; mamma told me about God just the other night."
+
+"He knows I want some ginger 'naps," whimpered Jem.
+
+"Never mind; run out, as mamma says," said Mrs. Hayden, resolutely, and
+the aggrieved trio reluctantly departed.
+
+"It would be an immense help to me if I could learn to manage these
+three irrepressibles without getting tired all out," said Mrs. Hayden,
+with a little sigh.
+
+"Wouldn't it be splendid? I think, Mrs. Hayden, you better let Cousin
+Helen treat you, and get you all cured, and then you can go somewhere
+and learn how, yourself," said Mrs. Reade, as she demurely wound up the
+ball.
+
+Mrs. Hayden looked up with interested surprise. "Do you think anything
+could be done for _me_, Miss Greening?"
+
+"A great many worse than you have been cured, why not you?"
+
+"Well, I don't know; it seems so far away and so intangible some way."
+
+"Now, Mrs. Hayden, try it. Let Cousin Helen treat you," interposed Mrs.
+Reade.
+
+"What must _I_ do, any mysterious unheard-of thing?" was the answer,
+with a look of evident amusement.
+
+"Oh, no! Just sit quietly passive, and be as hopeful as possible during
+the treatment. The only thing that might seem hard is to give up all
+medicine and material applications while you are under treatment."
+
+"That will not be hard at all, for I have lost all faith in medicine
+anyway. When do you want to begin, Miss Greening?"
+
+"Well, I am willing to try my best to help you, Mrs. Hayden, but you
+must understand, in the first place, that I take no credit to myself,
+for it is God's work. Then I have really not tried to heal any one;
+since it was so recently I was cured myself, there has been no
+opportunity, but as I said, I will do what I can."
+
+Miss Greening spoke earnestly and reverently. It seemed rather new to
+her to be called upon to prove her principles, and yet she had such
+perfect faith in them, she never thought of wavering.
+
+"Then it's all settled, and you can take your first treatment to-night,"
+spoke up Mrs. Reade, volubly. "I'm so anxious to see you strong and well
+like the rest of us," she added half apologetically.
+
+"It will seem too good to be true. I can not realize such a
+possibility."
+
+A thoughtful silence fell upon the little company for a few moments, and
+when they resumed their conversation, it was about something else.
+
+At their usual tea time, Mr. Hayden, accompanied by Mr. Reade, came in,
+and all were presently called to the dining room.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had dropped all pretension of style in their present
+circumstances, and lived like their neighbors, in a modest but
+comfortable way. The children came trooping in when they heard the
+supper bell, and delightedly filed out to the dining room with their
+elders.
+
+"Well, I hope you ladies have been enjoying yourselves this afternoon. I
+notice ladies have that faculty whenever they meet for an hour or so,"
+said Mr. Hayden, with a genial smile, as he passed the plates.
+
+"Oh, we have indeed had a lovely time, and a profitable one, too, I
+hope," said Mrs. Reade, impulsively.
+
+"You have about converted Mrs. Hayden to your ideas, you and Helen
+together, I presume," remarked Mr. Reade, as he spread his napkin out to
+its fullest capacity.
+
+"I should certainly like to be converted, if so many wonderful things
+are possible as I have heard about this afternoon," and Mrs. Hayden
+showed by the unusual energy in her manner and the brightness of her
+eyes that something had inspired her to an unwonted degree.
+
+"Well now, tell me what all this is about. You seem to have conspired to
+talk in riddles," exclaimed Mr. Hayden, with an injured air.
+
+"Why, it is this new 'craze' they call Christian Healing that seems to
+have taken hold of our worthy partners, Mr. Hayden," exclaimed Mr.
+Reade, with a half-believing, half-skeptical air.
+
+He really believed much more than he cared to acknowledge, but until he
+was better informed of Mr. Hayden's opinions, he thought "discretion the
+better part of valor." Someway we often stumble upon such characters in
+life. Good-natured souls they are, and so anxious to please everybody.
+
+"I am not sure but there is a good deal in that, Reade. I heard some
+gentlemen talking about what was being done in Chicago, and it is truly
+wonderful. After all, we know that the mind has a great influence over
+the body, and why shouldn't we discover new abilities and powers in that
+as we develop in other directions?"
+
+"To be sure; just what I have always said, and now I am having an
+opportunity to prove it since my wife is willing to listen," replied Mr.
+Reade, with graceful diplomacy.
+
+"Oh, there is something far beyond what you gentlemen see--something so
+spiritual and beautiful, that mere intellect can not recognize it. But
+you will come to that after awhile, if you only seek to know for Truth's
+sake, though the recognition of what you see often comes first,"
+interposed Miss Greening, with a warm flush of enthusiasm on her face.
+
+"Certainly. I believe our capacity to recognize higher phases of thought
+grows with our eagerness to receive. That is true of any branch of
+study," said Mrs. Hayden, with conviction. She was well pleased that her
+husband was so favorably inclined to hear, and expressed himself so
+cordially. While she was quite independent in her own way of thinking,
+it was still a keen pleasure to have her husband on the same side. He,
+on the other hand, had great confidence in her judgment, and generally
+allowed himself to be convinced, even if he had an opinion in the
+beginning. They had been especially near to each other the last year.
+
+Miss Greening was mentally congratulating herself on having found such a
+ready audience, and felt as though she could do anything in the way of
+healing, as she talked on and on, telling them the many things that had
+happened in Princeton. She finished by saying, enthusiastically:
+
+"When I had such wonderful proofs right before my eyes, do you wonder
+that I looked with awe and astonishment and wanted to know the secret
+of this power? Can you wonder that I felt anxious to go forth into all
+the world and preach the gospel? Oh, how delightful, I thought, to carry
+such blessed news and be able to give such blessed proof! So when Cousin
+Ruth's letter came, asking me to make her a visit, I felt that perhaps
+an opportunity would offer in which I might demonstrate the truth of my
+precious science, and here it is ready for me, the very work I wanted.
+Yes, just as far as possible will I use my knowledge, though as yet it
+is but little, to help Mrs. Hayden."
+
+Miss Greening had waxed eloquent in her unconscious enthusiasm, and
+seeing the whole company gazing at her in astonished admiration, she
+paused suddenly, with a vivid flush on her face, saying: "Pardon me. I
+did not mean to monopolize the conversation."
+
+"That apology is entirely unnecessary, for we have been listening to
+something so new that its very newness and unconventionality is quite
+refreshing, and certainly interesting," said Mr. Hayden, warmly.
+
+"Surely, there must be some healing virtue even in your talk, for I feel
+remarkably well to-day," was his wife's delighted addition.
+
+"How glad, oh, how glad I am," fluttered Mrs. Reade.
+
+A movement from Jem caused Mrs. Hayden to notice his extra dish of sauce
+and huge piece of frosted cake.
+
+"No, Jem, dear, you mustn't eat any more to-night, and you know mamma
+don't want you to have any cake."
+
+"O-o-o-h, peaze, tan't I have some more?"
+
+"Not any more to-day. You know you had to be sick all night, not long
+ago, and mamma had to give you some medicine. You don't want to have to
+take paregoric, do you?"
+
+"No-o-o, but I want e take!"
+
+"Mamma said you couldn't have any. You're too little, anyway. Didn't I
+tell you I ought to have the biggest piece 'cause my stomach's the
+biggest, an' I'm not afraid of stomachache. Give me your sauce, if you
+can't eat it," said shameless Fred.
+
+Papa and mamma Hayden looked upon their oldest son in dismay, as he thus
+openly delivered his sentiments.
+
+"Hush, Freddie, you mustn't want any more, either, nor talk that way to
+Jem. You have had enough for to-night."
+
+"Well, I've had six biscuits any way," and Fred settled himself back
+with a satisfied air as though he could stand anything if necessary,
+while poor Jem was taken away from the table crying as if his heart
+would break at the loss of his coveted sweets.
+
+"You see, we seldom have company, and the children are unused to sweet
+things as a rule, because the doctor always says their diet must be
+carefully attended to, in order to avoid inflammation of the bowels,
+which Jem once had," explained Mrs. Hayden with the old look of
+weariness for a moment settling back on her face.
+
+"Just wait till you have studied Christian Healing and then see how to
+manage," said Mrs. Reade with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Have you taken such a fancy to this too, Mrs. Reade?" asked Mr. Hayden,
+rather teasingly.
+
+"Oh, she's almost a crank _now_," answered her husband, with a merry
+twinkle.
+
+"Well, it is very good to have such an article in the family. It keeps
+things lively and announces the world's progress with unerring
+certainty," she retorted, and with this good-natured sally they rose
+from the table. The evening was spent in a mixture of small talk and
+earnestness, and before they departed Mrs. Hayden received her first
+treatment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  "Like an Æolian harp, that wakes
+   No certain air, but overtakes
+   Far thought with music that it makes,--
+
+  "Such seemed the whisper at my side;
+  'What is't thou knowest, sweet voice?' I cried;
+  'A hidden hope,' the voice replied."
+
+  --_Tennyson._
+
+
+The second morning after this Mrs. Hayden awoke, feeling much better
+than she had for months. A strange, happy feeling possessed her. All
+that had seemed dark and hopeless now appeared as nothing but gossamer
+fog-wreaths. The world seemed so joyous and beautiful. God seemed so
+near, so loving, so all-protecting. Why had she ever doubted the
+possibility of health? Surely it was easy to feel well when she felt
+happy; and yet, would this last? Had this delightful change any
+connection with Miss Greening's treatment? No, surely not. It would be
+too unreasonable to expect any benefit so soon; besides, she was
+probably no better physically, that is, her lameness and dyspepsia were
+not touched as yet, if indeed they ever could be. Well, how it would
+astonish everybody if she really were cured, and could walk like her old
+self again. Her stiffened limb would have to undergo a marvelous change,
+but time would tell--it seemed nothing was beyond reach of this
+extraordinary Power. Miss Greening was so sincere and earnest, she could
+not for a moment doubt the truth of her statements, besides Mr. Hayden
+himself confessed to having heard of the wonderful works, though he had
+never mentioned it before, strangely enough. At the time it probably
+appeared so vague and visionary, that he had thought best not to excite
+her curiosity and hope without cause.
+
+How glad she was that he had at last allowed her to try this without
+ridiculing or scolding her. How beautiful this theory was, but it seemed
+too good to be true. She would not be carried away with it until she had
+demonstrated beyond doubt, until she could see the reason and understand
+it.
+
+The clock struck nine. Why, it was time to rise, and she really felt
+hungry, so hungry that dry toast and hot water had no attractions for
+her. She wondered if there would be anything on the table she dared not
+eat; it would be hard to resist if there were. Thus musing she dressed
+with more alacrity and energy than she had displayed for many months.
+
+Her husband stood in the doorway as she left her room, and remarked as
+they went down stairs:
+
+"You must have had a good sleep last night, you are so bright and spry
+this morning."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I can scarcely remember when the night has passed so
+quickly and the morning seemed so exhilarating; please help me down this
+turn, won't you? It is always so hard to get down stairs."
+
+The cane was brought into requisition, and with Mr. Hayden's help the
+stairs were descended, but the refractory limb was forgotten again in
+the interest with which she viewed the breakfast table.
+
+"Mamma, we've waited and waited till we thought we'd have to eat
+something, so we each took a doughnut to save time," was the explanatory
+greeting of Fred, who acted as spokesman for the three hungry culprits,
+who had this time, at least, disobeyed the imperative injunction not to
+eat cake the first thing in the morning.
+
+"Why, children, don't you remember how Dr. Jackson--"
+
+"Well, mamma, I heard that lady 'at was here, say 'twouldn't hurt us to
+eat if you wasn't so 'fraid 'bout our stomachs; an' she's a doctor, too,
+an' ladies know 's much 's men, 'cos you said so," interrupted the
+irrepressible, as usual, with unanswerable argument.
+
+"Well, we'll see this time, but you must be more careful to remember
+what mamma wishes you to do," said Mrs. Hayden more mildly than usual,
+while her eyes smiled a little.
+
+The breakfast was brought in, and, much to the astonishment of all, she
+recklessly disregarded the dry toast and hot water, mutely appealing to
+her from the side of her plate, and ate heartily of beefsteak, potatoes,
+and pan cakes. "I am so hungry, and will risk it on the strength of
+Fred's reminder," she apologized, as she sent her plate the third time
+for cakes.
+
+"Don't tell me you've no faith in Fred's newly-acquired wisdom," laughed
+Mr. Hayden, and then added, with some concern, "but, really, my dear,
+you ought to be careful. Remember the condition of your stomach."
+
+"That is just what she told me to forget."
+
+"Well, it beats all how things can be turned upside down," mused Mr.
+Hayden, as he rose from the table preparatory to going to the store.
+
+"It certainly is strange about this, for you remember yesterday, I even
+walked over to Mrs. Reade's and back without any unusual fatigue."
+
+"Oh, yes! I've noticed various daring breaches of the old code, and,
+more than all, I've seen the best color in your face that has been there
+for many a month," and he went out with a thoughtful expression on his
+face.
+
+"Mamma's well now," said little Jem, timidly, "'cos she puts me to bed."
+
+"Yes, an' we can make a noise when we dress, an' talk 'bout Christmas,"
+added Fred, as he was walking about, wiping his hands, in his usual
+restless manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
+  Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Of course Kate and Grace were told about the new way of being healed,
+and Grace looked on at first with her usual incredulity, but when she
+saw Mrs. Hayden getting so well and looking so happy, she began to
+wonder and then to exclaim. Then she wanted to learn something about
+this new "doctrine," and Mrs. Hayden had Miss Greening come over and
+meet the girls one evening so they could hear her explain a little about
+it. Grace was delighted, saying that was more reasonable than anything
+she had ever heard.
+
+"I really should like to learn it," she said for the third time as they
+walked home.
+
+"Why, you are really enthusiastic about it," said Kate, giving the
+artistic arm a gentle squeeze.
+
+"I must confess, Kate, that it is nearer my idea of religion than
+anything I ever heard, and it _is_ marvelous to see Mrs. Hayden. Did you
+see how bright she looked to-night? More like her old self than since
+her sickness. I can't understand it."
+
+"She said her limb was actually growing natural again so she could bend
+it," added Kate.
+
+"If _she_ could be cured, it would be a wonderful demonstration or proof
+of the theory," remarked Grace.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, Grace, I am afraid, after all, it might be wrong.
+You know it says in the Bible we are to beware of false doctrines, and
+the miracles of anti-Christ, and this may be that very thing," said
+Kate, with a sudden smiting of conscience and reproaching herself that
+she had not thought of this before. She had been brought up a strict
+Methodist, but had grown rather careless of religious matters, till all
+at once she realized the mighty import of her backsliding.
+
+"I don't think if there is such a thing, it could do so much good, and
+good power must come from the God of goodness," answered Grace, with
+unusual gentleness. They walked on in silence, each pondering her own
+thoughts.
+
+Three weeks after, Mrs. Hayden was known as a restored invalid, was
+daily answering a thousand questions as to how it was done. Was it
+really so? Could she walk as well as ever? Didn't she get tired? Had she
+any faith after all? etc.
+
+She patiently told them the truth of the matter, that her limb had
+become well and pliable as ever, that her stomach was perfectly sound,
+her head free from nervous aching, her nights a joyous rest and her days
+a round of delightful labor.
+
+For the first time she learned there had been many cures, and several
+classes taught in Hampton, but no case had excited the attention, public
+and private, that hers had.
+
+The various members of society wagged their wise heads, and cast mingled
+glances of pity, wonder, ridicule or disdain upon the poor deluded
+victim of the "latest humbug." Even the select circles heard of it as a
+report finally reached the daily paper, which appeared with a glaring
+head and ridiculous comments.
+
+One of the weeklies contented itself by reprinting a scathing
+denunciation from a prominent religious paper. Another contained
+clippings from an Iowa paper giving an account of the arrest and trial
+of a so-called Christian Scientist for illegal practice. But it failed
+to add that "the judge instructed the jury to return a verdict for the
+defendant," remarking that "under the constitution and laws of Iowa it
+is no crime for a person to pray for his afflicted neighbor."
+
+Among the worthy M. D.'s, a miniature storm arose and spent itself in
+the characteristic fashion of storms, now carrying everything before it,
+in its impetuous fury, now quietly subsiding into a ripple of
+condescending concession, or languid comment, now breaking out with
+renewed force into explosive epithets or vindictive rage.
+
+Dr. Crouse expressed his astonishment that anybody should have the
+audacity to practice medicine without a diploma, as this woman evidently
+did, and demanded that the authorities enforce the law at once with the
+utmost rigor--. "Such quacks ought to be dealt with without mercy, as an
+example to other upstarts!" and with an angry growl the doctor
+recklessly spat the whole width of the sidewalk.
+
+Dr. Jones admitted that the mind had a great deal to do with the body,
+and possibly this mind cure might help nervous prostration or hysterical
+women, but if Mrs. Hayden's limb was healed, depend upon it, the
+medicine taken all those months was the cause.
+
+Dr. Bundy considered the matter too absurd to even mention.
+
+Dr. Hone went up and down the streets, loudly denouncing such "humbugs,"
+while his partner, Lapland, laughed at the preposterous idea of learning
+all about materia medica in three weeks! "It is simply ridiculous, sheer
+nonsense! Ha, ha, ha!" and the office fairly shook at the outburst of
+merriment.
+
+On the other hand, Dr. Wilson was deeply interested, and went so far as
+to call on Miss Greening, and to her he frankly admitted there was an
+unaccountable power in the mind some way, and if it did the work for
+suffering humanity he was quite ready to welcome it, and anxious, for
+his part, to investigate the matter.
+
+Kind, liberal Dr. Jackson, Mrs. Hayden's former family physician, shook
+his head wonderingly, but said nothing. He was a careful thinker and
+needed time for his conclusions, but as every one well knew, he had the
+friendliest, most charitable heart that ever was, and very candid,
+withal, in his judgments, and fair in his investigations. So in time
+they would know what he thought. It was whispered about that he had
+already invested in some books, and was quietly studying Christian
+Healing in his leisure moments.
+
+Among the churches no less of a tumult raged. Rev. Rush preached a
+stirring sermon about the evil days in which even the very elect should
+be deceived by the miracles of anti-Christ, and warned his hearers
+against being beguiled.
+
+Rev. Long openly denounced Christian Healing as but another form of
+spiritualism, and admonished his flock to beware of ravening wolves.
+
+Rev. Morton mildly preached about being steadfast to the old faith,
+avoiding investigation in anything new, while from the gentle,
+spiritually minded Prof. Mill was heard an eloquent disquisition on the
+promises and the all-abiding power of God.
+
+All shades and phases of ministerial sentiments were expressed, and
+whatever was grand and Christ-like sprang up as dainty, fragrant
+blossoms amid the wayside weeds of falsity and Pharisaical bigotry.
+
+The ladies' sewing societies discussed the subject to its fullest extent
+with widely varying opinions, some exclaiming with wonder and awe that
+it certainly must be a higher power that would perform such miracles;
+others that it was nothing but mesmerism. A few reverently expressed
+their conviction that Mrs. Hayden was extremely fortunate to be chosen
+for such a favor, while still others of quite a contrary mind declared
+it was nothing more nor less than the devil, who was stealthily taking
+possession of the weak.
+
+One timid little woman ventured to say that it could not be Satan, for
+he was never known to do anything good. Another said there must be
+something uncanny about it, for she had experienced the most peculiar
+sensations when shaking hands with Mrs. Hayden.
+
+Mrs. Dyke had waited for a more practical time to give her opinion, and
+now she concluded the whole matter for herself, at least, by saying in a
+most practical way:
+
+"It is the devil's work from first to last, and I am not surprised that
+that woman, Mrs. Hayden, has got into his clutches, for she never did
+her duty to the church, and such people can't expect he will always let
+them go their own way. Christian Healing has no right to its name or its
+pretentions. It is only the magician's rod, and I, for one, don't
+propose to look at it," with which profound announcement she went to the
+other room to oversee her charge of sewing girls.
+
+"Oh, how righteous we are!" giggled one very young lady, with a mock
+look of reverence.
+
+"Well, now, see here ladies!" declared Mrs. Grant, another "practical"
+woman, but of a different type from Mrs. Dyke, "we may as well look at
+this matter in a sensible and candid light. Here are the facts: Mrs.
+Hayden is a lovely and reliable woman. She has, as we all know, suffered
+everything from her headaches and dyspepsia, besides the limb that was
+broken at the fire. We see her well, and ought to believe what she says.
+They often say, 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' An example has come to
+our door, and why should we refuse to believe, when the proof is so
+plain? For my part, I can believe though I do not understand, and I want
+to know what there is in Christian Healing."
+
+Mrs. Grant had spoken, and as she usually did, turned the tide of
+thought in her direction.
+
+"Why, yes, we all want to know if there is anything in it, but there is
+an if--"
+
+"_If!_ There it is again! I've no patience with people who always tumble
+over an _if_. You can bar the very gates of heaven with that nipping
+little word. It means doubt, and doubt is the destroyer of faith which
+we _must_ have in this world, if we live at all."
+
+Mrs. Grant unwittingly preached a little sermon, which not only served
+to quell the confusion, but gave them a helpful thought to carry home.
+Scattering good seed seemed to be her mission, and many a good word
+dropped into fruitful soil, and took its time to bring forth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     "Soul, receive into thyself the warm and radiant life of heaven, to
+     breathe it out again as spiritual fragrance over other lives, and
+     so change this wilderness-world into the garden of the Lord! This
+     is the lovely moral which hides within the roses of June, and makes
+     more than half their sweetness."--_Lucy Larcom._
+
+
+And Mrs. Hayden? The old expressions of joy seemed utterly inadequate to
+describe her feelings. It seemed that she was veritably dreaming of
+heaven, such a sense of largeness, of freedom, had come over her, so
+much wider was her horizon, so much more clearly could she see and
+understand the hard questions that had always puzzled her, and yet she
+had, as it were, just come to the edge of the beautiful flower-dotted,
+dew-besprinkled field that seemed spreading out before her. So long
+hopeless, so long hungry as she had been after this taste, she only
+hungered the more. Wonderingly she looked at herself walking about
+without pain; with an elastic step and the springing freshness of
+health; wonderingly she remembered the dull, nervous throbbing
+headaches, contrasted with the refreshing clearness, the joyous comfort
+and peace of mind which made thinking a tonic, and labor a luxury.
+
+What a glorious strength of exhiliration seemed flowing in to her with
+every breath; how it expanded and thrilled her with its power! If this
+was life, what joy to live, to know and feel the gladness and beauty of
+God's beautiful world, and it must not be for her alone, but for all
+hungering, thirsting mankind. She must impart it to those who had been
+suffering and helpless like herself. It was even now flowing into her
+own family. Although Miss Greening had given her but the first and
+fundamental principles of the method, she had in many instances already
+demonstrated their worth and power. It soon grew to be a regular matter
+of course to treat every one in the family who seemed in need of a
+remedy for anything.
+
+Mr. Hayden had frequently come home with neuralgia in his face, but
+after one or two attacks the unwelcome intruder vanished. The family
+medicine case, which had recently been replenished for the winter, was
+left to its own devices, and dust gathered on the necks and shoulders of
+the cough remedies, paregoric and hive syrup bottles, until they would
+have looked quite pitiful in their desertion, if anybody had seen them.
+Jamie's one attack of croup yielded more readily to his mother's silent
+treatments than it ever had to hive syrup, and it was with a deep
+thankfulness, not unmixed with awe, that Mr. and Mrs. Hayden felt their
+little one at last free from his old, dreaded enemy. Never before had
+the children been so free from colds or ailments common to childhood, as
+this winter. Never before had there been such a seemingly reckless
+carelessness in wrapping them up, keeping them out of the draughts, or
+letting them eat just what was on the table.
+
+"Why, it is like living in another world altogether," said Mr. Hayden,
+enthusiastically to one of the neighbors. "The children are so much
+happier, quieter, more peaceable. I tell you, it is like getting free
+from prison to come into this way of living, and my wife is getting
+stronger all the time. Of course you want it," he continued. "Come over
+some time, and we'll tell you more about it." Saying good night he
+walked away, leaving his friend to wonder if the entire family had not
+turned lunatics.
+
+Enwrapped in the seamless robe of Truth, the sharp winds of worldly
+criticism seldom reach us, because we are no longer susceptible to their
+sharpness. A gentle mildness beams from every face, for beyond the veil
+of outward appearances we learn to discern the pure, perfect holiness of
+God's child--the divinity behind the bars. Not, however, till we know
+how to put on this wondrous robe are we invulnerable.
+
+Although Mrs. Hayden had learned much and lived much in these last few
+months, there came a time, as the summer drew near, when it seemed that
+everything was slipping away from her. Not her health, except that her
+old headache occasionally threatened her, but things did not seem as
+clear to her. Many problems were only in a partial state of solution,
+and a vague dissatisfaction, a helpless discouragement took possession
+of her at times, very hard to bear, especially when contrasted with the
+light she felt had so long guided her. Of late even her treatments
+seemed almost fruitless. Her old-time impatience had manifested itself
+on several occasions, and one warm June morning she went about her work
+in a decidedly old-fashioned mood.
+
+It was Monday, and in addition to the washing to be seen to, the little
+extra help to be rendered the girl, her husband had sent her a large
+case of strawberries to be put up, manlike, forgetting that this day at
+least was full. She was hastening to get them ready before the dinner
+hour, and the "picking up" of the sitting-room, so essential Monday
+mornings, had been left till a more convenient season.
+
+Mabel had gone to school, while Jamie and Fred were playing in the sand
+in the back yard.
+
+With her hands in the berries, and her thoughts busily engaged, she was
+suddenly roused from her reverie by the noisy entrance of Fred, who just
+came in for a drink of water. As he turned to go out, he threw his arms
+around his mother's neck and gave her a boy's impetuous hug, and a kiss
+that ought to have rejoiced any mother's heart, but this morning it
+annoyed her. "Run away, now; mamma hasn't time this morning," and she
+pushed him impatiently away. Just then the door bell rang, and Fred
+sprang to answer it. In another moment he ushered into her presence a
+shabbily dressed, poor, miserable looking woman, who immediately asked
+for a drink of water. "I can get it," said the ready Fred. While he was
+gone, the woman began her request:
+
+"Plaze, Ma'am, would you be wantin' some garters to-day? They are
+warranted by the very man as made 'em. My boy is layin' sick, and his
+father is dead, and all my health has been took away carin' for him, and
+a friend of mine, she has been in this business a long time, and says
+it's very good some days, and she let me take her place to-day, so if
+you could take a pair or two to-day it would be very thankful I'd be,
+and I'm sure this boy would need a pair; they are only 25 cents, and
+will just fit; ain't they nice, my boy?" She poured her story out, as
+though there were no end to it, as she held up some brilliant red and
+blue elastics that quite dazzled Fred, who claimed them at once.
+
+"I have not time to examine and choose this morning, and Fred, you do
+not need them now," said Mrs. Hayden, with some annoyance in her tone.
+
+"Now, mamma, you didn't see my old ones, they ain't red and blue, nor
+stretchy, an' my stockin's come down all the time. See how wrinkly they
+are," and he held up a dusty little shoe with a sadly demoralized
+stocking above it, rich in holes as well as wrinkles. The stocking had
+been torn on a nail, he volubly explained. In his excitement Fred raised
+his voice, thus summoning Jamie to the scene with a rush that upset the
+dish of berries just picked over.
+
+"_I_ didn't mean to, and I can pick them up again," and he swept his
+dirty little hands into the soft mushy pile, gathering berries, dust,
+stems or whatever happened to be in the way, dashing the miscellaneous
+mess into the clean berries that had escaped.
+
+"Jamie, you careless child! how can you be so naughty? Go and wash your
+hands this minute! Fred, leave those things and stay out with Jamie, I
+can not have you around when there is so much to do!" and with an
+impatient gesture she brushed Jamie aside and began sorting the berries
+as best she could.
+
+Fred started toward her with the elastics, saying:
+
+"But, mamma, you haven't looked yet;"
+
+"Well, you see my hands are full, and I can tell you just as well
+without looking."
+
+"You always tell me to do as I am told," pouted Fred as he reluctantly
+departed.
+
+Mrs. Hayden was ashamed and yet reckless with discouragement, and
+scarcely noticed the anxious pedlar, who stood waiting for some decisive
+word from her.
+
+"I have no use for the supporters at present," she said at last. But as
+she noticed the look of despair slowly settling on the woman's face, she
+added, "but, if you are in such distress, I will let you leave two
+pairs. Take the 50 cents lying there on the shelf," pointing to the
+place. The woman was very grateful and soon went away with a brighter
+face.
+
+For a long time after she was gone, her picture remained in Mrs.
+Hayden's remorseful memory, though she put it away as much as possible
+and went on with her work. Jamie and Fred had quarreled several times,
+but even in peace, the fires of war were likely to burst out afresh, for
+it was always so when she felt this way.
+
+As Mrs. Hayden sat in her own room that evening, reviewing the events of
+the day, which seemed the culmination of many days, it seemed that the
+Marion Hayden who had been so happy these last few months, improving in
+health and strength and ability to live a more useful life, and the
+Marion Hayden who had so miserably disgraced herself to-day, were far
+apart--in fact irretrievably separated. Where, indeed, had gone her
+power of self-control, her wisdom and tact in governing the children?
+Why had she so harshly told Fred to run away from her when the dear
+child was only showing his affection according to his own nature? Such
+an active, impulsive yet loving child must be wisely dealt with, and she
+had often realized that with Fred, love must be the governing power, not
+force. To give way as she had to-day would be to lose her influence over
+him, not only because of repulsing the child himself, but because his
+critical eyes noticed every weakness and failure in her, to live up to
+her own code of morals laid down for him to follow.
+
+Her accusing conscience asked why she had not questioned and tried to
+help that poor woman who, with all her ignorance, was doing the best she
+could, to solve life's problem.
+
+After all, what had she, Marion Hayden, to offer the world while she had
+not yet conquered herself?
+
+Oh, the bitterness of regret, the repining for wasted moments and lost
+opportunities! but here she was in her old groove of thought. Could she
+not try the new way, now that she so sorely needed it?
+
+She would try; she would begin to look on the other side of these
+questions. She _would_ regain her footing in spite of her humiliating
+downfall, although there might still be a lingering sense of shame over
+her defeat.
+
+Later, her husband came home. He tossed her a paper saying: "Here is
+something that will clear you up. Read it aloud. I just glanced over it,
+and found it very good." He threw himself upon the sofa, waiting for
+her to begin. Mechanically she took up the paper.
+
+"'The Ubiquity of Good;' is this the article?"
+
+"Yes, there are several just as strong as that one."
+
+"Oh, I see; yes--I can hardly wait to read aloud," she exclaimed,
+running her eyes over the pages, instantly imbibing the spirit of the
+writer. She began with an awakening interest which increased till she
+was fairly electrified with delight.
+
+Her husband looked at her in astonishment although it had much the same
+effect on him. "I thought you needed something like that;" he said,
+sitting bolt upright and looking at her. "You see, Marion, if you could
+only be as enthusiastic all the time as that woman is, you could do the
+works that she does, and be as positive too."
+
+"I know it, and if I understood as well as she does, it would be
+different, but I know so little comparatively. Oh, if I could take
+lessons of the teacher she had--just listen, she says: 'I have just had
+the privilege of going through a class in metaphysics taught by one who
+is conceded to be the best teacher in the world,' but," continued Mrs.
+Hayden, "I've looked all over the paper and can't find the name of the
+teacher; queer, isn't it? Mayn't I subscribe for this paper, John, and I
+will ask her who this teacher is, when I send the subscription?"
+
+"Well, yes, I think if you could get the benefit from every number you
+have from that, it would be money well invested," replied Mr. Hayden. In
+fact he was as much interested in this subject as she, and desired her
+to "go to the bottom of it," as he expressed it.
+
+That night she retired with a new hope. If others could learn and
+demonstrate and keep, why could not she?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     "Oh, thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest
+     bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know
+     this of a truth, the thing thou seekest is already with thee, 'here
+     or nowhere,' couldst thou only see!"--_Carlyle._
+
+
+The very next morning the letter was written and the money sent for the
+new paper.
+
+Mrs. Reade came over on one of her bird-like errands, and of course,
+must hear something of the great help that had come so unexpectedly.
+
+"How fortunate it came just now, for I have noticed several weeks you
+have been losing courage, and as for myself, I don't seem to know what
+to do in any case any more," she exclaimed, after hearing a few extracts
+read from the paper. "Now you will find out who the teacher is and--"
+
+"I shall go away to take lessons as soon as possible," interrupted Mrs.
+Hayden. "Yes, I must go," she continued, "and see what there is in it. I
+have already experienced too much physically and spiritually to be able
+to give it up."
+
+"Indeed, you have certainly had as much of a proof as one could wish. If
+I could only do as much as you have, I should feel that it would be
+better to go without many other things rather than this."
+
+Mrs. Reade forgot that she had been able to keep little May in perfect
+health; that she herself had ceased worrying over trifles and learned to
+make the best of everything. To her, the change had been so gradual
+that she hardly knew in what it consisted. In the meetings held by the
+few who were interested she had, unconsciously almost, given many
+glimpses of her private efforts and success, which showed how faithfully
+she used what light she had.
+
+"I wonder what Mrs. Grant would say to this," she resumed, after looking
+over the paper. "I think she ought to take this paper, too. Of course, I
+expect to read yours," with an arch smile.
+
+"As you certainly may, I will let you have this number this afternoon; I
+can't spare it yet. You can't imagine the abyss I fell into yesterday.
+It seemed that I had not only lost the ability to hold myself up, but
+the self respect that would help to regain my footing."
+
+"'It is always darkest before the dawn', they say," quoted Mrs. Reade,
+merrily, "and now the dawn of our delivery is at hand, we shall know
+what to do before the twilight comes again. But I came after your jelly
+mold and must not stand here all day talking about things so utterly
+unlike--well, good-bye! I can hardly tear myself away when I talk with
+you," and she ran out with a gay smile.
+
+Nearly every week these last few months Mrs. Hayden, Mrs. Reade, Mrs.
+Grant and occasionally one or two others had met to read and talk on the
+all-absorbing topic and gain confidence and strength by an exchange of
+ideas and experiences; but they knew not how to draw from the fountain
+of knowledge itself, and while they had learned much and gained much,
+there was a lack which, in the moment of trial, they knew not how to
+supply.
+
+In a few days Mrs. Hayden received the coveted information as to the
+identity of the wonderful teacher, and that she was to teach several
+classes in Marlow, only two hundred miles away, which quite set her on
+fire with impatience to go at once.
+
+But circumstances were not propitious. There were many details to be
+arranged, much to be considered. What should be done with the children?
+Could she afford it? What could she wear? In her eagerness she could
+have overcome every obstacle within an hour, but her better judgment
+told her to be patient a little longer, a decision her husband quite
+approved.
+
+In the meantime she tried to live more faithfully up to the light she
+had received, but the first flush of faith that had brought forth the
+works, seemed gone, and she knew not how to bring it back. Not that she
+was not just as earnest, not that she had lost a whit of her faith or
+interest, but the fire of impulse, unclouded by doubt, had disappeared.
+She thought about it every leisure moment, but concluded at last to let
+go such intense effort that must necessarily be blind, and live more in
+the "holy carelessness of the eternal Now," as George MacDonald so
+beautifully expressed it in his book she was reading.
+
+In one respect she fared as comparatively few women do, who hunger after
+spiritual things; she had her husband's full sympathy and co-operation.
+Afterward, when she had seen more of the world and knew more about other
+women's lives, she realized the value of it, realized that without it
+she would have starved before she could have feasted. Oh, the sweet
+influence of a sympathy that unites and harmonizes two natures, no
+matter how opposite in character and tendencies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     "As out of a dream, paths impossible to sense and every day show
+     plain and sudden transit into distant places, so from your shut
+     souls widens out an entrance way into God's everlasting joy!"
+
+     --_A. D. T. Whitney._
+
+
+At last the time came. She was to go for the last class in Marlow. The
+last problem as to what to be done while she was gone had been solved.
+The children were to be under the kind care of Anna, who agreed to do
+her best in looking after them.
+
+Mrs. Hayden's wardrobe had received the necessary additions, the
+question of affording was not asked again, for it was like asking if she
+could afford food or clothing.
+
+It meant a great deal to her, going out in the world to get this
+wonderful knowledge. It was a new way of seeking the kingdom of heaven,
+and it must surely teach the right knock that would open the door. The
+little light that had already come to her proved that, for never before
+in all her years of hungry longing had she been so well fed, so visibly
+nourished. Surely her soul could not be mistaken in thus dictating her
+quest.
+
+"It seems too good to be true, John, that there _is_ a way and that I am
+going to find it," she said a few days before she went away.
+
+"I am very glad, dear Marion, for your sake, that you are so happy in
+this. It certainly is a beautiful religion as far as we can understand
+it."
+
+"Yes, the very thing we tried so hard to find during all those years of
+darkness, and I have begun to actually feel thankful for our
+misfortunes, because it seems they have led us into this knowledge. What
+would we have known or cared for Miss Greening, had we been living in
+the mansion on the hill? Or what would we have believed, even if we had
+read something about Christian Healing?"
+
+"It is hard to tell, but if you are content I am, wifie, although I
+should like the old home again."
+
+Like many others he was able to appreciate the material good things, but
+knew not that the material are but emblems or symbols of the spiritual.
+
+"We shall possess something far better than all the palaces and kingdoms
+of the earth, if we get this 'pearl of great price.' I know now what it
+means for the rich to hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. It is because
+they are so satisfied in their rich possessions they feel they have
+everything worth having and need nothing more. That very indifference
+and apathy keeps them from getting spiritual treasures."
+
+"How true that is, Marion," said her husband, stroking his mustache
+thoughtfully.
+
+Just then the door bell rang and the girl presently ushered Grace and
+Kate into the room.
+
+"Why, how do you do? I am more than glad to see you," said Mrs. Hayden,
+warmly grasping a hand in each of hers.
+
+"It is such a lovely evening that we felt we should like a walk, and as
+we generally gravitate toward your house, here we are," said Kate,
+laying aside her hat.
+
+"Do you know I am going to Marlow to take the Christian Healing
+lessons?" asked Mrs. Hayden, with a bright smile, as they were cosily
+seated for their chat.
+
+"Are you, really? I am so glad, Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "When are you
+going?"
+
+"Monday, on the afternoon train, and I shall be gone three weeks. It
+seems a long time now, but I hope it will be so profitable and pleasant
+that it will not seem long while it is passing."
+
+Kate looked very grave. Finally she said: "Well, Mrs. Hayden, I am sorry
+you are going."
+
+"Why?" exclaimed Mrs. Hayden.
+
+"Why?" echoed Grace, and the host looked the interrogation he did not
+verbally express.
+
+"Because I am seriously afraid it is wrong. Just a few days ago I had a
+talk with the minister, and he is very decided in his denunciation of
+it, saying it is plainly contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and I
+have been reading an article this afternoon that is very convincing in
+its arguments against it. No, Grace, you needn't shake your head. I have
+been cowardly and lazy long enough about my religion, now I shall stand
+up for what I think is right, and I love Mrs. Hayden too well not to
+warn her of what I believe to be a most dangerous heresy."
+
+She had evidently nerved herself to say this, but her voice trembled
+with earnestness, and when she finished there were tears in her eyes.
+
+"I thank you, dear Kate, for your sincere regard, and appreciate your
+motive most deeply, but of course, that can not change my mind now,"
+said Mrs. Hayden, much touched.
+
+"That, of course, is for you to decide, but I have suddenly realized my
+religious responsibility as never before, and have been earnestly
+considering this matter. At first it seemed all right and very
+beautiful, but I believe it is only the work of the devil to get people
+into his net of wickedness."
+
+Grace was too astonished for speech; now she understood what Kate had
+meant by her disinclination to talk on the subject since that night they
+had heard Miss Greening. _Now_ her thoughtful spells were explained, as
+well as her eager desire to come here to-night.
+
+"I do not see why the ministers should oppose it as they do," said Mr.
+Hayden, after a short silence.
+
+"If you look back over the history you will find they opposed giving
+freedom to the slaves; they opposed the temperance movement until it was
+forced upon them. Many of them now oppose woman's suffrage, though their
+audiences are often composed almost entirely of women. It seems a great
+mystery why they should oppose any of these good and necessary reforms,
+but I think it is because they are only mortal men, and have many mortal
+faults and a great deal of mortal ignorance," said Grace, recovering her
+tongue at last.
+
+"It seems to me if everybody would read the words of Jesus and follow
+his example they would never be harsh, or critical, or uncharitable, and
+above all, they would not judge anybody or anything without a righteous
+reason. The whole burden of his teaching is expressed in the sentence:
+'Little children, love one another,'" was Mrs. Hayden's opinion. Kate
+looked at her gratefully.
+
+"We would have a very different world if every one followed that law,
+and we have never heard a better one. The only difficulty is to know
+_how_ to follow it," added Mr. Hayden.
+
+"We must know the whole truth if we would be free from all error, and we
+can only get truth by earnestly seeking for it, is my firm conviction,"
+said his wife.
+
+"If the truth makes us free, certainly we ought to search for it, and as
+we get it we can not be moved from our position, for by the nature of
+truth it is forever the same. Imagine anybody telling me two times two
+are five. If they argued and talked forever they could not prove it, for
+a lie can never be proved true."
+
+"That's capital reasoning, Grace," exclaimed Mr. Hayden, admiringly.
+
+"Then if these ministers are in the right," she continued, "why should
+they need to be so active and emphatic and malevolent, as they sometimes
+are, in their denunciation of what they call a lie, because if it is a
+lie, won't it prove itself? And if their position is assured, and the
+truth must necessarily be assuring, since that is the essence and nature
+of it, if their position is assured, why is there any need of such
+resistance? Jesus plainly taught the _non_-resistance of evil, if I read
+my Bible correctly this morning. I have been studying religion somewhat,
+too, the last few weeks," she concluded, glancing at Kate rather
+apologetically.
+
+"It would be well if we studied it a great deal more earnestly than we
+have before," said Kate, flushing warmly.
+
+"Well, Kate, isn't one of our best ways a thorough investigation of it?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Then I intend to look into Christian Healing at my earliest
+opportunity, and see what there is in it. If there is nothing, it can
+not hurt me. If there is something, it will prove _itself_, and I shall
+gladly accept the help it gives," and Grace rested on her oars.
+
+"I have a suggestion to make," said Mr. Hayden, "and that is that Mrs.
+Hayden write us a report of each day's lecture, and you can come down
+and we will read them together, or I can hand them to you after I have
+finished them."
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed Grace. "Will you do that, Mrs. Hayden?"
+
+"I will do the best I can, and be delighted. It will help me as well as
+you; but they will be nothing but ordinary letters, for I would have
+neither the time nor the ability to write lectures." Then she added,
+turning to Kate, "You will read them, too, won't you, dear? for I do
+want you to understand that this is the true Christ-religion, and as
+Grace says, if it is true it will prove itself."
+
+"I do not object to reading your letters; indeed shall be glad of the
+privilege," replied Kate, with a deprecatory gesture.
+
+"You must be sure and give us the practical part, so we can learn by
+practice as well as theory," said Mr. Hayden, playfully.
+
+"Yes, and I will promise to be a faithful student, if that will be any
+inducement," added Grace; "and I know Kathie will, too; won't you?"
+
+"Don't say any more, please. You all know I want what is true and good,"
+she replied, huskily.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It seemed hard to say the good-byes, even to go on this little trip.
+Mrs. Hayden looked at the children and home through blinding tears as
+her husband helped her into the carriage. They did not say much as they
+drove away to the depot, and both were deeply moved. There seemed such a
+momentous meaning in this journey.
+
+"You must promise to write often, John?"
+
+"Yes, dear Marion, and don't worry about us."
+
+"I shall write every day, John, and I _do_ want you to grow with me.
+Read the lessons please, very carefully."
+
+"Yes; good-bye."
+
+A kiss, and he was off. She waved her hand as the train started.
+
+Like a leaf on the rippling river, gently touching the stones or mosses
+in passing, but hurrying on to a broader outlook and a straighter
+pathway, we float in the varying current of life, now dallying with
+youth's pleasures and playfully touching the problems before us, then
+sent adrift by a deep desire to _know_, we go out on a voyage of
+discovery, and be the winds rough or gentle, we go on till harbored at
+last.
+
+Nor would we leave thee, gentle Truth. May thy voice guide and
+strengthen and cheer; thy sweet knowledge be the lamp to our path; thy
+words of wisdom our armor and shield, and all the sweet enchantment of
+thy presence be with us forevermore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  "Our weary years of wandering o'er,
+  We greet with joy this radiant shore;
+  The promised land of liberty,
+  The dawn of freedom's morn we see.
+  O promised land, we enter in,
+  With 'peace on earth, good will to men,'
+  The 'Golden age' now comes again,
+  And breaking every bond and chain;
+  While every sect, and race and clime,
+  Shall equal share in this glad time."
+
+  --_E. B. Harbert._
+
+
+Mrs. Hayden immediately sent a few words to her husband informing him of
+her safe arrival, but said nothing concerning her plans until later in
+the week, she wrote:
+
+"I attended a reception last night that gave me a good idea of the great
+interest manifested in this new subject by people from all parts of the
+country as well as this great city. Many who have been attending a
+convention of truth seekers this week were there, and I met, among
+others, Mrs. Harmon. She is lovely, with such a sweet pleasant face and
+clear mild eyes. I do not wonder Miss Greening was charmed with her. We
+had quite a chat about mental healing. She gave me an interesting
+account of how she came into the work and what she is doing. I also met
+many others. One thing noticeable about these people that seems
+peculiarly characteristic, was the bright, happy faces so full of repose
+and trustfulness contrasted with the dull, sluggish care-worn
+expression of people in general. It really rests and cheers wonderfully
+to look upon countenances that carry the gospel of healing with them.
+
+"After a pleasant social time, Mrs. Pearl, in whose honor the reception
+was given, was called upon for an address, the substance of which is
+about as follows:
+
+"It is an unexpected pleasure as well as privilege to thus meet face to
+face so large a body of people who are working or desire to work for the
+uplifting and healing of humanity by this new yet old Christ-method.
+
+"While there are so many thousands of the world's best workers engaged
+in lifting the burdens of sickness, sorrow and sin, there are none who
+accomplish more marvelous or speedy results than Christian healers.
+Indeed they have already demonstrated this philosophy to be a most
+powerful means of reclaiming the sinful and adjusting social relations
+as well as healing the sick.
+
+"It already promises a better method of dealing with intemperance than
+that of any other class of reformers. Why? Not because earnest, devoted
+women do not give time, labor and hearts' blood to the temperance cause;
+not because wise, honest men are not doing their best with tongue and
+pen, in legislative halls and political conventions, but because neither
+women nor men have learned the true principle of moral reform.
+
+"The wise mother knows that the best way to keep her child from mischief
+is not to talk about his temptation but cause him to forget it by
+thinking of other and better things. She encourages him to do better by
+recognizing his higher nature and showing him a better way. She
+'overcomes the evil with the good.' Thus his moral nature gradually
+gains ascendency over the lower. This, and this only is the true reform;
+but the same mother fails to carry out the same principle with larger
+children. She must learn that the same management which corrects and
+improves the child will correct and improve the sinner, for a sinner is
+only a child of larger growth.
+
+"Thus far, the world has been most attracted to the healing of bodily
+ills, and all discomforts of the flesh, but the material demand is only
+a forerunner or symbol of the spiritual, and the signs of the times are
+even now ready for the keenest readers. People are beginning to enquire
+if this wonderful power for healing the body can not be used for the
+healing of vicious minds, the curing of depraved appetites.
+
+"Since religious teachings and ethical lectures seem to be so inadequate
+to meet the crying need, why not try this new method which claims to be
+a panacea for all ills, ask the moral philosophers.
+
+"'The world moves slowly,' it is said, but the world awakes slowly, it
+should be. We are ministering angels to one another, in our process of
+awakening. If we have not enough realization of truth to keep ourselves
+awake, some one comes along and wakes us up, by telling us more and we,
+in turn, wake some slumbering neighbor.
+
+"Invisible and silent are the workings of Truth, and none may judge what
+best teaches the law. None may know what has given this or that insight
+into a broader truth, but all at once some one has the new light, and
+hastens to impart the knowledge.
+
+"All effort for truth points to one end--Truth. All reforms, all
+religions point to a higher standard of living, a clearer realization of
+the highest and best, a broader vision of truth, a breaking away from
+the false and a bringing about of the true.
+
+"Mankind is conservative and must needs consider many things in many
+ways. Old opinions are not easily relinquished because they are 'bone of
+our bone and flesh of our flesh' and not till we awake to spiritual as
+well as intellectual knowledge, shall we realize that we are free--free
+to listen, learn and live.
+
+"As in the history of every reform, we find opposition and persecution
+facing the Christian healers, but as time goes on, even the unbelieving
+and conservative shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth. Many
+things unaccepted and unestablished to-day shall be proverbial
+platitudes of to-morrow.
+
+"We who have a clearer vision of the better way, who are demonstrating
+our position with such wondrous signs, must realize more and more the
+importance of the first and only law--the law of love. Judge not. Be a
+unit in Truth.
+
+"We come together as many, but should go away as one. We now have
+thousands of Christian healers all over the country who are striving as
+never before to live a higher life, to work for humanity according to
+the Master's teachings, and it becomes us, as true disciples of such a
+leader to so live that we shall see the fulfillment of that blessed
+promise: 'Greater works than I, shall ye do.'
+
+"Let us recognize the use and beauty of unity. Let us be as one, and
+then, like the brave and faithful Joshua, we shall be able to break down
+the walls of any Jericho.
+
+"Christ followers, truth seekers, friends! Make use of the golden
+privileges of to-day, use every moment for the furtherance of good, make
+every silent thought or uttered word a stream of influence that shall
+cause the desert to blossom like the rose. Send your thoughts out to the
+grand reformers, the women workers and the men workers, the tired
+mothers and the anxious fathers, the faithful teachers and the innocent
+children. Sow the seed diligently, no matter what the soil. Never mind
+the coldness, the indifference, the slighting disparagements, for
+bye-and-bye will come the harvest. Do in all ways as you would be done
+by.
+
+  'Thou must be true thyself if thou the truth wouldst teach,
+  Thy soul must overflow with truth, the true results to reach.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  "One Holy Church of God appears
+    Through every age and race,
+  Unwasted by the lapse of years,
+    Unchanged by changing place.
+
+  "From oldest time, on farthest shores,
+    Beneath the pine or palm,
+  One unseen Presence she adores,
+    With silence or with psalm.
+
+  "Her priests are all God's faithful sons,
+    To serve the world raised up,
+  The pure in heart her baptized ones,
+    Love, her communion cup.
+
+  "The Truth is her prophetic gift,
+    The soul her sacred page;
+  And feet on mercy's errand swift
+    Do make her pilgrimage."
+
+  --_Longfellow._
+
+
+The next day Mr. Hayden, with great interest, read the letter containing
+the first lecture, which was given the day after the reception reported
+in the last chapter. Pertaining to the lesson he read:
+
+"How I wished you were with me yesterday, and could see the fifty eager
+faces as they gathered in the class room and waited for Mrs. Pearl.
+
+"Some sorrowful and careworn, some filled with the marks of suffering
+and pain, some hopeless and despairing, some careless and gay, some
+merely curious, but all expectant and interested.
+
+"It matters not with what varying motives a mass of people meet
+together, there is a common chord of sympathy, which, if rightly
+touched, will cause the many to think and feel as one, and herein lies
+the secret of a teacher's power. Mrs. Pearl has this faculty of
+gathering and holding the thoughts of her audience, and I could not help
+noting the calm and satisfied expression as they went out after the
+lecture.
+
+"The first lesson is about The True Foundation, and while much of it is
+what we have known and believed, it is stated in a new and interesting
+way. I will give it, as nearly as possible, in her own words:
+
+"It is necessary to have a common premise in order to sustain a
+harmonious argument, and the first thing is to find a base or foundation
+from which and upon which to build. Our doctrine is to be established by
+sound reasoning and scientific argument, and we must go back to the
+beginning and learn something about the First Cause of all things.
+
+"In ancient times students devoted themselves to the study of pure
+reasoning, and they found that by putting themselves in harmony with
+First Cause, they attained a power, by certain lines of thought and
+through the speaking of words, to perform wondrous works, healing the
+sick, having dominion over all creation.
+
+"They discovered the different results of speaking words of science,
+which are words of truth, and words of error or words contrary to
+reason. Right, true words brought forth right and true conditions to
+everyone around them, but deviation from this line of reason, would
+bring discord and trouble and undesirable conditions. These wise
+thinkers declared Mind to be the First Cause of all creation, and
+announced the study of Mind and the words and ways of Mind, to be the
+profoundest theme that could engage the attention of man.
+
+"We find this philosophy and these conclusions corroborated by the
+Bible, which we shall consider and prove to contain revelations of
+changeless, eternal truth.
+
+"Truth is universal, and whatever is true in one part of the universe
+must be true in all parts. That which has been understood and conceded
+to be true in all ages and climes is what we call universal truth.
+
+"Because the first chapter of Genesis, then, agrees in all essential
+particulars with the accounts of other nations and among other peoples
+we consider it universal truth.
+
+"Because it is so beautiful, logical and spiritual, we revere it;
+because our own inner consciousness of truth agrees with its statements,
+we concede it to be as accurate and reasonable an account of Creation as
+we have, and we are therefore willing to use it as the basis of our
+argument.
+
+"We read: 'In the beginning God created,' but a more literal and
+spiritual rendering would make the pivotal statement, 'God creates.' Now
+we know there can be no beginning or end to Omnipotence, hence there
+must be a continuous creating, and thus the term 'beginning' could only
+refer to the manifestation of what had already been created. How was the
+creation manifested? By the Word. 'God said, let there be light, and it
+was so,' and by every 'God said,' was manifested the thing which He said
+was to be.
+
+"The word God is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Saxon of Good, the two
+words in that language being identical. To many this will be an aid to
+realizing the omnipresence God, and add to the reverential sense of that
+personal nearness which makes the Deity a Father and an ever-loving
+Friend.
+
+"God is not person as to form or personal limitations, yet personal in
+the sense of Presence and intelligent communication with intelligent
+beings. Jesus said truly, 'No man hath seen God at any time, because the
+eye of the flesh cannot perceive spirit.' Through the quality or
+influence of Good, Intelligence, Love and all we may name as soulful, we
+perceive and feel God's presence.
+
+"Thus in the spiritual sense, the 'pure in heart may see God.' We can,
+too, perceive the quality of God in Good, as we perceive the attributes
+of the sun in its light. As the light of the sun warms the dark earth,
+making it fruitful, so the divine Light (Intelligence), shining upon our
+earth nature, makes it fruitful because of the presence of its Creator.
+
+"Some there are who call this ever-present Intelligence or Good the
+living Principle. As the Infinite, it wears all phases and adapts itself
+to every conception of the Finite, so in the sense of omnipresence and
+unchangeableness it might from this point of view be called Principle.
+This is the cold, mathematical conception of God as Law, which without
+Love would be incomplete. We must, therefore, know the duality of God if
+we are to understand either Law or Love. Some things can only be known
+by intuition, without the aid of the senses, and because of an inherent
+idea in our consciousness. For instance, every nation worships Deity in
+some way. Since we cannot know God through the senses, by which we gain
+knowledge of visible things, how can we know there _is_ a God?
+
+"As Paul says: 'Likewise the spirit itself beareth witness with our
+spirit that we are the children of God;' and what better answer could we
+have?
+
+"Spirit, according to Webster, is: 'Life or living substance considered
+independent of corporeal existence--vital essence, force, or energy as
+distinct from matter.' God is the vital essence, God is spirit, and God
+is substance--'the real or existing essence,' 'the divine essence or
+being.'
+
+"God, therefore, is the Divine Power that creates and sustains all
+things--the All-Power, the All-Intelligence, the All-Mind, the All-Love,
+the All-Substance, the All-Harmony, the All-Life, the All-Good,
+omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. This is the one Creator, 'one God
+who is Father of all, over all, and in all.'
+
+"Though we cannot see this God or Good Principle, we can apprehend it
+through the signs or manifestations that we see. As we look about, we
+everywhere see the signs of life--not Life itself, but the signs of
+it--that tell of the presence of God or Good. Now Life is Good in and
+for itself.
+
+"We often see the divinest love manifested through every deed of love,
+every heroic act of higher living, every grand sacrifice of
+self-comfort, pleasure, even life itself. Jesus says: 'Greater love can
+no man have than to lay down his life for his friend.' Such love is a
+manifestation of the one, only Love, which is God--Good omnipresent.
+
+"Every glimpse of Truth which the whole world seeks to know and wherever
+found, is a realization of the omnipresent Truth, which is God.
+
+"Intelligence, in its highest or lowest form, is but a manifestation of
+God as Intelligence; for whence comes our intelligence if not from the
+great and only Intelligence, which is ever flowing to us and through us,
+which is ever being generated in us, whenever and wherever we are
+willing to let it manifest itself.
+
+"Emerson says: 'There is one mind common to all individual men. Every
+man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once
+admitted to the right of reason is made a free man of the whole estate.
+* * * * Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is
+or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.'
+
+"So we reason about health and strength and justice, or any of the
+divine qualities, which we may claim as a part of our inheritance,
+because they are inherent in the All, in which 'we live, are moved, and
+have our being.'
+
+"Having something of an understanding as to the nature of this divine
+Creator, we can, to some extent, apprehend that the essence of all
+things manifesting it, and manifested by it, must be good like itself,
+must be of the same quality as itself; as light emanating from light,
+must be of the same essence and quality as that from which it emanates.
+God, like light, is always the same, and cannot send forth or create
+anything opposite Himself.
+
+"The nature of God embraces every good quality of masculine and
+feminine character, as also the impersonal life Principle. It is
+therefore proper to use the masculine, feminine or neuter pronoun when
+referring to Deity. As different phases of the one Love, we see
+manifested, the strong, all-protecting, intelligent father-love, the
+tender, restful, patient mother-love, the innocent, confiding, trustful
+child-love, each complete in the whole, which can be recognized by all
+or one of these attributes.
+
+"The great Mind of which the ancient philosophers tell us and which
+Emerson so plainly realized, is the the Origin and Force of all
+Creation, the Mind for which we have found so many synonyms and so many
+offices, the Great Invisible of which all visible things are but signs
+or symbols.
+
+"There is but one great Mind, one great Thinker. All thoughts of this
+Mind, which is Infinite Goodness, must be infinitely good, and man is
+the crown and apex of the wonderful creation--is made in the image and
+likeness of God.
+
+"If we concede the Creator, God, to be omnipresent, omniscient and
+omnipotent, the only Power there is, perfect, unchangeable and eternal,
+we must necessarily concede that all which He creates is good, and must
+remain so because everything connected with, emanating from, or similar
+to Him is, and must be like Him in quality and essence.
+
+"The true man is spiritual, perfect like his Father, and can only be
+subject to perfect conditions. If we continually and persistently
+recognize the true creation which is invisible, we make manifest the
+perfect conditions in the sign of the true, which is the visible. In
+doing this, we are, in the most essential sense, acknowledging God,
+worshiping the one Deity.
+
+"Because we have so long recognized the other powers we have become
+idolators, and must now turn back to the only true God. 'If thou return
+to the almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity
+far from thy tabernacles.... For thou shalt have thy delight in the
+almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God.'
+
+"We have become filled with false beliefs, because we have judged
+according to appearances, and hence drawn false conclusions. How can we
+know spiritual truth without spiritual knowledge? How can we have
+spiritual knowledge without spiritual perception; how can we have
+spiritual perception without recognizing Spirit, Substance, God, as the
+supreme Essence back of all visible forms?
+
+"This is the fundamental principle of healing--this recognition of
+spiritual being and spiritual law. Grasping only the surface meaning of
+this grand truth, we recognize and admire the mental power which
+produces cures, hence it is frequently called mind-cure, because,
+through the agency of mind, the cure is wrought, as we say, water-cure
+or sun-cure for the same reason; but as we proceed in the study, we will
+go beyond an intellectual to a spiritual perception of what is meant by
+_met-a-physical_, which pertains not only to a science of mental
+phenomena, but the science of real being, and has to do with the
+spiritual or real self of man.
+
+"Now John, if you don't understand, just wait and study, for really we
+must study these statements, without prejudice, too, for that is the
+only way, and of course we cannot expect to understand at once. The
+great essential is to keep uppermost the _desire_ for truth, but I need
+not tell you that, for what an earnest truth-seeker you are, nobody
+knows better than myself.
+
+"This is the best I can do toward giving the first lesson, but you must
+think well upon it and get a good foundation laid for what is to come
+next. This science is to be developed rather than learned.
+
+"I want to put in every moment I can get for study, so must close. Hand
+this to Kate and Grace. I do hope they will be interested.
+
+"Tell me all about your progress, and the precious little ones--how are
+they?
+
+  "Your loving MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "How shall I know if I do choose the right?"--_Shakespeare._
+
+  "Truth is one,
+  And in all lands beneath the sun,
+  Whoso hath eyes to see may see
+  The tokens of its unity."
+
+  --_Whittier._
+
+
+"That is a very clear statement," said Mr. Hayden, as he handed the
+letter to Grace when she called the next evening.
+
+"Do you think we can get much of an idea from it?"
+
+"O yes, indeed we can; but you take it home and read it with Kate."
+
+Grace went straight home with her prize for she was more interested than
+she cared to admit just yet, and Kate was still reluctant and fearful
+about the possible wrong.
+
+Grace had awakened in the night, just after Mrs. Hayden had gone and
+found her crying. "What is the matter, Katie?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, Grace, I am so worried about this Healing, and I am afraid I did
+wrong to even promise Mrs. Hayden I would read her letters," sobbed the
+poor child.
+
+"Why, Katie dear, we could never know anything if we did not look into
+it and use the reason God has given us. Surely you are not afraid to
+examine into what claims to be such wonderful truth. You do not
+necessarily accept by examining it, and I am glad we can have the
+privilege of reading what Mrs. Hayden says, for she has such a fair,
+unprejudiced mind, and will give us the matter just as nearly right as
+she can; then we can judge for ourselves."
+
+She reached over and drew Kate into her arms, but the sobbing did not
+cease at once. Grace was naturally kind-hearted, and respected people's
+feelings. To-night she was very gentle, as Kate gratefully realized.
+
+"Come Kate, put away your fears. There's nothing can change the truth
+you have, and if it isn't truth, the sooner you change your mind the
+better. What makes you feel so, all at once? Has some one said
+anything?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Narrow gave me such a talking to when I asked him if it was
+wrong; for someway, I got so troubled that I did not know what else to
+do."
+
+"Well, what of it; you don't see anything wrong in it yourself, do you?"
+
+"N--o, not exactly."
+
+"What are you afraid of, then?"
+
+"I--I don't know," with a hysterical sob. She was ashamed to admit that
+she was half afraid of eternal punishment, something she had been in
+vague terror of all her life. It had been impressed upon her so vividly,
+and now she was suffering from a keenly reproachful conscience, because
+for so long a time she had been indifferent and neglectful of her
+religious duties.
+
+Grace finally persuaded her it would be all right to give the matter a
+fair investigation. Then she went to sleep, comforted, for half her
+misery had been caused by her indecision and wavering.
+
+When they read the letter together, Grace was delighted and Kate not
+much less so, though she demurred a little about some things.
+
+"What beautiful ideas of God! It seems plainer than anything I ever
+heard. To say God is Principle, not person, makes it easier to apprehend
+His omnipresence," exclaimed Grace, laying down the letter.
+
+"Y-e-s, in one sense," slowly assented Kate, "but in the Bible He is
+spoken of as Person, or at least as having personal attributes, and you
+know they frequently refer to what He says and how He talked with
+Abraham."
+
+"O, I think that is figurative, if it is true at all. How can a being
+with a definite or outlined form be everywhere at the same time?"
+
+"But surely, you believe His thoughts can be everywhere, and that is
+what is meant by this omnipresence," said Kate, earnestly.
+
+"Then do you think of Him as sitting on a great golden throne, listening
+to the petitions of men below, and able to hear and to grant or refuse
+at the same moment every prayer that is sent to Him by the millions of
+His children on earth?"
+
+"'God's ways are not our ways, and with Him all things are possible.'"
+
+"But is it not much easier to say this is Principle, which is everywhere
+waiting for our recognition of its presence to become manifested to
+us?" pursued Grace.
+
+"Yes, I don't know but it is."
+
+"Now Kate, I am truly in earnest and mean to study this very earnestly.
+I know very little about the Bible, because it has been a sealed book to
+me every time I ever tried to read it, but during these three weeks that
+Mrs. Hayden is gone, I am going to put away my preconceived opinions as
+far as possible and see if I can learn something, and now let us get the
+Bible and see what it says on these questions. You have a concordance.
+Let us look up the word omnipresence and read some of the passages in
+which it occurs."
+
+Kate was well pleased, not only to make the Bible the foundation of this
+study, but to find Grace so changed, and so ready to look into sacred
+things. "Perhaps she will be converted," she thought, and from that
+moment she, too, resolved to look fairly into Christian Healing. She
+brought the concordance and found there was no reference to
+omnipresence.
+
+"We'll look for present or presence," suggested Grace. She glanced
+rapidly down the columns and found a reference to Ps. cxxxix. and turned
+to that.
+
+"Yes, in the seventh verse it says: 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit
+or whither shall I flee from thy presence?' and here is a marginal
+reference to Jer. xxiii: 24. 'Can any hide himself in secret places that
+I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?'
+Now it seems to me that carries the idea of a personal Being," said
+Kate.
+
+"Well, let us look up the references to God," suggested Grace again.
+"Here's one in Deut. xxxii: 4. 'He is the rock, his work is perfect; for
+all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
+right is he.' Yes, there He is compared to a rock. Of course that is
+symbolical, but find another. Isn't there one that tells of Him as
+spirit?"
+
+"Yes, 'God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in
+spirit and in truth,' that is in John iv: 24, and in the first chapter
+of John it reads: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
+God and the Word was God.'"
+
+"Ah! there we have it very plain; word is not flesh and blood or person.
+Doesn't it say in the letter that God is Intelligence, which is only
+another way to express the same thing?"
+
+"Yes, and I remember when Jesus prayed for His disciples, He said:
+'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth;' and some place in
+the Bible it speaks of God as truth," said Kate, quite willing to give
+all the corroborative testimony she could.
+
+"Truth can only be considered as principle, so we have that statement
+confirmed by the Bible, and that would agree with what Pythagoras
+wrote," said Grace, quoting: "'There is one Universal Soul diffused
+through all things, eternal, invisible, unchangeable; in essence like
+truth, in substance resembling light; ... to be comprehended only by the
+mind.' Now it is comparatively easy to see manifestations of the Good.
+By the way, I think it a volume of explanation in itself to say Good
+instead of God, don't you?"
+
+"Well, yes, it does seem peculiarly expressive, but the old way sounds a
+little better yet."
+
+"Of course," pursued Grace, "it doesn't matter so much what we call this
+omnipresent power, as whether we understand it. All humanity worship the
+same Deity in the sense of recognizing an omnipotent Power. I once read
+something comparing the ideas of God among the different peoples, and it
+was really wonderful how similar they were, excepting, of course, each
+nation had a different name for Deity. I believe I have that book now
+somewhere;" and Grace went to look for it, but presently returned
+without finding it. "Well, it made such a vivid impression on me that I
+remember a few of the principal statements. One was that the Hindoos
+teach of an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Being called Brehm
+who is the creator of all things, from whom all things emanate and by
+whom all things are sustained. The Persians, Egyptians, Greeks held
+similar ideas. The Persians called God, Ormuzd, the Greeks, Orpheus, the
+Egyptians, Osiris."
+
+"I did not know the Pagans held such ideas of Deity. I always thought
+they believed in many gods," said Kate.
+
+"They did, but as Edward Everett Hale, says: 'The innumerable Gods of
+the Pantheon are but manifestations of the One Being,' that is, they had
+special names for the different manifestations of God, as He appeared to
+them in the sun, the air, the earth, and also the different qualities of
+human character. They all alike believed in a Supreme Being, and made
+statements almost synonymous with many in the Bible. That is what may be
+called universal truth, and if this philosophy is what is consistent
+with fundamental truth, it will be just what I have been wishing to
+find." Grace leaned back meditatively, adding, "Mythology used to have a
+peculiar charm for me, and many of those old stories are coming back
+with a new significance."
+
+"'There is but one foundation, other, can no man lay,'" quoted Kate,
+earnestly.
+
+"Yes, my dear," and Grace rose and paced back and forth in deep
+abstraction. "There is but one Truth and we can not establish a falsity.
+But I want to carry my reflections a little further concerning this
+universal worship. To my mind, the power inherent in everything and
+recognized in some way by every individual is the supreme, perfect Power
+in different phases of manifestation. The man who trusts an unseen power
+to bring the seed he plants to full fruition, is believing in the true
+God, though he may not know it.
+
+"The whole world lives on faith from one year to another, for there is
+not enough food produced in one season to last more than one year, and
+if men did not know every succeeding season would provide, they would be
+desperate indeed. What is this but believing in a supreme Power? Even
+materialists admit that the great First Cause is beyond matter. Herbert
+Spencer speaks of it as the 'Universal Reality, without beginning and
+without end.'"
+
+"All people reverence and admire the sentiments of love and justice and
+truth and mercy. Let us agree they come from the same cause and are
+everywhere present, and we shall come nearer to worshiping God in spirit
+and in truth, than we ever have before. Now let's have your opinion,
+Queen Katherine," concluded Grace, looking at Kate with a playful smile
+as she finished her long dissertation.
+
+"There is nothing I can add to that, and it seems a very good conclusion
+to our first lesson. I did not know you had thought so much about
+religious things, Grace."
+
+"I always had a fondness for looking on the forbidden side of things,
+and I am afraid I was more curious than religious, but I am rather glad
+if there is an explanation to these things that have always puzzled
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     "A lie can not exist--it only appears. Truth is consciousness
+     consistent with itself in every relation; error is consciousness
+     inconsistent with itself in some relation."--_Judge H. P. Biddle._
+
+     "And what an end lies before us! To have a consciousness of our own
+     ideal being flashed through us from the thought of God! Surely, for
+     this may well give way all our paltry self-consciousness, our
+     self-admiration and self-worships! Surely, to know what He thinks
+     about us will pale out of our souls all our thoughts about
+     ourselves!"--_George MacDonald._
+
+
+  MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear John: I hope you are as anxiously awaiting this letter as I
+awaited the second lecture. It was splendid, so comprehensive, and above
+all, so practical. It throws light on many puzzling points, and I am
+delighted so far with what seems so plain and true.
+
+"Some of the members of the class seemed quite shocked at some of the
+statements, but it is not strange that they should seem startling to one
+who has never thought on the subject, for indeed, I should think it
+would take a good while to get used to reasoning that is directly
+opposite the world's first conclusions; still we are looking for results
+that are quite contrary to what the world looks for, so we can afford to
+collide with its opinions. When Mrs. Pearl came into the class room, all
+turned to look at her and every ear was ready to listen.
+
+"In yesterday's lesson we made a statement of God as the only Mind of
+the universe, the Great Reality beside whom there is absolutely nothing
+in existence; but as we look around at the scenes of suffering and
+poverty and ignorance, we are mightily tempted to disbelieve such a
+statement.
+
+"'Talk of omnipotent Light in the midst of midnight darkness!' you
+exclaim. Ah, but you are to remember we are talking of the real
+creation; the invisible and unapparent instead of the visible and
+apparent; the changeless and eternal instead of the evanescent and
+decaying.
+
+"If God is the only Reality, His creation is the only real creation. The
+word real is applied to that which actually exists, which forever is,
+not to that which seems or appears; therefore, in speaking of the real
+we mean the changeless and invisible.
+
+"If God is the only Mind, His are the only real thoughts, and thoughts
+are invisible to the eye, but discernible to the mind or consciousness.
+
+"If God is everywhere, there is no possible place or space in the
+universe where God is not; hence He is all there is. One of our modern
+prophets wisely wrote: 'Has not a deeper meditation taught certain of
+every clime and age that the Where and the When so mysteriously
+inseparable from all our thoughts, are but superficial adhesions to
+thought; that the Seer may discern them where they mount up out of the
+celestial Everywhere and Forever. Have not all nations conceived their
+God as omnipresent and eternal, as existing in a universal Here, an
+everlasting Now?
+
+"'Think well, thou too wilt find that space is but a mode of our human
+sense, so likewise Time. There is no space and no time. _We_ are--we
+know not what; light sparkles floating in the ether of Deity. So this so
+solid seeming world, were, after all, but an air-image--our _me_ the
+only reality.'
+
+"This me is the spiritual self, the individual idea of God, His image
+and likeness.
+
+"What then, about this body, which is not spiritual, you ask? What about
+the material universe?
+
+"Wait a moment. Think of the premise. As God the invisible is the
+changeless, what is the variable, fleeting, visible unreality? The real
+is everlasting, the unreal is transitory. The real is called Spirit, the
+unreal matter.
+
+"What is Spirit? The underlying omnipresent substance that we call God.
+
+"What is matter? The counterfeit, shadow, emblem, showing that Spirit
+exists or is.
+
+"We read in a very ancient Hindoo Scripture: 'Those who have
+understanding, whose thought is pure, see the entire universe as the
+picture of Thy wisdom;' and the thoughtful Carlyle said: 'All visible
+things are emblems.... Matter represents some idea and bodies it forth.'
+
+"These thoughts are in perfect accord with the principles laid down in
+our premise, hence we find that as we believe matter, believe the body
+to be the real creation, we are believing a falsity. This is the idol we
+are worshiping instead of the true and only God. The grand visible
+universe in which we see so many beauties, so many charms, is but the
+mighty object lesson before us by which we may learn of the infinite,
+invisible All. As Theodore Parker said: 'The universe itself is a great
+autograph of the Almighty.'
+
+"The characters used in mathematics do not constitute the science but
+merely represent to the senses the invisible ideas of the principle of
+mathematics. The visible does not constitute the invisible, but may
+carry its messages as we learn to read its poetic and mystic pages. The
+visible speaks to the mortal nature, but the invisible beyond and above,
+speaks to the immortal nature.
+
+"Since we find matter to be so totally opposite the real, there is no
+other name for it than as the unreal, and the unreal being a counterfeit
+of the real, must be a lie, as the nature of a lie is to make false
+claims, pretending they are true.
+
+"Matter is a counterfeit because it is not genuine or of God, because it
+is changeable and fleeting, because being limited to a visible form, it
+must have finite limitations and can merely give finite conceptions.
+
+"Taking it as a _sign_ of something infinite, we learn of the infinite.
+All the students, teachers, learned men and women of the world have
+added to the world's spiritual ideas revealed by their study of the
+finite as well as their intuitive knowledge of the infinite. Charles
+Kingsley gives us a hint of how to learn: 'Do not study matter for its
+own sake but as the countenance of God. Try to extract every line of
+beauty, every association, every moral reflection, every inexpressible
+feeling from it.'
+
+"Our ideas of matter must then be entirely changed, and we must learn to
+look beyond the seeming, to the true. We have believed in the reality
+of matter and material environment because of reasoning from the false
+basis that man is material or that he is a mixture of material and
+spiritual. To believe that the flesh and blood of our sister or brother
+is their real self, is to believe God capable of creating something
+utterly unlike himself (John iii, James i.) which may suffer, sin and
+die, and if He is all perfection, He can not know imperfection. If He is
+all spirit, He can not know or be matter. Keep before your mind the
+perfection, omnipotence, omnipresence of Spirit, God or Principle, and
+you will see more and more clearly the inconsistency of anything
+opposite Him emanating from Him.
+
+"Believing in matter as a reality, we have endowed it with all the power
+of the real, have ascribed to it life, substance and intelligence, when
+it possesses neither.
+
+"Where is the life when the body dies? If life were inherent in the
+physical body, could it ever cease to be? God the eternal life principle
+can not cease to be. The life manifested through the body is the life
+which is God and can not be affected by the decay or disappearance of
+the body.
+
+"The invisible essence of life is also the true substance, the reliable
+and changeless something, upon which we may forever depend. We use the
+word substance in its etymological sense (from _sub_, under and _stare_,
+to stand), and since Spirit or Mind is the reality that underlies every
+material or sensible object, there is no substance to the object itself.
+
+"Plato taught that '_ideas_, are the only _real_ things.' Ideas are
+expressions of thoughts, and thoughts are expressions of mind, and this
+reasoning brings us back to God as Mind and Mind as Cause. Admitting
+Mind or Spirit to be the life and substance back of or expressing itself
+through the body, we may easily see that intelligence can not exist
+apart from Mind, and hence can not belong to matter.
+
+"That the mind or intelligence is seated in the gray convolutions of the
+brain, is held by the materialists, and yet Dr. Laycock affirms 'that
+matter is fundamentally nothing more than that which is the seat of
+motion to ends, of which mind is the source and cause.' Professor Huxley
+crowns the statement by saying, 'That which perceives or knows is mind
+or spirit, and therefore, that knowledge which the senses give us, is,
+after all, a knowledge of spiritual phenomena.' Professor Faraday held
+to the immateriality of physical objects.
+
+"In the language of Jesus the Christ, we are told, 'Spirit is all, the
+flesh profiteth nothing;' thus from all classes of conscientious but
+confessedly diverse thinkers, we find statements of universal truth, and
+this is what the hungry, starving world is seeking with more earnestness
+than ever before.
+
+"Since there is no life, substance or intelligence in matter, it will be
+comparatively easy to prove that there can be no sensation, for where
+there is no life in the body, there can be no feeling. Even the
+physiologists tell us mind must know pain before it can be located in
+the body. We state therefore a theorem which is practically
+demonstrated; there is no sensation in matter.
+
+"As we visit penitentiaries, reform schools and hospitals, as we read
+and hear the startling statements of press and pulpit, we grow
+disconsolate and heavy-hearted over the awful power and reality of evil,
+forgetting again that He who is perfect goodness can not behold evil or
+in any way permit its existence, any more than heat can permit cold, or
+light can permit darkness.
+
+"Granting the omnipotence of Good, where is there any room for its
+opposite?
+
+"If there is but one Power, and that omnipotent and perfect, there can
+be no evil _in reality_; hence we are dealing with another lie when we
+judge according to appearances, which Jesus said we should not do. It is
+really disloyalty to God to impute to Him all misery, pain, sickness and
+suffering caused by the evil and ignorance of man. We are told: 'Let
+your soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but of
+God.' Because we have not done so, but have believed in every claim
+power, we suffer from 'evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,' as
+Milton wrote, or, in the words of Emerson, 'we _mis_create our own
+evils.'
+
+"Jeremiah said: 'It is your sins that have withholden the good things
+from you.'
+
+"According to Webster, 'sin is a transgression of the law of God.' There
+is but one law--the perfect and unchangeable Truth. Any deviation from
+Truth is error, and error is sin. In proportion as we deviate from the
+strictly true, then, we sin. Because we admit things to be true which
+are not true, we _admit_, then _commit_ sin, and hence suffer for sin.
+'Know ye not that to whomsoever ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
+his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto
+righteousness,' wrote Paul. We first think wrong. Sin is of the mind,
+not of the body.
+
+"To acknowledge the reality of sin or evil is a transgression of the
+law, because, according to our established premise, it cannot be true.
+
+"Through a misconception of our relation to God, and a belief in the
+power of evil, we are obliged to admit the existence of sin, sickness,
+and death, neither of which can be true in the presence of God, as the
+only Reality, in which or in whom are all things that eternally are, not
+that temporarily appear.
+
+"We have believed in a mind or power of thought opposite and contrary to
+God, when in reality there can be nothing opposite or contrary to
+eternal Mind. We have believed ourselves endowed with a mind separate
+from God, and ourselves subject to temptation from some cause not Good.
+We have believed in minds, when there is but one Mind.
+
+"This false force, this false mind, is variously called the evil or
+carnal mind, the mind of the flesh, the old man, the serpent, the devil,
+the adversary. It is simply the opposite or contradictory of the Good,
+the god of evil.
+
+"Beside every true or positive statement there is a false or negative
+claim, and in so far as we are ignorant of the true, we are in bondage
+to the false. To _believe_ the claims of error is to be bound; to _know_
+the reality of truth is to be free. To believe in a mind or power
+separate or opposite from God, is to be subject to any suppositions or
+beliefs formulated by that mind or negative thought.
+
+"That we are spiritually perfect is true, but it is necessary for us to
+prove that fact by 'working out our own salvation,' by manifesting the
+positive or God quality of thought through our life and actions, and the
+only way to be filled with good thought is to recognize and acknowledge
+the Good only as the real.
+
+"This error, tempter or devil, was spoken of by Jesus as having no
+truth, as being a liar, and the father or cause of lies (John viii: 44).
+Instead of devil (which is only another name for evil or the slanderer),
+or 'carnal mind', as Paul called it, we find mortal thought a better
+term for the expression of this power of thinking.
+
+"'Why have we this power of thinking wrong thoughts when there is but
+one good and only Mind?' you ask. As God's idea, in the image and
+likeness of Mind that thinks, we have the power of recognition, the
+power to be or not to be, the possibility to become sons of God. We have
+the power to distinguish, to judge, to know; we have the spirit that
+ever leads us on and on in truth.
+
+"But here is where we fail. In our ignorance or limited state of
+unfoldment, we have mistaken the symbol for that which is symbolized
+matter is the symbol, as also the body, we have judged according to
+appearances instead of righteous or strictly true judgment; we have
+yielded to a belief in sin, hence are servants of sin.
+
+"The conception of matter as having power, is based on appearances, and
+because we have delegated to it a power, have acknowledged it as an
+entity, separate from the eternal mind, it has enslaved us.
+
+"Reasoning in this way we find everywhere two opposites or
+contradictories to be recognized and judged, as the visible and the
+invisible, the material and the spiritual, the false and the true, the
+mortal and the immortal, the unreal and the real, the negative and the
+positive.
+
+"Judging of the true by that which is changeless and eternal, we can
+decide at once on those qualities or attributes belonging to or
+describing what is true, and by knowing what is true, we can readily
+distinguish it from the erroneous.
+
+"We have considered these great errors or negatives which the world has
+believed and still believes in, and they must be dealt with according to
+scientific law.
+
+"Through all the ages of Christianity have been heard the words of the
+Master: 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
+his cross and follow me;' but who has understood it? The letter of the
+law has indeed been observed by many earnest followers of Jesus to a
+degree not considered necessary in this age, but what has it
+demonstrated? What has come of all the fasting and renunciation, the
+cruel asceticism and severe discipline?
+
+"Do these conscientious disciples give an unmistakable proof of their
+discipleship by showing the signs that must follow the true believer?
+How can they when they talk of sin, sickness and death; of things
+contradictory to the nature, power and presence of God?
+
+"Then they must not have understood the spiritual import of these words
+of Jesus to 'deny himself.' Deny means, according to Webster, 'to
+contradict; to declare not to be true; to disclaim connection with; to
+refuse to acknowledge; to disown.' Jesus meant deny the mortal thought,
+the false self; refuse to acknowledge it as having any authority; and it
+is only as the Christ follower proves this to be the true mode of
+denying self, that he can speak with authority as to the scientific
+method of dealing with all the errors to which mortal thought gives
+birth.
+
+"No other way has brought the desired result; hence we confidently
+assert that all these mistakes agreed to and participated in by mankind
+must be emphatically, persistently, scientifically denied.
+
+"Systematically and repeatedly we say:
+
+"1. There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter.
+
+"2. There is no sensation or causation in matter.
+
+"3. There is no reality in matter.
+
+"4. There is no reality in sin, sickness or death.
+
+"5. There is no reality in evil.
+
+"6. There is no reality in mortal thought.
+
+"This is denying the self recognized by the world. This is the life that
+must be laid down, that must be sacrificed, lost.
+
+"Humanity has proven its subjection to these errors. Now, by its
+faithful rejection of them, let it prove them lies, for the force of a
+lie is always annulled by rejection. This proves the law referred to by
+Jesus when he made a denial of self the first duty of his disciples.
+
+"In denying, it is necessary to say the words over and over again; it
+may be mechanically at first, but say them over, several hours at a
+time, if possible.
+
+"More is accomplished by concentration than anybody is aware, and the
+repetition of the words helps to concentrate the thought. First repeat
+the whole list of denials, then select one on which to spend most of the
+time for several days. The denial of matter, for instance, makes us more
+spiritually minded.
+
+"When denying, try to realize there is no space, but that anywhere you
+send your thought it will go, and as you think or say the words, you
+will be denying error for the world as well as for yourself, as every
+thought is world-wide in its influence, and helps to free or bind
+humanity, even as it is truth or error.
+
+"To deny is to put out of mind, to erase, as it were, the false beliefs.
+Be earnest, be faithful, and you will have an abundant reward.
+
+"This, dear John, is the substance of the lecture as nearly as I can
+give it. After Mrs. Pearl had finished the lesson, she requested the
+class to sit in silence a few moments and together hold the thought,
+'There is no reality in matter;' after which we were dismissed with this
+benediction: 'May we realize that God _is_, that spirit is the only
+reality.'
+
+"The lessons are always opened by silent prayer, which I have forgotten
+to mention before.
+
+"Please, dear husband, observe these rules and study every assertion as
+carefully as though you were in the class. You, and Grace, and Kate, can
+accomplish a great deal together; but by all means don't pass judgment
+till you have carefully examined all the evidence.
+
+"Tell me all about the children. Such details will greatly comfort me,
+for I must confess that to-night I am the least bit homesick.
+
+  "Good night,
+
+  "Your loving MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "God is commanding us off, every hour of our lives, toward things
+     eternal, there to find our good, and build our rest. Sometimes He
+     does it by taking us out of the world, and sometimes by taking the
+     world out of us."--_H. Bushnell._
+
+
+"The second letter has come," said Grace the moment Kate entered the
+room, after her day's lessons were over.
+
+"Has it? Let us hurry and get the tea over so we can study it."
+
+"Don't you want to hear it first? I haven't looked at it because I
+wanted to wait for you, but I can't wait that long," cried Grace,
+pulling it out of her painting-apron pocket.
+
+"All right, then read away while I start the fire."
+
+"No; come and sit down like a good child, you can't half listen when
+your mind is filled with stoves and tea-pots."
+
+Kate smiled, and drawing her chair up beside Grace, she listened to the
+reading, while her face alternately brightened or darkened.
+
+"Well, it sounds very beautiful and very plausible, but I can't see how
+any one can say there is no evil when the world is full of it, and to
+say there is no sin, sickness or death! why, that is blasphemous! I know
+the Bible won't corroborate that," she said, in a horrified voice, at
+the conclusion of the letter.
+
+"Hold on, we must not be so fast; there are good reasons for every
+statement, and she says it is necessary to say these denials over and
+over. It is harder for me to believe there is no matter, but if there is
+a way to prove there is none, then I will submit. But first let us see
+what the Bible says," said the more moderate Grace.
+
+She got the Bible and concordance, but could find no reference to matter
+as pertaining to physical creation, but she found under the word "flesh"
+an allusion to John i: 12-13, and iii: 6. "The first reads," began
+Grace, "'But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
+the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
+not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
+of God.' That evidently refers to a creation possible to all, but where
+is the authority for saying 'there is no matter'?"
+
+She pondered a moment, then referred to the letter--"Oh, I see! She
+says, 'no _reality_ in matter,' and then goes on to explain about the
+real. Yes, now I see. Do you understand it, Kate?"
+
+"I can understand that the body is not the real," replied Kate,
+thoughtfully, "for Jesus said 'the spirit is all, the flesh profiteth
+nothing,' but--"
+
+"That's so. Why didn't we think of that before? Besides, it was taught
+by the ancient philosophers as much as 4,000 years ago, that matter has
+no reality. Yes, its plain to see how it can be, theoretically, but
+where they can demonstrate it practically, puzzles me. Here is a
+reference; let us see if that will tell us something."
+
+She read Heb. xi: 3: "'Through faith we understand that the worlds were
+framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made
+of things which do appear.'"
+
+"That seems quite conclusive," said Kate.
+
+"Yes, it does. Now we will consider your problem," replied Grace,
+running her finger down the references, "and see if we can find anything
+in that. Let us bear in mind," she continued, "she does not say there is
+no appearance, but no reality in evil. Among the first references, I
+find one to the twenty-third Psalm: 'I will fear no evil, for thou art
+with me.' How plain that is! Of course there can be no evil where God
+is, and God is everywhere. God is Love. In Love there is no evil."
+
+"But just think of the awful crimes that are committed every day, and
+the wicked people who commit them," demurred Kate, with an incredulous
+look.
+
+"We haven't got far enough to solve everything; listen to this: 'Only
+with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked,'"
+read Grace.
+
+"That must mean that with the carnal mind we see all things opposite
+God, and with the mind of the spirit we discern spiritual things; that
+is in Romans somewhere," exclaimed Kate, with a gleam of understanding
+in her face.
+
+"What word shall I look for?" asked Grace, intently pursuing her search.
+
+"Mind, I think; shan't I look for it?"
+
+"No; here it is in the eighth chapter and tenth verse: 'The carnal mind
+is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God,
+neither indeed can be.' That is plain enough. It means that all
+thoughts opposite God and God's creations are of the animal man, hence
+at enmity with God, and since there is nothing real but God and His
+creations, of course there is no reality in them. Now you are satisfied,
+aren't you, Kate?"
+
+"I suppose I ought to be, for I don't see any other way to understand
+those passages," she admitted, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Just one more, and we'll go on to the next denial, which will hit me,
+I'm afraid," continued Grace.
+
+She turned to Isa. xxxiii: 15-16: "I declare, Kate, here is the essence
+of the whole lesson," and she read: "'He that walketh righteously, and
+speaketh uprightly' (according to the true creation), 'he that despiseth
+the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes,
+that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
+seeing evil; He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the
+munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be
+sure.'"
+
+"I really did not know there was such a passage in the Bible, and I
+don't see why other people haven't found it before," said Kate, quite
+won over. "But how strange it seems to deny this way."
+
+"Yes, that is the most unreasonable part of it, and yet I think Mrs.
+Hayden has explained it very clearly. Now what is next?" asked Grace.
+
+"There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter," answered Kate,
+glancing at the letter.
+
+"I must confess that puzzles me," mused Grace, thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, that is easy enough to understand, when you remember the spirit is
+all, besides, when a person dies the organs of the body may be perfect,
+but there is no life or feeling, and according to this new
+understanding, no substance," explained Kate, in her turn.
+
+"I can see it well enough as a theory, but what all this has to do with
+practical every-day living, is a mystery to me."
+
+"'We haven't got far enough to solve everything,' somebody said to me
+once, and here it is for you," remarked Kate, with a spice of mischief
+in her tone.
+
+"All right, what next?"
+
+"No sensation or causation in matter; but I think that is answered the
+same way as the other. But this last one; I do wonder if the Bible
+corroborates it?" Kate looked troubled again, as she read: "'There is no
+sin, sickness nor death.'"
+
+"The same reasoning applies to that as to all the rest. There is no
+reality to anything but God's creation, and that is changeless and
+perfect. But we will see what the Bible has to say; I. John iii: 2-10.
+In the second verse it reads: 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, but
+it doth not yet appear what we shall be;' that of course is an assertion
+of our spiritual self. Then verse nine says: 'Whosoever is born of God
+doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him and he can not sin,
+because he is born of God.' Then it seems plain there can be no sin to
+the spirit, neither can there be sickness nor death."
+
+"It is wonderful," murmured Kate.
+
+"What is next?" pursued Grace, with the concordance open before her.
+
+"That is all, except she explains the use and necessity of denial, and
+suggests to Mr. Hayden the benefit of denying for hours at a time."
+
+"Well, we can do that, too. If it is good for him, it must be for us. I
+mean to do it," said Grace, shutting her book with a snap and pacing
+back and forth excitedly.
+
+"Oh, well, take it calmly; we can do that while we are getting supper,
+and I am hungry now. Do you know it is seven o'clock?" Kate exclaimed,
+looking at her watch.
+
+"Two hours we have been studying," said Grace. "Really, this is as
+interesting as painting. I don't see one thing but what is reasonable,
+do you, Kate?"
+
+"Not the way it seems now."
+
+After everything was put away they began making earnest application of
+the rules. Each sat silently thinking, according to directions: "There
+is no reality in matter, there is no reality in matter," etc. For two
+hours neither spoke. Then Kate said: "I feel so light; as though there
+were no weight to my body. What does it mean?"
+
+"I don't know, unless it shows you are realizing what you say."
+
+"That is it. I can feel that there is no obstruction to spirit or
+thought; that spirit is limitless and God is everywhere."
+
+She seemed lost in her new thoughts, and went to bed as though she were
+dreaming. Grace had experienced nothing but a sense of dullness and
+extreme sleepiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soul _is_. Under
+     all this sea of circumstance, whose waters ebb and flow with
+     perfect balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being. Existence
+     or God is not a relation or a part, but a whole."--_Emerson._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear husband: I was made very happy this morning by the messages from
+home, and especially Fred's and Jamie's baby efforts. They wanted to
+send mamma their love, and the straggling characters meant for words,
+convey as much meaning as though they were in good English, for they
+speak to me in unmistakable language. Why do I understand so well? Ah,
+John, I see. Because, being filled with love for them, I recognize the
+same quality in what they feel for me, and only need a sign to read the
+meaning back of it.
+
+"As I write, new light comes to me regarding the real meaning of signs
+and symbols. Until we are filled with a desire and love for God, we can
+not perceive or understand the real meaning of the universe, can not
+read God's love for us. Until we have a conscious apprehension that
+there is a spiritual knowledge, we can not recognize spiritual truth.
+
+"Oh, I can not help wishing you had been here to-day! It was simply
+grand; such an uplifting, such a glimpse of the wondrous Now. We learned
+about what _is_, what we _are_ and how to prove ourselves God's
+children. Mrs. Pearl opened with a few words on the use and necessity of
+silence, after which we were all silent awhile, when she commenced:
+
+"Garfield said, 'The world's history is a divine poem, of which the
+history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains
+have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been
+the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, the
+philosopher, the historian and the humble listener, there has been a
+divine melody running through the song, which speaks of hope and halcyon
+days to come.'
+
+"What has made possible this divine melody but the spirit of love and
+truth that ever animates the children of God? Were it not for this vein,
+nay this wholeness of the invisible spirit, what could we have on which
+to found hopes of 'halcyon days?'
+
+"Not from the visible man of flesh and blood do all things beautiful and
+true emanate, nor from the material and unstable, but from the one
+source that is God, as apprehended and realized by His idea, the real,
+invisible, spiritual man. Beauty, worth, can only be in idea or
+understanding.
+
+"What made Milton, Shakespeare, Emerson, truly great was their
+appropriation and manifestation of the invisible inheritance of spirit,
+mind.
+
+"What is man without intelligence, without love, without life, without
+truth? The real man is spiritual because he is the idea of Spirit, Mind,
+God, the only Creator. All that is grand, noble, true in an individual
+is a manifestation of the God-power and presence. There is but one real
+Mind, and all real or positive thought or intelligence is the
+manifestation of Mind, which is God. There is but one real Intelligence,
+and the intelligence manifested by the individual is the Intelligence
+which is God.
+
+"God is absolutely one Verity, the primordial Essence. But how shall we
+know this as a fact? How shall we prove it as an incontrovertible truth?
+you ask.
+
+"By persistent acknowledgement of God and His creation, we become one
+with Him, and to be one with God is to know absolute Truth. We are
+conditioned by the thoughts we think and by the words we speak. By
+thinking and speaking right words we manifest true conditions; by
+thinking and speaking wrong words we manifest false conditions. 'As a
+man thinketh in his heart so is he.' If we desire to manifest strength,
+justice or wisdom of God, we must 'acknowledge God in all our ways.'
+
+"'The only salvation,' says George MacDonald, 'is being filled with the
+spirit of God, having the same mind as Christ.'
+
+"In order to realize the essence of these words, in order to realize the
+essence of any truth, we must enter into its meaning by becoming one
+with it, by making ourselves the expression of its harmony, the picture
+of its idea.
+
+"Knowing the potency of the word, we say the true words over and over
+again, silently or audibly, we think of them in every possible way, with
+varied expression if we will, as it is the thought, the prime idea that
+we are seeking to manifest.
+
+"We want the true salvation; 'we want to be filled with the spirit;' we
+want the truth that makes free; we want strength, justice, wisdom. To
+secure these we have only to rid ourselves of the false and be filled
+with the true.
+
+"By the positive denial of a lie we annul the lie; by the positive
+affirmation of truth we establish truth, or rather our consciousness of
+truth is established; thus, as we deny error or affirm truth, are we
+carried forward and upward. These are the 'wonderful words of life' that
+clothe us with righteousness.
+
+"The words that we use first are statements of fundamental Truth,
+acknowledging who and what God is, what we are, and in what relation we
+stand to our Father.
+
+"1. God is Life, Truth, Love, Substance.
+
+"2. God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.
+
+"3. I am the idea of God, and in Him I have my being.
+
+"4. God is my sufficiency in all work and my will in all ways.
+
+"5. I am subject to God's law and can not sin, suffer or die.
+
+"Over and over again we speak the words, and by marvelous law new
+meanings flash upon us, new thoughts are born, new interpretations come
+to efface the more obscure ones of the past. It may be easier to follow
+every denial with its corresponding affirmation; if so, study the lesson
+that way.
+
+"_Hold to each affirmation till it yields its pearl._ Take the first,
+'God is Life;' say the words over and over, think of them in every
+conceivable way. Make every tiny leaf and slender blade of grass tell
+you something of the infinite Life. Bear in mind that every where life
+is manifested, whether in plant, animal or man, wherever we look there
+is omnipresent Life.
+
+"God is Life. This same Life is our life, which can not be taken away
+from us. This Life is good, and in It we live even as God lives in us.
+Oh, wondrous life that flows on and on, without beginning, without end,
+even as the river sings: 'Men may come and men may go, but I go on
+forever.'
+
+"God is Truth, all truth, wheresoever or by whomsoever recognized, is
+the everlasting Truth that must forever be.
+
+"There is not a community or church, not a society or family, but is
+organized and held together by some phase of the all-embracing and
+perfect Truth. The different sects and parties are only different
+because certain people see the same side of Truth, and preferring to be
+of one mind, they separate or unite and build their respective
+sanctuaries.
+
+"'Truth is always present, and we only need to lift the iron lids of the
+mind's eye to read its oracles,' said Emerson. When the 'iron lids' are
+lifted we shall see as one, we shall belong to the Church of the
+universe and the oracle shall reveal to us its deepest secrets and most
+sacred mysteries.
+
+"Truth _is_. All that we have, can have, or will have or can conceive
+of, exists in the ever present Here and Now. It only remains for us to
+recognize and acknowledge it.
+
+"God is Love. To realize the mighty sea of omnipotent Love that enfolds
+and blesses humanity, would be to plunge into the healing waters of
+Bethesda. Like the sick man, we wait until the majestic Christ commands
+us to arise--help ourselves, instead of waiting for others to put us
+into the cleansing current. Let us recognize, then, the allness, the
+tenderness, the sacredness of this divine Love by submerging ourselves
+in it, until all thoughts of evil, suffering or hatred are lost in its
+embrace.
+
+"'Lift up the gates that the king of glory may enter in,' sang David,
+and we too cry aloud with earnest aspiration that the gates shall be
+lifted away, that into our consciousness may come the high tide of
+omnipresent Love. 'Love alone is wisdom, love alone is power, and when
+love seems to fail it is where self has stepped in and dulled the
+potency of its rays.'
+
+"God is our substance. True substance alone is reliable. God is our rod
+and our staff. Firmly relying on the Rock of substance which is God, we
+can not be shaken, can not be destroyed. Though all seeming powers
+totter and fall around us, the One is ever the same, indivisible,
+unchangeable I Am. When we are one with the eternal Substance, weakness,
+danger, failure shrink into cowering nothingness.
+
+"Study to know, and know to live, should be our motto. Deny all error
+and affirm all Truth is the way to appropriate whatsoever we desire to
+manifest. Deny weakness and affirm strength, deny discord and affirm
+harmony, deny sickness and affirm health. Why? Because we erase the
+false beliefs of weakness, discord, sickness, by the denial, and
+appropriate strength, harmony, wholeness by affirmation.
+
+"Can the spiritual self be ignorant, weak, sick or sinful? we argue.
+Impossible, for God is our sufficiency, is all there is. We refuse to
+admit any belief of dullness and ignorance, but gratefully acknowledge
+our likeness to God our Wisdom. We refuse to entertain anything contrary
+to the Good, but fellowship only with God-like qualities. They are ours
+by right of inheritance. We gladly claim them and prove our claim by our
+manifestation.
+
+"Cleansing our consciousness from false conceptions, what wondrous power
+may we not reflect! Our sufficiency is of God, not of ourselves, and to
+Him we ascribe all honor and glory.
+
+"The Master taught the divineness of yielding our will wholly to God,
+'Not my will but thine be done,' He prayed. This is the highest
+conception of the denial of self. The mortal self is to be set aside,
+our immortal consciousness awakened into oneness with the Father.
+
+"MacDonald has beautifully said, 'Oneness with the mighty All is the one
+end of life--God or chaos is the only alternative.' We say God works
+through man to will and to do, and implicitly trust the divine
+Intelligence that guides every waiting child.
+
+"We choose the Good and reverently await our leadings. In every stormy
+trial, in every doubtful moment, in every hard-pressed circumstance we
+stand aside and let the divine will work through us. There can be no
+mistaking this standing aside. It is not to sit down idly with no
+thought of responsibility or effort, but it is to do the best we can so
+far as we know, constantly awaiting more knowledge of God's will and
+more strength to do.
+
+"When the will of man is at one with the will of God, when man realizes
+his mortal nothingness and the allness of God, there is divine and
+perfect healing. The poet was right when he wrote,
+
+  'Our wills are ours we know not how,
+  Our wills are ours to make them Thine.'
+
+"'I am subject to the law of God and can not sin, suffer nor die.' The
+real _I_ is governed by spirit, as an idea is governed by the mind that
+thinks it. The real creation, being spiritual, can not be subject to
+mortal beliefs or 'carnal mind which is at enmity with God.' With spirit
+there can be no sin, sickness nor death, for these are enemies to be
+overcome by the Son of God, the Christ within. 'Thou wilt keep him in
+perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.' 'The last enemy (belief) to
+be overcome is death.'
+
+"Until we persistently refuse to judge according to appearances, and
+acknowledge the true and invisible, we will continue in our old code of
+beliefs and be at the mercy of the consequences.
+
+"When we recognize the Christ or God principle within, we are then truly
+the sons and daughters of God. Spiritual insight gives a logical and to
+some, a new meaning to the term Christ. Christ means Truth and Truth
+means God. 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and
+the Word was God, and the Word was made manifest in the flesh, or the
+Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.'
+
+"'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.' Jesus said of
+Himself, 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' But He did not speak
+this of His physical body, He referred to the spirit or Christ within,
+which was one with the Father, that was and is, literally the way, the
+truth and the life. If you will substitute Truth for Christ any place in
+the Bible, with this understanding, you will be able to read and
+apprehend as never before. In this line of thought read the thirty-fifth
+chapter of Isaiah, the title of which is 'The joyful flourishing of
+Christ's (Truth's) kingdom.' With this understanding, we so much more
+clearly see what Paul meant when he said such things as 'Your life is
+hid with Christ in God,' 'Christ in you, the hope of glory,' 'Until
+Christ be formed in you,' and many other similar expressions. In the
+eighth chapter of Romans, especially the first verse, it is much clearer
+by reading with this new spiritual signification. 'There is, therefore,
+now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Truth), who walk
+not after the flesh but after the spirit.' Who could ever believe the
+physical Jesus was meant? No: Christ was exactly what the first chapter
+of John says He was, the Word (or Truth) made manifest in the flesh, and
+the name of the flesh was Jesus.
+
+"Jesus Christ means Jesus, the manifestation of Truth, and this explains
+many hitherto obscure passages, which are exceedingly hard to
+understand, when the flesh and spirit are regarded as one.
+
+"What vast possibilities unfold to the human being persistent in his
+search for truth! What a glorious realm of knowledge, what wonderful
+power, what blissful peace, for he will have 'put on the new man, which
+is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that creates him.' He
+will have attained the clear vision of liberty, for he will no longer be
+bound to the 'letter that killeth' but be filled with the 'spirit that
+giveth life.'
+
+"The silence at the close seemed like a baptism of peace. To me came the
+realization of the intimate relationship of God's children to their
+Father, whose love ever comes as a benediction to those who will or can,
+recognize and appropriate it.
+
+  "With love to you all, I am,
+
+  "YOUR MARION.
+
+"P. S. I take great pains to have the quotations accurate, and
+fortunately I have made the acquaintance of the shorthand reporter in
+the class who sits next to me; she takes notes and as a special favor,
+reads the quotations for me after the class is dismissed.
+
+  "Once more, good-bye. M."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  "Got but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like
+  A star new-born that drops into its place,
+  And which, once circling in its placid round,
+  Not all the tumult of the earth can shake."
+
+  --_Lowell._
+
+
+"How are you getting on in your study of Christian Healing?" asked Mr.
+Hayden, meeting Kate as he was going home, and handing her the letter.
+
+"It is getting plainer, but Grace seems to catch the reason of things
+much more readily than I. In fact, I am afraid I should have given up in
+disgust had not she helped me out, for some of the statements seemed so
+unreasonable."
+
+"They are rather inconsistent in some respects, I must admit; but if we
+will only be patient, and not allow prejudice to color our judgment,
+everything will straighten out," replied Mr. Hayden, smiling. "You
+notice Marion is careful to warn me not to judge hastily. She knows how
+I am in religious matters, always insisting on the one interpretation.
+But I am growing some, I hope, so I trust my judgment is broad enough to
+make a fair and impartial investigation."
+
+"Do you follow directions about denying?" Kate asked, as they walked
+along.
+
+"I am trying to, but of course my days are busy, and evenings somewhat
+taken up with the children. Still, I deny matter as being inert, having
+absolutely no power of itself, except what is delegated to it by the
+senses. I know it has no life, intelligence or causation of itself, but
+only as man in his ignorance allows it to have. This has been held by
+wise men of all ages. I have an idea this way of thinking will help me
+in business as well as socially and religiously."
+
+"I am glad to hear that," said Kate; "though I must confess at first I
+was very much afraid to look into this; but last night I had a very
+clear assurance that there is something in it. Grace and I denied a long
+time, and I had a most peculiar experience. Such a strange, exalted
+feeling, as if there were no weight about me, and it was very clear that
+there is no reality in matter."
+
+"Remarkable!" murmured Mr. Hayden. "Suppose you come down Sunday and
+we'll compare notes," he suggested, as he turned the corner toward home.
+
+"We will," she promised, and went on with a hurried step, anxious to
+read the letter, for she was now as interested as Grace. When she
+arrived at their rooms she found her friend had gone out, so she went
+about the domestic duties, resolving to have everything ready when Grace
+returned.
+
+"Isn't that a beautiful lesson?" exclaimed Grace, when they finally sat
+down to study, later in the evening.
+
+"Perfectly grand; but I want the Bible corroboration, though I am not
+afraid it is not there this time."
+
+"Of course everything that proves the theory helps to establish the
+consequent facts, and I suspect all things prove it when we understand
+it. Well, here is the first statement about God that is about the same
+as in the first lesson," said Grace. "Look up the references to life."
+
+"Here is one in Psalm xxvii: 1. 'The Lord is my life and my salvation,
+whom shall I fear?'" read Kate; "and here is another in Acts xvii: 25:
+'God giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.'"
+
+"That is good; see if you can find another," said Grace.
+
+"Here is one, but I hardly understand it--John xi: 25, 26. 'Jesus said
+unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me,
+though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
+believeth in me shall never die.' What can that mean, Grace?"
+
+"Wait a moment," said Grace, silently pondering. Then she looked again
+at the letter. "Why, of course! How could we forget so easily? I had it
+just a moment ago. Jesus never referred to his flesh and blood when he
+spoke of himself as life, resurrection, truth, bread, but always meant
+the Spirit of God that was manifest in him, and the Spirit of God which
+is the Christ, is Truth, and whosoever believes or apprehends Truth,
+shall be whole and live."
+
+"But it says, 'shall never die,'" interrupted Kate, still unsatisfied.
+
+"I don't know, then, unless it means 'the Spirit is all.' Find another
+passage."
+
+Kate read John vi: 51-64, and then added, anxiously, "it seems to grow
+more mysterious all the time."
+
+"Never mind, let us be patient. Read the fifty-first and sixty-third
+verses again."
+
+Kate read, "'I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any
+man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will
+give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.... It is
+the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that
+I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.'"
+
+"That last clause is the key to all," exclaimed Grace, eagerly. "He was
+the Word, idea made manifest in the flesh. Flesh was a symbol of Word,
+and he said they were to eat his flesh, which meant they were to eat his
+word. Now let us look up Word, since so much hinges upon that."
+
+Rapidly turning over the leaves, Kate read again, John xv: 7: "'If ye
+abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it
+shall be done unto you.'"
+
+"There we have it. Christ, we must remember, means Truth. If we abide in
+the Truth and the words of Truth abide in us, that is, in order to eat
+the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, we are to abide in the spirit
+and speak the words of Truth. Oh, how beautiful!"
+
+"Yes, it is. Here is another passage, Col. iii: 3, 4: 'For ye are dead,
+and your life is hid with Christ in God.... When Christ, who is our
+life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.' Even
+I, can see that," cried the delighted Kate, "and I remember a verse in
+Ephesians, iv: 18, that will make it still plainer. Here it is: 'Having
+the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through
+the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart'
+(mind). Ignorance is the opposite of truth, and one who is ignorant of
+truth is subject to the carnal mind which leads to death. When we know
+truth, we know the opposite of death, which is life, so when Christ the
+Truth, which is life, shall appear, we shall be glorified with the
+knowledge of eternal life, and just as far as we realize truth we
+manifest it, do we not?" She appealed to Grace, as if the thought were
+too good to be true, and must needs be confirmed before she could
+believe it.
+
+"Manifest it? Why yes; I suppose so; that means in the body," answered
+Grace, thinking deeply; "manifest truth in the body. Of course," she
+continued, "we will show forth a more perfect body in proportion as we
+acknowledge and realize more perfect thought. How strangely we lose our
+premise! If this could not be reasoned out so clearly, I should get all
+tangled up; as it is, I don't keep out of snarls."
+
+"Just think of poor me who seem to have no reasoning faculty at all in
+these matters. What should I have done without you to help me out?"
+queried Kate.
+
+Grace smiled as she replied: "In one sense you will get on faster than
+I, for you can get it spiritually or intuitively, while I get it only
+intellectually, and the intuition flies where reason walks. You had a
+perception of the unreality of matter last night and I had nothing at
+all but stupidity and sleepiness. But let us go on. I am more deeply
+interested than I can tell, and the Bible is a new book to me. I never
+dreamed there were such treasures of truth in it. No matter where I
+read in the Bible before, I could not understand, and then I stopped
+trying, but it is very different now."
+
+"What is the next point in the lesson?" asked Kate, taking up the Bible
+again.
+
+"I am the child of God. Look for child."
+
+"Yes, in Rom. viii: 16, 17: 'The spirit itself beareth witness with our
+spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs
+of God, and joint heirs of Christ; if so be that we suffer with him.'"
+
+"That means," said Grace, "we prove ourselves heirs if we suffer with
+him, mortify the flesh, lay down the life of appetites and passions and
+talk continually of spiritual things; in short, live the life that Jesus
+did."
+
+"Here in Gal. iv: 1: 'The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
+nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all,'" read Kate.
+
+"While he has a child's ignorance of his inheritance, of course he could
+not enjoy its possession, and the longer he remains ignorant, the longer
+will he have the station of a servant," explained Grace, readily.
+
+"But there is a seeming conflict in the two passages. The first says the
+spirit itself tells us we are children and heirs, and the second says,
+as long as he is a child, even though an heir, he is nothing but a
+servant," said Kate, in perplexity again.
+
+"But isn't there a place in the Testament somewhere about being born
+again?" inquired Grace.
+
+"Yes," replied Kate, wondering what that could have to do with it. "Yes,
+that is where Nicodemus went to Jesus by night--"
+
+"Find it," interrupted Grace, who was determined to be thorough in this
+study at least.
+
+"John, iii: 3-7, reads: 'Except a man be born again, he can not see the
+kingdom of God.... That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which
+is born of spirit is spirit.'"
+
+"Well!" said Kate, as she finished.
+
+"Didn't we learn that the words are spirit and life, and does it not
+mean we are born into the spiritual knowledge by abiding in the words of
+truth?" reasoned Grace.
+
+"Why, that is it, I do believe, and one of the last verses of the third
+chapter of Galatians says, 'for ye are all the children of God by faith
+in Christ Jesus.'"
+
+"By faith in the Truth," amended Grace, for the sake of the clearer
+meaning.
+
+"What a stupid I am!" cried Kate. A moment later she said thoughtfully,
+"there is a text in the first chapter of James which reads: 'Of his own
+will begat he us with the word of truth, that we might be a kind of
+first fruits of his creatures.' My youthful Sunday school training is
+not quite in vain," she added, meekly.
+
+"It would not take us so long if we knew the Bible as some people do,
+provided we want to take that as sole authority," remarked Grace,
+referring to the letter again.
+
+"I don't know about the advantage of knowing the passages unless you can
+interpret them, and that is certainly essential to the understanding,"
+replied Kate, thoughtfully, as she drew her hand slowly over the open
+page.
+
+"Mrs. Hayden refers to the liberty brought by the spirit. Suppose you
+look up a reference to liberty," suggested Grace.
+
+"Yes," said Kate, a moment later, "here in verses 17 and 18 of II. Cor.,
+third chapter, it reads, 'Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the
+spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.... But we all, beholding as in
+a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
+glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.'"
+
+"Why, Grace," exclaimed Kate, shutting the book in her eagerness, "I see
+it all now. By denial we take away falsities that bar us from looking
+into the face of God (Good), and by the affirmation we acknowledge Him,
+which is turning an open face to Him and reflecting His glory. Isn't
+that the way you understand it?"
+
+Kate's face was all aglow with enthusiasm. A new light had come to her,
+and she was lifted to a higher plane, both in conception and feeling.
+
+"That is a beautiful interpretation, but I don't want to stop to think
+about it now," said Grace, with a yawn, betraying fatigue for the first
+time.
+
+"Why, Grace, a little while ago you said you were 'so interested.' What
+has come over you?" was Kate's rather discomfited answer.
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing!" rejoined Grace hastily, "only you know one _can_
+be surfeited with good things, but never mind. I shall not stop till we
+get through with this looking up, and then I must have a good long
+think." She playfully chucked Kate under her chin, and asked her "to go
+on," but the searching was not so spontaneous as before, and in the
+spontaneity of study lies the acquisition of knowledge.
+
+Grace, it must be confessed, was compelling herself to a thorough
+intellectual investigation which, till now, had been a novel pleasure,
+but was getting a little monotonous, although she was deeply interested
+and more pleased with the Bible readings than she would have thought
+possible, because, as she had said herself, the Bible had been a sealed
+book to her before. She was very careful to conceal this new feeling
+from Kate, for at least, she would not lay one obstacle in _her_ path,
+and after a few moments' desultory conversation, they went on as before.
+
+"The next affirmation is about the will, what can you find for that?"
+asked Grace, as they had resumed their study again.
+
+"I have found it already," replied Kate, with her finger on the passage.
+"In Phil. ii: 13: 'For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to
+do of his good pleasure.' That subordination to the will of God runs all
+through the New Testament."
+
+"Here is the last one," resumed Grace, referring to the letter again. "I
+am subject to God's law and can not sin, suffer or die," she read.
+
+"Oh, that does not sound right; I do _not_ see how it can be right to
+say such things," interposed Kate, darkening again.
+
+She looked up a reference to sin and turned to the sixth chapter of
+Romans. "I don't see very clearly yet," she faltered, after she had
+finished the chapter.
+
+"Yes, in the 16th verse is the key to it all," said Grace, looking over
+the page with her. "The idea is, if we admit sin or talk about it, we
+are committing sin, for it is wrong to do either."
+
+"I understand a little better now, but it is not an easy matter to be so
+good," sighed Kate.
+
+"But we are given these rules in order to know _how_ to be good. Let us
+sit as we did last night, and say these affirmations," suggested Grace,
+determined to do her duty, for Kate's sake at least.
+
+Diligence and faithfulness never fail to bring forth fruit, and they
+were laboring hard, both with soil and seed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     "Each of us is a distinct flower or tree in the spiritual garden of
+     God,--precious each for its own sake in the eyes of Him who is even
+     now making us,--each of us watered and shone upon and filled with
+     life for the sake of His flower, His completed being, which will
+     blossom out of Him at last to the glory and pleasure of the great
+     Gardener. For each has within him a secret of Divinity; each is
+     growing toward the revelation of that secret to himself, and so to
+     the full reception, according to his measure of the
+     Divine."--_George MacDonald._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear Husband: Your letter seemed the only bright spot in my yesterday's
+experience, for, strange as it may seem, I awoke with the same old
+headache and pain in my limb, and felt so dull and stupid, that I was
+almost doubtful whether I had ever known anything. In vain I tried to
+treat myself, but the more I tried the more perplexed I became, until
+about noon, when I began to feel better, though the whole day was a
+novel and rather disagreeable experience. When I went into class to-day,
+from nearly every quarter was heard a similar story of how the day of
+rest had been passed.
+
+"It was more and more astonishing. Dr. Bright had hardly recovered from
+her sick headache; Mrs. Dawn was still feeling stupid; two ladies were
+not able to attend class; Dr. Johnson and Dr. Lorimer actually looked
+angry, and the two ministers in the class were gravely discussing the
+knotty points and knitting their clerical brows over 'doubtful
+explanations' as they called them, while a perplexed and troubled air
+seemed to settle on everybody. But there are a few old students in the
+class, and they looked at us with a knowing smile, saying: 'This is only
+chemicalization; you will be all the brighter after you get over it.'
+
+"They did not explain further, but I knew something about it from the
+experience we have had, but had never thought of it in that light. 'It
+is a comfort to know there is some prospect of an end to our darkness
+anyway,' said Mrs. Dawn, with a long-drawn breath of relief, voicing the
+sentiments of all.
+
+"The kind and gracious look Mrs. Pearl gave us as she came in, sent a
+wave of peace and satisfaction over me, for I felt that she understood
+the situation and would lift the curtains and let in the light.
+
+"After the usual silence, which seemed longer than before, Mrs. Pearl
+began in a calm clear voice:
+
+"We have come now to a point where it seems necessary to explain the
+process of growth, and the phenomenal changes which take place at
+certain stages of our development, whether known or unknown to the
+individual.
+
+"Hitherto we have recognized material ideas, objects and processes. We
+have looked upon our physical being as the indisputable creation subject
+to all changes, circumstances or conditions. Having experienced a
+material birth, we conceive of no other as being either possible or
+necessary, and like Nicodemus we go in the night of our ignorance to ask
+the divine Teacher, Truth, questions concerning spiritual things, only
+to be told we must be born from above if we would know the things of
+the spirit. 'That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is
+born of Spirit is spirit.'
+
+"We are covered with the cold, hard shell of material beliefs, which
+must be broken and cast away before the sweet and tender germ of spirit
+can spring up. We are born like the flowers, and blossom like them.
+'Consider the lilies of the field, _how they grow_.'
+
+"Seed typifies the desire for truth planted in the conscious and
+unconscious being. The more constantly and persistently we hold the
+desire, the more rapid and perfect will be the development that produces
+the fruit. The hard little kernel must first lie in the dark earth,
+while hidden forces make it swell and sprout until the outer shell dies
+and falls away, leaving the pure white germ to push its way up and up
+through the cold dreary earth. At this period it is very delicate and
+tender, and yet it must pass through a trying stage, for when the white
+spire just peeps above the ground it has to encounter elements that at
+first seem bent upon its destruction.
+
+"Will the sun's rays now prove too hot for it? Will the winds be too
+rough and stormy? Will the cold air bite, or the storm beat and bruise
+it unto death? Pointing ever skyward, does it stop to shiver at the
+prospect of dark and cold and heat, or windy violence?
+
+"Let us see. Bravely the young shoot goes its way. As soon as it sees
+the light it displays new beauty, and the reflected glory clothes it in
+a brighter robe--the fresh, dainty green of spring's supernal dress,
+emblem of everlasting youth. But a storm of wind and rain assails it.
+Dense cloud-curtains hide the sun, and the air is cold and chilling.
+Sometimes for days this benumbing coldness lasts. But after the storm
+our little friend is greener and brighter and larger than ever. It has
+withstood the storm and wind, by using them for its own advancement.
+Everything has been turned into good by recognizing only the good.
+
+"When the sunshine comes again the little slip is baptized with dew and
+warmth and light, and joyously springs on toward budding time, and then
+another and different experience befalls. Instead of rolling every new
+leaf outward to be bathed in the light and kissed by the wind, there is
+a rolling inward, a curling up and shutting in of the new and delicate
+leaves. A hard, unlovely roll or lump now displays itself on the green
+stem, and every day the roll becomes larger and harder. The green stalk
+never questions, though for a time her face is veiled. She lives in the
+waiting silence, content with what is. One bright day she looks at her
+ugly bud and finds it a rare blossom of surpassing beauty and sweetest
+fragrance. Thus is born the fair-robed lily, pure emblem of the child of
+God.
+
+"But we have many and various symbols of divine thought in the many and
+various flowers, from which we learn divine lessons. There are the
+violets that come so early in the spring, with their wildwood fragrance
+and dainty blue cloaks, and the lovely roses of summer, the goldenrods
+and asters of autumn, while among the rarer kinds we have the
+night-blooming cereus, the beautiful but slow blossoming century plant,
+and many others. These are types and symbols of ourselves and our
+process of birth and unfoldment.
+
+"The new birth is a development from material to spiritual knowledge.
+The individual corresponds to one or another plant, but none may know at
+what particular stage.
+
+"Some blossom early, some late, some manifest a nature like the violet,
+others the rose, the water lily or the century plant. I can not tell,
+you can not tell, none can tell. Even the Master said, 'The wind bloweth
+where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
+whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of
+the spirit.'
+
+"The wonderful seed (desire for truth) we have planted must be moistened
+by the water of right words, warmed by the sunshine of faith, fed by the
+dew of patience.
+
+"Our trials will be similar in character to the flowers, and the outcome
+will be the same in proportion as we follow their example of
+unquestioning faithfulness.
+
+"The very desire to grow is a challenge to the elements that _seem_ to
+oppose growth, but the plant overcomes all obstacles by its
+non-resistance, and herein lies one of our most valuable lessons.
+
+"In our progress we meet with many conditions and circumstances that try
+us, that seem indeed to call in question our earnestness in thus
+starting out, with new assumptions. Sometimes these adverse conditions
+are called trials of faith and they may come to us in one way or
+another, sometimes in sickness, sometimes in misunderstandings,
+sometimes in grief, sometimes in disagreeable duties.
+
+"Peculiarities of disposition that we thought overcome, may manifest
+themselves very unexpectedly and cause us great annoyance, not only
+because we may have congratulated ourselves on having risen above them,
+but because it would be a mortification to us to have our friends know
+that we who believe in the possibility of such high moral attainments,
+should be guilty of these old weaknesses and follies. In every way, the
+tempter--mortal thought--may show us the fallibility of human nature and
+tempt us to disbelieve in our high ideals.
+
+"The forty days' temptation in the wilderness is the soul history of
+every human being who starts out to lead the life of Jesus. Tempted in
+everything as we are, he was the type of strength, purity and
+faithfulness to principles, which we most earnestly should seek to
+follow. After his baptism, 'He was conducted by the spirit into the
+desert to be tempted by the enemy.'
+
+"We are baptized by the spirit when we have come into the realization of
+our sonship and daughtership, our true relation to the divine Father and
+Mother Love, and have consecrated our lives to the service of Truth. In
+order that we may be fully aware of the magnitude of our desire, we are,
+as it were, led by the spirit to the desert which literally signifies
+forsaken, where every means of comfort and companionship are gone, where
+we must learn to choose between the ever present but invisible things
+of God and the transitory but gratifying pleasures of the visible world.
+Having a glimpse of the power and blessedness conferred by the knowledge
+of Truth, we are tempted to keep hold of the power, at the same time
+fellowshipping with the world, which by our recognition and fellowship
+will be greatly pleased through the acquisition of our society and
+talents.
+
+"When tests are required of us similar to the turning of stones into
+bread, healing the lepers, raising the dead, will we realize our
+dependence on the word of God which is the 'bread of life?' Temptations
+to dare the protection of the power, give us an insight to the very same
+trial of Jesus, and when we are led up to the mountain of knowledge from
+which we may view the pomps and vanities of the world, realizing the
+superior insight that gives power, then comes the decisive
+question--shall God or mammon gain our allegiance? Shall we forego the
+seductive allurements of mortal thought (which is really only the
+negative thought or the false power called the world's beliefs reflected
+upon us), or shall we, in ringing tones cry out, 'Get thee behind me,
+adversary (or opposer). Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only
+shalt thou serve.' Then the enemy leaves us, and behold, angels come and
+minister to us.
+
+"After the long forty days, which with some seem longer than with
+others, after the darkness and desolation of a desert night, we are
+ministered unto by the blessed angels--good thoughts--and the glory of
+the Most High shines round about us. The struggle is ended, the Good
+which is ever ready to be our guide when we choose, leads us into many
+sweet experiences that bring us nearer and nearer to the 'promised
+land,' the true inheritance of God's children. We begin the ascent of
+the mount of transfiguration, and though we come to many steep places,
+though we sometimes stumble over rocks of ignorance, though we encounter
+clouds of doubt that veil the glorious peak from our longing view for a
+time, though we meet wild beasts, (untamed human nature), though we
+cross shadowy valleys and dark ravines, lighted only by the torch of
+faith, we shall have transcendant glimpses of the fair Beyond, shall
+breathe the perfumed air of Zion's Hills, and be transported with
+delight at the never ceasing revelations made to the true seeker after
+eternal wisdom.
+
+"After faith, comes knowledge. If we were overcome by the tidal wave,
+when wading out a little way from shore, and a rope were thrown us, we
+should at least catch hold the rope, hoping to be delivered from the
+danger. After several successful experiences, we should have faith in
+the rope, so when we feel the tidal wave of trial overtaking us, we are
+to catch hold of our denials and affirmations which correspond to the
+saving rope. An invariable rule in Christian Science is to deny the
+undesirable and affirm that which can be predicated of spirit. _No
+matter what inharmony_ assails you, whether it be pain, poverty,
+sickness, loneliness, fear or anxiety, _deny_ it positively and
+repeatedly and _affirm_ the opposite. Like Jesus, we must speak of that
+which is true, but not visible. Thus when called to raise the daughter
+of Jairus, he said: 'She is not dead but sleepeth.' The appearance of
+death was denied, and its opposite, life, affirmed.
+
+"When talking to the Jews, Jesus said: 'If ye continue in my word, then
+are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth and the truth
+shall make you free.' It is continuance in the word that brings the
+blessing, mark that.
+
+"And now let us enter into the silence with one accord, saying: 'For Thy
+blessed words and example we thank Thee, O, beloved Master, and with Thy
+words we enter now into Thy faith.'
+
+"An impressive ten minutes, and then, with reverent voice and gesture,
+Mrs. Pearl dismissed us with the words: 'It is finished. We have
+received that which we asked, and are filled with the peace that passeth
+all understanding.'
+
+"While we sat thus, just before she spoke, I had one of those peculiar
+experiences they tell about, coming so often in the silence. It seemed
+as though I was in the cool quiet of early morning, watching the signs
+of a summer dawn. All at once the creeping rainbow colors shot up toward
+the zenith, and the most glorious sunrise I ever beheld flooded me with
+a dazzling glow of gold. The moment she spoke it vanished, but oh, how
+lovely it was! What could it mean unless the dawn of the 'Sun of
+Righteousness?' I must wait and see, for surely the understanding of
+these things will come when I am ready for it.
+
+"Several of the class have been having strange signs or hints of
+something on which they have been studying deeply. Dr. Bright said that
+everything turned black before her one day when she was denying, and
+when she could see again it seemed as though there were no walls to the
+house and she was gazing into empty space. This is on account of denying
+till material things seem immaterial, and we begin to realize the
+reality of spirit.
+
+"The saying of the affirmation for strength, Mrs. Dawn says, makes her
+body feel almost electrified with vitality, and she can realize that the
+words bring to her what they claim.
+
+"One young man, who sits just back of me, told his experience in denying
+the reality of matter. He was quite rebellious at first about saying
+what seemed such a huge lie, but finally concluded to do the best he
+could, and so said it over and over one day till he fell asleep.
+Suddenly he was awakened by the words sounding in his ears, 'Be not
+afraid, but trust,' and opening his eyes, he saw written on the wall the
+very same words, and immediately a restfulness and satisfaction came
+over him, so that he no longer demurred at the thought of saying the
+words and, though he did not yet understand, he felt willing to wait.
+
+"Oh, how I wish the great busy world would listen to this beautiful
+doctrine. It seems that we must compel it to come to the feast. I think
+we all feel like a child delightedly showing its new toy to everybody.
+But the little experience I have had before, will teach me to withhold
+where there is antagonism to the truth, beautiful though it is, because
+my work at home even with my cure, did not interest or convince some
+who would shut their eyes and ears to all. I remember so well how I felt
+like shouting to everyone in my joy the glad story of my recovered
+health, but the cold, incredulous looks, and the averted faces chilled
+the tidings on my lips, and I learned that only when the world is
+thirsty, will it appreciate the cool and sparkling waters of truth.
+
+"Well, dear John, I have not answered your letter at all because I was
+so afraid I would forget the substance of the lesson to-day, but I am so
+glad it seems plain to you as I present it, and it is such a help to
+know you are glad I came here. How we shall grow together when we
+_begin_ together. Continue to write your opinions and ideas of the
+lessons, for you have such a clear way of expressing yourself. Don't let
+Jamie forget to write again when you all write. Bless his dear little
+self! I would so like to see him, but then, I know all is well with you,
+for Good is everywhere.
+
+  "Good night and good-bye,
+
+    "MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "But when every leaf is dropped and the plant stands stripped to
+     the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from
+     which shall spring a tenderer foliage and a brighter wealth of
+     flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly
+     joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the
+     soul."--_Harriet Beecher Stowe._
+
+
+Saturday no letter came. All the forenoon Grace tried to do her duty by
+saying her denials and affirmations while Kate was out giving lessons,
+but she seemed so stupid and felt so cross that in despair she resorted
+to her painting, but only succeeded in spoiling the picture she had
+spent hours and days upon before. When Kate came in at the usual hour,
+feeling so gay and light-hearted that she scarcely knew how to contain
+herself, she was astonished to hear Grace say:
+
+"Oh, I am glad you have come at last! Such a day as I have spent!
+Thought I'd have so much extra time while you were gone to give Millie's
+lesson, and here I've wasted the whole afternoon and spoiled my
+'shipwreck' besides, and I'm in a villainous humor. Now, I'm going to
+pour it all out on your innocent head." She smiled grimly, as she tossed
+her painting apron aside and spitefully turned the picture to the wall.
+
+"What in the world ails you, Grace?" cried the astonished Kate. "Have
+you lost your senses? I was congratulating myself coming home on the
+good time we would have again to-night."
+
+"I anticipated it so vividly this morning I could hardly wait, but
+really, Kate, I feel ugly, and perhaps it would be as well not to talk
+to me. I will go out for a little walk, while you get the tea," and she
+went forthwith.
+
+A tumult raged within her that she had not conquered. One moment filled
+with the most exhilarating sense of freedom and joy, the next the direst
+disgust with herself and her failings; one moment clearly understanding
+the many problems that had come up for solution the past week, and the
+next with no ability to reason about anything. This had been going on
+all day. She had even felt unreasonably irritable because Kate had so
+quickly overcome her prejudices. What right had she to give away her own
+for some one else's opinions so easily?
+
+Grace gave her glove an impatient twitch as she thought of it, but the
+next instant she wished she, too, might be as childlike and receptive as
+her companion.
+
+To Kate the Bible was final, unquestioned authority; to Grace it was a
+corroboration, not a foundation. It was more interesting, she must
+confess, than ever before, but then she must have better reasons than
+had yet appeared for taking it as Kate did.
+
+After all, perhaps this religion was but another mirage that had come
+into her moral vision, as many another had come in all the years she had
+been seeking truth and happiness. Happiness! Had she forgotten that for
+two years that word had been dropped from her vocabulary? That she had
+resolved to live on the best intellectual food the world could offer,
+without tasting its heart viands? She walked on with an unwonted
+energy. No, she would not be deceived; the best and sweetest in life was
+not for her, but she ought at least, to help poor little Kate.
+
+It was a calm, quiet evening. The sun was just disappearing over the
+distant hills. The sky was radiant with delicate pink and blue tints.
+She was walking toward the east, when, glancing at the scene in front of
+her, she saw what seemed to be a brilliant fire, not only in one place
+but in many. Somewhat startled, she looked more closely and discovered
+every window ablaze with the sun's reflected glory. Like a flash it
+came: "I am walking away from the glory of Truth. Oh! how shall I turn
+my face to God?" she cried, with unspeakable yearning.
+
+An agony of suspense seized her. She looked up at the calm, beautiful
+sky, and its rays of radiance seemed to send down upon her a benediction
+of peace. Like a soft whisper the words, "Lo, I am with you always,"
+fell upon her ear. Blessed words that filled her with a new-born awe,
+but they brought a realizing sense of ever-present nearness of Truth,
+such as she had never had before, and she was so filled with peace that
+all the world looked like a new world. The turbulent waves of doubt and
+unrest had been divinely stilled.
+
+She walked on, so filled with her new thoughts that the twilight
+deepened into starlight before she thought of home, and then it seemed
+that every star beam was an angel of love sent to guide her on her way.
+She entered quietly as Kate was playing one of Beethoven's symphonies,
+and never had music seemed so sweet. It was like a welcome into heaven.
+It was the heaven within her that made a heaven without.
+
+To Kate had come such a realization of divine harmony, that her soul
+poured itself out in music she had never dreamed of before. All the
+struggles and pains of the past years, all the disappointments and
+unhappiness found expression through the wailing tones of the piano only
+to be swept away or swelled into sweeter and more joyous strains. More
+and more clearly a conception of joy and peace unspeakable filled her
+heart. She wandered again, a happy child, in country pastures gathering
+violets and buttercups. She could scent the clover and hear the birds.
+The water rippled over the pebbles and the air was filled with leaf
+music. Now, again a child, she "walked in green pastures and beside the
+still waters." The sun of love was shining down upon her, and its rays
+warmed her, clothed her, fed her. "Surely goodness and mercy shall
+follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the
+Lord forever," she sang softly in an awed, hushed voice, as the music
+grew more divinely sweet, and the realization of a nameless Presence
+filled her. It was the presence of impersonal, omnipresent Truth, ever
+flowing into the heart ready for its reception, and though at first it
+may be but a tiny stream, it grows to a swelling tide, and all the words
+in the universe can not name its sweet influence, or describe its
+wondrous allness.
+
+Oh, Katie darling, what wouldst thou have put away from thy life, if
+thou hadst obstinately refused admittance to this heavenly Guest?... At
+last the music ceased. She bowed her head and gave herself up to the
+inexpressible thoughts that welled into her mind. For some moments she
+was not aware that Grace was in the room, but as she finally arose and
+turned around, she saw her. Their eyes met, and silently was told the
+story of experiences too sacred to utter. A silent understanding and a
+heartfelt sympathy bound them by closer ties than they had ever known
+before. To be at one with Truth is to understand humanity, and
+understanding is a voiceless language.
+
+Sunday afternoon they called on Mr. Hayden and found the fourth letter
+awaiting them.
+
+"I did not send it up because Kate promised you would come over to-day,
+and now let us have a little experience meeting," he said, as he found
+chairs for them, and seated himself, seemingly awaiting a reply.
+
+"First let us read the letter," suggested Grace, who was more interested
+than ever since her yesterday's experience.
+
+"Read it aloud," said Mr. Hayden, settling himself back to enjoy it.
+
+Grace had scarcely begun reading when Jamie came in, screaming that his
+finger was "boke."
+
+"Never mind, Jamie, it will soon be all right. Shall papa treat it?"
+taking the child in his lap.
+
+"Teat it, papa," and he laid his little head on papa's breast with
+perfect confidence that the pain would soon be gone. A few moments of
+silence and he looked up innocently, saying with the brightest smile:
+
+"It's all gone now. Papa telled the good Jamie to tome home," he
+explained to the girls, "and here he is, papa," he added, holding up his
+sweet mouth for a kiss.
+
+"How beautiful is a child's faith," exclaimed Kate, after the little
+fellow had gone out to play again.
+
+"Indeed I have learned more than I can tell you from the children," said
+Mr. Hayden, thoughtfully. "Mabel is old enough to understand a good
+deal, but Fred and Jamie are very quick to apply what they learn. Last
+night Jamie complained of the stomach ache. Neither of the children knew
+that I was near, but I overheard Fred telling his brother that he would
+treat him if he would keep still. Jamie consented and I peeped in a
+moment later, curious to know what they were doing. Fred sat there grave
+as an owl, with his hands over his eyes, and Jamie in a chair opposite,
+his eyes shut tightly and an air of expectancy on his face."
+
+"Now you're all right," said Fred, very positively, after a few minutes.
+They were soon playing and not once did the child complain after that.
+When going to bed, Jamie told me about it, and I asked Fred what he did
+when he treated.
+
+"W'y," he answered, "w'y, I just 'membered what you said to Mabel that
+everybody has two kinds o' thoughts, and one kind _thinks_ you're sick,
+and the other kind _knows_ you're well, so I thinked about Jamie till I
+thinked the _know_ thoughts, and _course_ he got well then."
+
+"It was a lesson to me, and I have tried to emulate their receptiveness
+and childlike trust. I don't know how well I am succeeding, but it is
+pretty hard sometimes to get the problems all worked out."
+
+"We wouldn't have to work them out if we had the faith of a child," said
+Kate, warmly. These little incidents touched her deeply.
+
+"Well, there is nothing better to learn from than living examples, and
+yet we can only take them as guides, they will not do our work for us.
+Every one of us must go through his own experience, and prove his right
+to an inheritance, by claiming it on trust as the child does. Now,
+yesterday," continued Mr. Hayden, leaning back and stroking his chin, "I
+worked hard all the forenoon, and everything seemed to go wrong with
+me,"--Grace glanced at Kate--"I was not willing to live a moment at a
+time, as the child does, with no thought or care as to where its next
+day's supplies are to come from, but I was tired and cross all day. The
+consequence was, in the afternoon my old enemy, the headache, began to
+assert itself. Then I got Marion's letter and that helped me, because it
+threw some light on the cause, but when I heard Fred's explanation of a
+treatment I just applied it. I 'thinked,' till the 'know thoughts
+came,'" Mr. Hayden concluded with a grave smile.
+
+"I believe that is what it means to 'work out our own salvation,'" said
+Grace, "and how beautiful to have the children learn! It will make
+different men and women of them."
+
+"Indeed it will; I have already seen some change in the children. But
+are you not going to read the letter, Miss Grace?" asked Mr. Hayden.
+
+"Yes, I am anxious to read it, but I have learned a great deal without
+it."
+
+She took it up again and read without interruption to the end.
+
+"Well, that _is_ quite an explanation of your experience of yesterday,
+Mr. Hayden," explained Kate smilingly.
+
+"And mine, too," added Grace. "It is comforting to know that there is a
+scientific reason for it though."
+
+"I think my darkness came earlier in the lessons, for yesterday and
+to-day have been very bright to me," replied Kate, soberly; "but," she
+continued, "there is so much about this to admire and so much to prove
+that the system is founded on Christ's teachings, I can not see where
+doubt could enter."
+
+"We might not doubt the principle where we would often doubt ourselves,"
+suggested Mr. Hayden.
+
+"Yes," said Grace, "I believe that doubts will come as long as we
+consider it a personal power."
+
+"Which it is not, of course," interrupted Kate.
+
+"Certainly not, but we must grow into a realization of Truth, we can not
+change our old natures in a day, and it is only natural at first to feel
+that it is a personal power because we are given so much personal
+responsibility."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Mr. Hayden, quietly, leaning back as if
+thinking deeply. "You mean it is hard to forget self, and I agree with
+you. This mind of the flesh claims so much wisdom and power of its own
+that it is hard to attribute everything to a higher power, and let that
+power work through you; but when we can do that, we have the kernel of
+the whole system."
+
+"It is a wonderful thought to me, that we reflect _all_ things
+spiritual, as we divest ourselves of our false beliefs," remarked Grace,
+earnestly.
+
+"In other words, when we know ourselves as we are, and not as we appear,
+we shall recognize that all things we desire are already ours," added
+Mr. Hayden.
+
+"How could it be otherwise? The sun is always shining behind the darkest
+clouds. All I ask is that the ignorance may be removed," replied Grace.
+
+"Well, I want to understand and believe truth, but it seems strange,
+after we have declared our willingness to believe and acknowledge God to
+be all, that we should be tempted. Why couldn't our acknowledgement be
+sufficient?" queried Kate, in perplexity again.
+
+"Why isn't the simple act of joining the church sufficient to make
+Christians? Although some seem to think it all sufficient, it is not. It
+is the daily life of overcoming, and denial of self that constitutes
+true acknowledgement," said Grace, laying her hand upon that of her
+friend.
+
+"Not denial of self in the old way, either," said Mr. Hayden, "but
+denial of the mortal thought, or as Paul would say, the 'carnal mind.'"
+
+"Yes, and in the temptation of Jesus, we read our own temptations,"
+interrupted Grace, "and it is all important that we should deal with
+them as he did. Over and over he met the opposing thought, represented
+by the tempter or opposer--error always opposing truth--and gave it
+either a plain denial or an emphatic command to get out."
+
+"That is very plain and very true," said Kate, with a little sigh, "but
+still I can not see why God should allow us to be tempted after we have
+fought the battle once as Jesus did."
+
+"But he fought it more than once," explained Mr. Hayden, earnestly. "He
+was continually overcoming, and at times found it necessary to withdraw
+into the mountains where he fasted and prayed."
+
+"That is a good thought to carry home," suggested Grace, rising, "for we
+need to follow his example."
+
+"I need it more than anyone else," said Kate, feeling a lack of
+spiritual understanding, and wishing she could get on faster.
+
+"You are doing grandly Miss Kate, just think how you opposed it all at
+first," said Mr. Hayden encouragingly.
+
+"Yes, I know I did," flushing a little, "but even thus far I have seen
+enough, or rather experienced enough to make me anxious to understand
+it, and I only ask so many questions because I am determined to get
+every speck of light I can."
+
+"If everybody would lay aside prejudice as you have, Miss Kate, they
+would have no difficulty in seeing the truth as you do," he replied.
+
+The tears came into her eyes. Neither Mr. Hayden nor Grace knew how much
+it had cost her to 'lay aside prejudice,' but she could thank God that
+she had done so, and indeed believed it was Providence that had led her
+into this study in spite of herself.
+
+"I want the truth," she said simply, and turned away to join Grace, who
+stood at the open door waiting for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     "People imagine that the place which the Bible holds in the world
+     it owes to miracles. It owes it simply to the fact that it came out
+     of a profounder depth of thought than any other book."--_Emerson._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear husband: The first thing I heard when I went into the class to-day
+was Mrs. Dawn telling how she had treated a severe belief of headache
+last evening and how marvelously soon the terrible pain ceased. She was
+quite rejoiced because it was the first time she had tried to
+demonstrate the principles.
+
+"They all have plenty to tell now, and are growing more and more
+interested. Every day somebody has some new experience. Little Mrs.
+Dexter, who has been so long treated by the old method, says she fully
+believes she will be cured, is feeling much better, and has such an
+assurance all the time that she has found the true healing. She has had
+several quite remarkable demonstrations with others.
+
+"The whole line of argument is unfolding so naturally and beautifully
+that it seems like a piece of fine mosaic, with every form and color
+interwoven with the most exquisite exactness. Mrs. Pearl gave us a
+lecture on inspiration and the Bible, which I consider one of the most
+useful and interesting of any she has yet given:
+
+"In studying the very fountain springs of Truth, and basing our ideas
+upon a God who is the unexpressed and inexpressible essence of Truth
+itself, with whom is 'no respect of persons,' and to whom we owe _all_
+knowledge, it becomes us to inquire a little into the manner and means
+of gaining that knowledge.
+
+"That all peoples in all climes and ages have developed similar ideas
+and expressed them in like terms, as philology shows, is an indisputable
+fact, strengthened and corroborated by our broader conception and higher
+understanding of God, the omnipresent Good.
+
+"But how have these ideas come to them? Have they come through what is
+known as inspiration or revelation? As the one fountain of Intelligence
+is open to all alike, this must be the case, because Truth comes only in
+this way. Inspiration means an 'inbreathing,' a breathing in of true
+knowledge, and because the omnipresent Good comes into every
+consciousness prepared to receive it, there is an inbreathing in
+accordance with the readiness to receive. Intelligence is like the air,
+to be breathed by every living being. Thus far, humanity has expanded
+its lungs of consciousness only enough to have inhaled fundamental
+truth, or what is recognized as such, but we are constantly receiving
+more, and in proportion as we receive, do we know what we receive.
+
+"All truth is inspired or revealed, because whatever is true is of the
+great Truth. This must be so, yet many people consider inspiration as
+confined to the authors of the Bible and that with them, inspiration
+ceased. The immortal Job said, 'There is a spirit in man and the
+inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.' The inbreathing
+of the Almighty, All-powerful Truth, giveth understanding. No truer
+words were ever uttered.
+
+"As inspiration is inhaling or breathing in Truth, we can readily
+understand that 'God, Truth, Principle, is no respecter of persons.'
+That it is a 'miraculous influence which qualifies man to receive and
+communicate divine truth,' is in a sense true, for the works of God are
+always 'wonderful,' but there can be no setting aside of divine law, as
+some erroneously suppose, for the performance of these things that seem
+unaccountable to human reason. It is a lack of understanding as to _how_
+Truth works, that has caused a belief in supernatural or miraculous
+ways. Could a fish judge according to appearances, he would regard the
+creatures that walk on land as gifted with supernatural power, because
+it would be utterly beyond his conception to know _how_ they could do
+so.
+
+"Revelation and inspiration are frequently used interchangeably, but
+that which is revealed, is the manifested result of inspiration rather
+than inspiration itself. Whenever we are ready to breathe or absorb
+Truth into our consciousness, we get a revealment--'inspiration giveth
+understanding.' This breathing-in process lifts us above ordinary
+knowledge and gives refreshing glimpses of heavenly Truth, it is like
+breathing in fresh air, after having been in a close suffocating room.
+We say this or that scene, person or object inspires us; we mean that
+some beautiful thought or conception of Truth is revealed to us, through
+or by our seeing these objects, because they hint of something better
+and higher, and the moment we get the higher thought, we are conscious
+of knowing higher Truth. This is revelation.
+
+"Revelation and inspiration are the usual terms for expressing spiritual
+processes but are necessarily inadequate to express accurate spiritual
+meanings. How ideas are born is a question of questions. Whether they
+come from without or within, they must establish the oneness of God and
+man in mind and idea. The only 'without' there can be is that which is
+without the consciousness, the only 'within' is that which is within the
+consciousness. Development, growth, unfoldment, better express spiritual
+consciousness. What is consciousness but a recognition of itself? Then
+would not 'recognition' more fully describe the birth of ideas? As we
+grow able to recognize harmony and love, harmony and love are revealed
+to us.
+
+"The more spiritual our thoughts and desires, the more spiritual our
+revelations. To think and talk of God, to desire knowledge of Him,
+creates a receptivity which sooner or later brings the revealment of
+more truth, and that of the highest quality. But it is not always by
+what we see that we are lifted into this consciousness of new knowledge.
+In various ways is the Truth expressed to us, and whether we know how or
+why it should be thus and so, matters not if we receive the message.
+
+"The wisdom of our Father has provided that none of His children should
+be without a knowledge of Him, without a power to recognize and
+appreciate Truth, and in the way or language best suited to the
+capacity of each to understand, are the revelations made. Sometimes this
+knowledge comes into our consciousness like a direct message from God,
+and so vividly are we impressed, that no other words could express the
+nearness and clearness of it, than the expression 'walking and talking
+with God.' Sometimes wonderful pictures appear before our mind's eye,
+and reading their symbolic meaning, we catch hints of higher wisdom that
+would otherwise have been hidden.
+
+"By persistently ignoring the spiritual and cultivating the intellectual
+faculties, mankind has well nigh lost the highest means of inspiration,
+but now that we again, like the prophets and apostles of old, seek for
+signs of the Infinite, we are gradually recovering the key by which they
+unlocked its mysteries.
+
+"As to the infallibility of what is thus revealed, we must remember that
+while truth is always infallible, there is a possibility of its
+recognition or conception being tinged to a greater or less degree, with
+our erroneous judgements, and as the light, pure in itself, is colored
+by the glass through which it passes, so is the divinest truth colored
+with the quality of mind through which it comes to the world. As Heber
+Newton says, 'Inspiration can not do away with the limitations of the
+human individuality.' Thus, in our discrimination of so-called inspired
+literature, language or thoughts, we must learn that whatever is
+opposite God, the universal idea of goodness, is the chaff that must be
+blown away. In other words it is the assumption of mortal thought
+instead of absolute knowledge of divine mind.
+
+"It would be an utter impossibility to describe infinite truth in finite
+language. Words are inadequate to express the grandeur of sacred
+revelation.
+
+"With this view of inspiration, we can readily see how far short we have
+come in our conceptions of the Bible, and now that we are to use and
+understand this wonderful book as never before, it is well that we
+consider it a little more closely.
+
+"There are three general views held in regard to the Bible as an
+inspired book. 1. That it is verbally inspired; _i. e._, that every word
+is direct from God. 2. That it is partially inspired; and, 3. That it is
+no more inspired than any other good book. The first two of these views
+have been and are accompanied with the idea that everything going under
+the name of inspiration, is infallible, hence the idea that every
+statement made throughout the entire book is absolute truth.
+
+"The Bible itself makes no claim to infallibility, though there are
+frequent references to inspiration and the influence of the Holy Ghost
+in moving men to speak, but the principal text on which is based this
+claim of infallibility is II. Tim. iii: 16. At the time this was
+written, there was only the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, that
+could be referred to as Scripture, so when we read Paul's assertion
+that, 'all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
+for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
+righteousness,' if we take it to be infallible, we have a reasonable
+ground for regarding the Old Testament and the Apocrypha as infallible.
+But a more literal rendering of the Greek text would be, 'all scripture
+divinely inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, for
+correction,' etc., and by simply changing the position of the little
+word _is_, we have a vastly different sentence.
+
+"Regarding the interpretation of scripture, Peter says: 'All prophecy of
+scripture is not of its own solution.' The literal Greek is, 'all
+prophecy of a writing, of its own loosing not it is,' meaning, of
+course, that sacred writings can not always be interpreted literally,
+but must be understood according to their spiritual meaning. Great
+writings are not confined to any private or local meaning, but refer
+more especially to great principles, to universal truth.
+
+"If we consider the origin of the Bible, we shall learn what
+comparatively few of us know, viz., how the Bible grew into a book. In a
+necessarily brief outline it is impossible to give anything but a
+bird's-eye view of this very interesting and important subject.
+
+"As we look back to earlier times, through the various channels, we find
+that much of what is considered history is merely legendary; that long
+before the art of writing was known, these legends and myths were handed
+down from generation to generation, and from age to age. Familiar as we
+are with human nature, we may well imagine the additions and
+subtractions and divergencies introduced by each succeeding narrator,
+copyist or editor in every age. This is a very important feature to be
+considered in interpreting ancient scriptures, but there are also
+others. History reveals the fact that the books of the Old Testament
+were not written nor arranged in the order in which they now appear in
+the Bible. For instance, while it has been generally considered that the
+first five books were written by Moses fifteen hundred years before
+Christ, the best authorities have found at least a portion of them to
+have been written, or compiled rather, in their present form 600 to 700
+B. C.
+
+"Whether Moses or some one else wrote them detracts not the least from
+the value of the truth they contain, for whatever is true, can not lose
+its value or be effected by the authorship. This is only one of the many
+facts that might be produced to show that the Old Testament came in the
+most natural way, and not at all through a miracle or by miraculous
+interposition.
+
+"Referring again to the best records we have, we find the books of the
+New Testament were written from 50 to 175 A. D., thus showing the
+liability to mistakes, and the reason for many of the discrepencies in
+the New Testament. That the time between the writing of the oldest and
+the latest parts of the Bible covered a period of more than a thousand
+years, should have much significance in our judgment of both the writers
+and their writings.
+
+"Dr. Heber Newton says: 'We are not to read the Biblical writers as
+though they were all cotemporaries. They are separated by vast tracts of
+time. The later writers stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors
+and see farther and clearer. We are not to view the institutions or
+doctrines of the Bible as though no matter in what period of development
+of the Hebrew Nation, or of the Christian Church they were found, they
+were equally authoritative to us.'
+
+"Though the prophets and apostles were inspired, we must remember that
+they necessarily had to use the language and methods of speech prevalent
+in their time in giving their divinest revelations to the people. The
+language was rich with Oriental imagery, strong figures of speech, and
+allusions to manners and customs of other nations. Unless we understand
+something of the literature and customs, the religious ceremonies and
+laws alluded to, we are very much in the dark as to the original
+meaning.
+
+"For instance, unless we know the custom that prevailed in ancient times
+of putting the sins of the people, figuratively speaking, into a white
+cloth, dipping the cloth into blood, tying it to the horns of the
+scapegoat, and turning the animal loose in the wilderness till the sun,
+air and rain had bleached it white, we can not appreciate the
+expression, 'though thy sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be washed
+white as snow.' Until we realize that the ideas and language as well as
+the customs and rites of barbarous and ignorant heathendom influence
+every page of the Bible, we shall not know how much allowance to make
+for the revelations of the Divine, and the suppositions and possible
+mistakes of the human. Until we know that the Bible has gone through
+many hands since its words were first spoken or written, we can not
+realize the possible loss of its most spiritual meanings.
+
+"Moses, Isaiah, David, John, Paul had the grandest revelations possible
+to man, experiences not 'lawful to utter,' not possible to clothe in
+words. The unspeakable can not be put into speech. To attempt it is to
+color it with finite meanings. To describe the Infinite is but to limit
+or confine God.
+
+"When we consider that no very ancient writings have reached us without
+the marks of many pens; when we consider the impossibility of exact
+translation, the difficulty of perfect copying all the years before the
+art of printing, the method of canonizing the books and formulating
+creeds, we must know that something besides God's message has come down
+to us. And yet a message is there notwithstanding.
+
+"Yes, the authors of the Bible were inspired. Whatever of Truth they
+revealed is infallible, but as men with finite conceptions and
+abilities, they could not comprehend nor reveal _all_ of God.
+
+"'God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' and talks to man face
+to face to-day even as with the immortal Moses.
+
+"'I know that the Bible is inspired, because it finds me at greater
+depths of my being than any other book,' said Coleridge.
+
+"All candid students of sacred Scriptures agree that there is a
+spiritual meaning back of the literal. The question with us is, how can
+we get at this spiritual or esoteric interpretation.
+
+"If you will let the spirit of Truth guide you, it will bless you with
+keener discernment, and clearer understanding, than has been possible
+for you heretofore. It is when you look for the spirit of religion that
+you find it and understand it, and the fact that so much has been said
+against our Bible as a book, does not and can not detract a particle
+from its value.
+
+"'There is a light that lighteth every man!' Every one of God's children
+has the power to distinguish truth from error, and only needs to assert
+that divine privilege of knowing and acknowledging truth in order to to
+find it.
+
+"Humanity is so under the yoke of traditional opinions that it has not
+dared think for itself, but the time has come when 'ye shall of
+yourselves know what is truth,' when each must prove his individual
+liberty by claiming it. Is not the wisdom to know and understand God's
+revelations given to every one who asks, or rather appreciates what he
+already has?
+
+"There is no reason for depending upon any but the wisdom in ourselves,
+for searching the meanings of any Scripture. Whatever is true, we shall
+understand and hold as infallible. That we have a rich storehouse of
+precious gems, even the most adverse thinkers admit, and above all else
+we should search for them, prize them, and use them. Study the Bible for
+the sake of its wonderful and sacred truth, catch the inspiration of its
+writers, and you will soon discriminate the inspired from the
+uninspired. With the statements of the true is necessarily more or less
+error; the Truth we want, the falsity we leave behind. Whatever is good
+and pure and ennobling is of God; whatever is evil, erroneous,
+degrading, is from man's misconception of Him.
+
+"Goethe, who highly valued the Bible, said: 'With reference to things in
+the Bible, the question whether they are genuine or spurious is odd
+enough. What is genuine but that which is truly excellent, which stands
+in harmony with the purest nature and reason, and which even now
+ministers to our higher development? What is spurious but the absurd and
+the hollow which brings no fruit.'
+
+"If you do not understand, wait. Do not judge hastily or allow yourself
+to be biased by the opinions of others. What may seem hard, unreasonable
+dogma, may later prove but a veil over the sweetest, spiritual truth.
+Reverence to read, patience to learn, wisdom to understand--all these we
+want, and then, more brightly than before shall shine the sacred
+diamonds that stud inspired pages.
+
+"We refer again to what Dr. Newton says in his grand essay on the Right
+Critical use of the Bible: 'Successive generations of men, struggling
+with sin, striving for purity, searching after God, have exhaled their
+spirits into the essence of religion, which is treasured in this costly
+vase.
+
+"'The moral forces of centuries devoted to righteousness are stored in
+this exhaustless reservoir of ethical energy. At such cost, my brothers,
+has Humanity issued this sacred book. From such patience of preparation
+has Providence laid this priceless gift before you. In such labor of
+articulation--spelling out the syllables of the message from on high,
+through multitudinous lives of men dutifully and devoutly walking with
+their God, does the Spirit speak to you, O, soul of man. Say thou:
+'Speak, Lord; thy servant heareth!'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Thank God, Marion has at last found the key to the Bible," murmured Mr.
+Hayden, as he finished the letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  "Not in Jerusalem alone,
+    God hears and answers prayer,
+  Nor on Samaria's mountain lone,
+    Dispenses blessings there.
+  But in the secrecy of thought,
+    Our silent souls may pray;
+  Or round the household altar brought,
+    Begin and close the day."
+
+  --_James Montgomery._
+
+
+Grace was busily engaged with "Hypatia." She felt for the first time she
+could bring out the peace and reposeful strength of character Kate had
+thought so sadly lacking, and one afternoon, a few days after the
+memorable walk, she sat down to her work with a pleasurable anticipation
+of bringing out her ideal. As she put the touches here and there that
+changed the expression, now adding to this feature, now taking from
+that, she was thinking of the changes needed in herself, and wondering
+how or by what process they would be wrought by the invisible Artist.
+
+She was mixing some paint on her palette, when a rap was heard at the
+door. Before she had time to say or do anything, in walked Mrs. Dyke
+with a timid little woman who came in like a martyr, but one resolved to
+die at her post if necessary. Grace was too astonished to speak for an
+instant, then rising, she put down her palette, wiped her hands and went
+forward with an invitation to the ladies to be seated.
+
+"Is this Miss Turner?" began Mrs. Dyke, with a critical glance about the
+apartment, and then at Grace.
+
+"No, madam, Miss Turner is not in. She generally returns about five, but
+to-day--"
+
+"Very well, we can come again, for it is very important business. Are
+you the young woman who lives with her?" asked Mrs. Dyke, as she seated
+herself with deliberate dignity. "This is Mrs. Linberger, and we have
+called as the church committee to look after Miss Turner's soul," she
+continued, waving her hand majestically toward her companion-in-arms.
+
+"Indeed," gasped Grace, bowing slightly toward Mrs. Linberger, and
+coughing a little as she put her handkerchief to her mouth to hide a
+smile.
+
+"She belongs to our church, and we have heard she is being led astray by
+this blasphemous kind of healing," pursued Mrs. Dyke, looking severely
+at Grace from under her thick grey veil which hung like a lowering cloud
+just above her eyes. "Mr. Narrow requested me and Mrs. Linberger to call
+and examine into the matter. I hope _you_ don't encourage such
+wickedness, young woman?"
+
+"Certainly I am at enmity with any kind of wickedness, but I am not
+aware of any particular wickedness in Christian Healing," replied Grace,
+bracing herself for the storm she saw brewing.
+
+"What! you don't see anything wrong in such awful heresy!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Dyke, again pushing her veil up, and looking with horrified eyes,
+first at Grace, then at Mrs. Linberger. "Perhaps you don't understand
+about it," she added, softening a little as she settled back in her
+chair.
+
+"I must confess I know but very little about it, but what I do know only
+increases my desire to know more," said Grace, flushing, as she sat down
+in the nearest chair.
+
+"Let me warn you not to read or hear another word about it then, for it
+will simply be the means of worse than death to you," continued Mrs.
+Dyke, raising her finger solemnly.
+
+"It destroys the most important doctrines in the Bible, even taking away
+the belief in the devil and hell," added Mrs. Linberger, speaking for
+the first time.
+
+"Yes; they even deny there ever was a devil or that there ever will be
+any future punishment. Just think of it," reiterated Mrs. Dyke. "I guess
+they will see, some time!" she added with a sort of steely satisfaction.
+
+"Do you really believe they lay aside all future punishment?" asked
+Grace, willing to waive the application to herself, and anxious to hear
+Mrs. Dyke's views.
+
+"Yes, they say there is no evil and no devil, so of course there is no
+need for punishment."
+
+"But do they not regard the devil as Jesus did, after all?" asked Grace,
+again pursuing her advantage.
+
+"U-m, well, Jesus recognized him and talked to him, telling him to get
+out, and he often referred to the everlasting punishment," added Mrs.
+Dyke again, with a solemn face.
+
+"But, he did not mean a literal fire, did he, when He spoke of
+everlasting punishment?"
+
+Mrs. Dyke was the catechized instead of the catechizer, and it was an
+unaccustomed _role_, but she bore it like a soldier.
+
+"Of course he did; several places in Matthew he described the lot of the
+wicked, and referred to the danger of hell-fire. Haven't you studied the
+Bible, Miss Hall?" suddenly turning to look straight at Grace with some
+severity.
+
+"I am very much interested in it, Mrs. Dyke, but when I read that 'God's
+mercy endureth forever,' and that 'Jesus came to destroy the works of
+the devil,' I am inclined to think there must be some mistake about the
+dreadful wrath that is to last forever," calmly replied Grace.
+
+"And you don't believe in eternal punishment?" cried Mrs. Dyke, in a
+shrill voice of astonishment.
+
+"Don't believe in eternal punishment?" echoed Mrs. Linberger.
+
+"I did not say that. I _do_ think there is punishment so long as there
+is sin, but when we believe Christ has destroyed or can destroy sin,
+sickness, sorrow or death, which are the devil's works, they _will be_
+destroyed. It _must_ be so if we trust the words of the gospel."
+
+"Well, I am thankful to find Miss Turner in such Christian company at
+any rate," said Mrs. Dyke, as she adjusted her veil, preparatory to her
+departure.
+
+"Yes, indeed; it is a pleasure to see such an earnest young Christian,"
+added Mrs. Linberger, with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"But, ladies," began Grace, "I am not such a----"
+
+"We shall be pleased to have you accompany Miss Turner to our meetings
+some time, Miss Hall," interrupted Mrs. Dyke, not heeding what Grace was
+saying. "Here is a card announcing the regular weekly services, and here
+are some tracts for you to read." She dealt out a liberal supply, which
+Grace took as she again started to explain, but a sudden haste had
+seized her visitors, and they left, saying they would try and call some
+other time, when Miss Turner was at home.
+
+As Grace turned to go back to her painting, she caught a glance of her
+reflection in the glass. After looking at it a moment with a quizzical
+expression, she suddenly burst into a merry laugh, saying: "I did not
+know you had turned Bible teacher. Well, well, it _was_ funny, but I
+could not help it, that she went away with the wrong impression of me,
+for she would not listen to my explanation."
+
+When Kate came home she brought another letter from Mrs. Hayden, but
+before it was read Grace told her all about the call by the "church
+committee." Kate looked a little grave at first, but finally
+straightening up as she took off her gloves and hat, she said:
+
+"Well, Grace, it is not very pleasant to be waited upon in this fashion,
+but I suppose if they take me in hand I can't help myself, and so I will
+be resigned to fate." She smiled and spoke cheerily, but a little tremor
+of the old fear touched her, notwithstanding.
+
+"Let us read the letter now," suggested Grace, thinking that would be
+the best thing to revive Kate's dampened courage.
+
+"Yes, I am anxious to read it; Mr. Hayden told me it is on the Bible,
+and very helpful."
+
+"I am so glad!" she exclaimed, when it was finished. "Now I can
+interpret more freely myself, as I plainly see we must use our judgment
+about the Bible, as well as anything else. But what does it mean about
+the creeds?" she added suddenly, appealing to Grace with the old anxious
+look in her eyes.
+
+"It means," said Grace, "that the ordinary orthodox interpretation of
+doctrinal points was voted upon by bishops, presbyters and laity
+generally, and because the majority of votes indicated a preference for
+a certain interpretation, it was adopted and became the established
+creed, and thus we have what is called the Apostles' Creed, which is the
+basis of all orthodox churches throughout Christendom. And so with all
+creeds; they are all established by majority vote."
+
+"I should never have known anything about this," she continued, "if I
+had not been searching so eagerly for some religion that would satisfy,
+and in my rambles I came across this information."
+
+"Are you sure it is reliable?" was Kate's almost feverish question. It
+seemed that she must hold on to something or the last straw that bound
+her to the teachings of childhood, would break.
+
+"It is a matter of history, and you see Mrs. Hayden has touched upon it,
+though very lightly. But it is the grandest historical truth I ever
+read, for it gives personal liberty. I shall never forget how happy I
+was to learn that the creeds were simply man-made or man-expressed
+opinions, for in that case, I too, had liberty to read and think for
+myself, just as well as those who voted upon these various
+interpretations."
+
+Grace was handsome when filled with enthusiasm, and as Kate looked at
+her at this moment she thought her face perfectly angelic, but one more
+question she must ask of this noble friend, who knew just what she
+needed to know and could tell it when she needed it most. "Do you think
+Christian Healing does away with the creeds of the church?"
+
+"No, not necessarily. So far as I can see, it merely seeks truth, and
+whatever of truth is found anywhere is retained. It is only the husks
+that are thrown away. Indeed I can see more in the church than I ever
+could before I knew anything of Christian Healing," replied Grace,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, how is that?" asked Kate in surprise.
+
+"The fundamental oneness in their search after God. What is back of the
+creed but a desire to reverence Deity? That was the origin, no matter
+into what it has degenerated now, and we must judge according to the
+spirit, not the letter. Oh, when will the world worship in the unity of
+the spirit?" sighed Grace, longing for the time when questionings and
+controversies would be at an end.
+
+"Here is Mrs. Dyke, for instance," she resumed, presently, "what is she
+striving for but to live the true religion as she understands it? I can
+respect any honest people who live up to their belief, and the Christian
+who moans and sighs and looks doleful because he thinks it is his duty
+to do so, is much higher in my estimation than the one who believes it
+to be right, but fails to live accordingly."
+
+"The spirit of religion washes away all differences in the letter,"
+concluded Kate, with a lighter heart than she had when they began their
+conversation.
+
+The vague terror that had occasionally thrust itself upon her during
+these last few weeks had loosened its hold upon her, and she realized,
+as never before, that fear, more than anything else, had kept her back;
+fear of deviating from the traditional and accepted opinions. The Bible
+lesson was especially valuable, because it touched these very points,
+and after this little conversation with Grace on the subject she was
+like another person.
+
+When Mrs. Dyke called a few evenings later, after a similar interview to
+the one with Grace, she left the battlefield a wiser soldier than when
+she entered it, for Kate had so beautifully proven her religious
+earnestness, and more than all had shown such a Christ-like spirit, that
+the "sword was beaten into a plowshare and the spear into a pruning
+hook."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  "More things are wrought by prayer
+  Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
+  Rise like a fountain for me night and day,
+  For what are men better than sheep or goats
+  That nourish a blind life within the brain,
+  If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
+  Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
+  For so the whole round world is every way
+  Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
+
+  --_Tennyson._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September, ----.
+
+"Dear Husband:
+
+"Your letter was so full of interest. How glad, oh how rejoiced I am
+that we are privileged to know this beautiful truth. Don't you ever feel
+like stopping in the midst of your work and giving thanks that you were
+born in this age? As my eyes open more and more to God's goodness and
+love and power, I am so full of thanks, there is no room for petitions;
+indeed, I should feel as though I were begging, to ask God for what He
+has already given me, and of course He gives every child alike, being
+'no respecter of persons.' Just think of it: 'Eye hath not seen nor ear
+heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the
+things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' Negative
+thought, carnal mind _can not_ know these things, but as we are
+cleansed and purified, the new baptism 'creates in us a new heart,' the
+loving child's heart turned to its father, and love shall teach us more
+and more to read the signs of love.
+
+"Oh, divine mystery of childhood, of parenthood, that brings us into
+closer and sweeter knowledge of our Father whose love is infinite. Out
+of the deep silence around us, filled as it is with the all-abiding
+presence of God, may we ask for a manifestation of whatever gift we
+choose to have. These thoughts filled my mind as I went to class this
+afternoon, and what was my surprise and pleasure to find the lesson to
+be on the subject of prayer.
+
+"There is no theme or word so constantly in the mind and on the lips of
+the Christ follower as prayer. The oft-repeated injunction of Jesus was,
+'watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.' 'Pray without ceasing.'
+As we study more closely into the life of the Master, we find him on all
+occasions communing with the Father in prayer. Thus we find that this is
+the most sacred and necessary of all branches of our daily work.
+
+"Prayer is the natural turning of the better self to God, in the
+attitude of thankfulness, praise, supplication or voiceless desire. 'It
+must be the spontaneous and almost irrepressible outpouring of the
+thoughts and feelings of the soul into the listening ear of a present
+God,' said an earnest thinker.
+
+"To what wonderful depths and heights our prayers lead us when they are
+thus spontaneous and irrepressible! How well David has expressed the
+gratitude, the holy trust and majestic praise common to every devout
+child of God. 'The Lord is my shepherd,' is blessed affirmation of
+supreme trust, the naming of God's glorious gifts, the gratitude for
+peace, life, love, protection, friendship, all the heavenly blessings of
+God's presence in God's house. In this wonderful psalm we find, no
+doubt, no thought of waiting for future blessings, but a grand
+outpouring of thankfulness for the present. There are no petitions, no
+supplications, no reserves of praise, but simply the glad recognition
+and appreciation of the omnipresence and omnipotence of Good.
+
+"It was the same feeling, tempered with a deeper solemnity, that
+prompted Jesus to say 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,' as
+he was about to perform the mighty miracle of raising Lazarus.
+
+"Thanks signify the accomplishment of the desire. His request of the
+Father was granted before he had even preferred it, for he knew the law
+and realized it--that God is life and knows not death--but the form of
+words was observed because that makes the law a visible fact.
+
+"Father is the human naming for this divine Love that ever waits for the
+spoken word in order to be revealed. To Jesus it was the dearest and
+best name of all by which to address or speak to the one great Helper,
+Guide, Friend. 'Father, I thank thee,' was often on his lips, and it was
+to the 'Father who seeth in secret' that he bade his disciples pray.
+
+"In the secret consciousness of oneness with the Father there may be no
+reservations, no concealments, no hypocritical bigotry, no thought of
+self, only a glad going out with all our heart and soul to the Father, a
+trustful acknowledgment of the Good. This is the attitude of true
+prayer.
+
+"The devout soul is always praying, because it _consciously_ lives with
+God. There are times of praise, adoration, extolment, when thankfulness
+is more exuberant, runs over into bursting joy, and times when longing
+desire carries us into the very bosom of God. We long for comfort, for
+love, for peace, with an unutterable agony of longing, and are met with
+an unutterable joy of satisfaction, if we but turn to Him and
+acknowledge, but an indispensable preliminary to prayer is fasting. The
+power of accomplishment in fasting and prayer equals a decree.
+
+"The conditions upon which hinge our use of the divine power are,
+first,'putting away iniquity'--fasting; second, turning to God--prayer.
+Then comes the power to decree; then we see the truth of Jesus' promise:
+'All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have
+received them, and ye shall have them.' Then we look into the face of
+the Almighty and reflect the same power, are able to do a like work,
+make visible the things of His creation by speaking the word of
+acknowledgment, that they are already established.
+
+"It was this kind of prayer that enabled the disciples to heal the sick,
+cast out demons and do all the wonderful works. Failure was simply a
+sign of unfaithfulness in prayer. 'Oh, ye of little faith!' was the
+Master's explanatory exclamation.
+
+"Here was a most essential requisite--faith in the Father, who alone is
+the power; faith and trust in the invisible All. Why do we pray so much
+with no answer to even our most devout aspirations? Because, like the
+disciples, we have too little faith.
+
+"The heart-weary mother has prayed for her son, and he still goes the
+'broad way that leadeth to destruction,' as she thinks; but for her
+heart-weariness, which is but lack of faith, he might have been turned
+into 'paths of righteousness.' With her mind continually burdened with
+fear, dire forebodings and anxious doubts, she has asked, begged,
+beseeched the mighty Ruler of destinies to soften the heart of her
+wayward boy. Thankfulness that God has given to her child the common
+inheritance to all possible blessings, a pure spiritual nature, the
+reflection of the All-Good, has never entered her thought to express.
+Her mind is divided between a conception of good and a conception of its
+opposite--evil. The result is years of hopeless praying, years of
+hopeless waiting. 'A house divided against itself can not stand.'
+
+"'Pray, believing that ye have received.' Thus, 'I thank Thee, Father,
+for the perfect reflection of Thyself in my son. He is whole because he
+lives in and of Thy wholeness. I thank Thee that Thou hast already done
+more than I could ask. 'It is finished.' Into Thy hands I commend my
+all.'
+
+"In this is the simple recognition of the All-Father, His love and His
+omnipotence. And after this, what? Trust--unwavering, childlike trust.
+So the burden is truly 'cast upon the Lord,' evil is overcome, swallowed
+up in the Good.
+
+"With such mighty faith, what a cleansing there would be! what a
+sincere, glad rejoicing that the true relation between God and man were
+proven, for faith is the bond between the invisible and the visible, a
+'basis of things hoped for, a conviction of things unseen.'
+
+"With what devoutness, then, would we name the needs and aspirations?
+With what certainty would we assert that we have 'already received?' Not
+far off in the intangible somewhere, but here, there, everywhere may we
+find the Good, and 'he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
+High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.'
+
+"To dwell in the secret place, in the pure and righteous thought, is to
+be always under the protection of the Most High. To be able to say, 'He
+is my refuge and my fortress,' is the grand privilege given to the heir
+of the King, the heir that has come to the full knowledge of his
+inheritance and thankfully uses it.
+
+"'The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,' wrote
+the wise and righteous James. There is an infinite promise of the
+fulfillment of righteousness in these words. They contain the key to all
+accomplishment or all failure. The righteous man is one who 'walketh
+righteously, speaketh uprightly, stoppeth his ears from hearing of
+blood, shutteth his eyes from seeing evil' (prayer and fasting). The
+righteous man decrees magnificently and trusts infinitely. He does not
+approach God like a cringing servant, licking the dust at his master's
+feet, but like a Prince who enters his Father's presence with the simple
+statement of his wants, and knowing his Father's will takes the
+glorious gift with thanksgiving and praise.
+
+"Is it health he would have manifested for himself or his neighbor? He
+confidently acknowledges the health, even though he can not see it, the
+health with which all humanity is endowed, if it would claim its
+endowment. Is it peace, power, strength he desires, he again goes to the
+royal treasury. With the right word he climbs the stair of heaven; with
+the right faith he enters his Father's house, where all things abound.
+
+"The righteous man is of one mind, the divine Mind that works through
+him. Were all the praying world of one mind, think you a Lincoln would
+have been martyred, a Garfield sacrificed, or tender little children
+lost to our sight?
+
+"God is the same forever. There is no inharmony to come from Harmony. Be
+of one mind; let the divine Mind work through you; acknowledge only the
+divine creation, and then all beliefs in the opposite of God will be
+destroyed. The immaculate Christ (Truth) destroys the works of the evil
+(error) to-day, even as in the far away centuries of the past, 'if so be
+you let the Mind that was in Christ Jesus be in you.'
+
+"The practical naming of daily prayer is denial and affirmation, denying
+evil or undesirable conditions, and acknowledging the Good or absolute.
+
+"'Being is the vast affirmative excluding negation, self-balanced and
+swallowing up all relations, parts and times within itself. Nature,
+truth, virtue, are the influx from thence,' said Emerson, noting the
+absoluteness of that which is. To become one with this affirmative
+Allness, is to manifest the affirmative condition of Being.
+
+"Paul says in Titus: 'The grace of God hath appeared to all men,
+teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live
+soberly, righteously and godly in this present world;' and in the next
+chapter, referring to the same subject: 'This is a faithful saying, and
+these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which hath
+believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.'
+
+"There is no ceasing of this most necessary process. It is only by
+denying and affirming constantly that we fast and pray, thus fitting
+ourselves for the cleansing ministry. It is to 'be diligent in season
+and out of season,' if we would gain the true reflection from
+Omnipotence.
+
+  What the sun is to the flower,
+  Thou to us art every hour;
+  Like the dew on lily's breast
+  Fall all blessings from the Best.
+  Not alone in day would we
+  Turn our faces, Lord, to Thee,
+  But through lowering clouds of night
+  Would reflect Thy radiant light;
+  Thanking Thee for all Thy care,
+  May our lives be filled with prayer.
+
+"What an outpouring there was in the silence after this. Such a flood of
+reverence and trustfulness filled my heart, and instantly it flashed
+upon me that God requires no outward forms or ceremonies of His
+children, except they be the spontaneous and involuntary expression of
+an overflowing heart.
+
+"Kneeling in prayer was first prompted by reverence and not the servile
+form into which it has too much degenerated. A form is only a sign at
+best. If there is nothing to prompt the sign, what a mockery it is!
+Truly, 'the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.'
+
+"Exactly how these thoughts came to me I can not tell, but after the
+silence I knew by a great and sudden wave of understanding, things that
+I had never thought of before, and to attempt to tell them would be like
+trying to catch the sunshine. The hint I have tried to give seems very
+far from the reality of my experience--but what are words compared to
+thoughts, anyway!... My heart is too full. I know now what
+'inexpressible' means.
+
+  "Good bye, with love to all.
+
+  "MARION.
+
+"P. S. I had just finished my letter when Mrs. Dawn and Miss Singleton
+came in. They too, had something wonderful in the silence. It seems too
+sacred to tell, but to you three who are so earnestly seeking the way of
+Truth, I can say what might seem sacrilege to the thoughtless world.
+Miss Singleton had realized in those few moments the inexpressible
+meaning of the Lord's prayer. 'Why,' she said, 'why, if we could realize
+what it means, there would be no more sickness, sin or death. It seemed
+to me the very heavens opened, and I looked upon a broad white shining
+light like a path, only it was broadened and broadened as I looked, till
+it became wide enough to cover the whole earth. This is to be wherever
+the kingdom has come upon earth. Wherever the thoughts are heavenly and
+pure there the Father is, there heaven, wholeness, health are, and I
+could realize that the light is here, but ignorance keeps it veiled, so
+that verily the 'light shineth in darkness but the darkness
+comprehendeth it not.' Talk of sickness, trouble, sorrow, why, they are
+nothing! The _light_ is here, the kingdom of heaven _has_ come, and been
+here all the time. Jesus knew it, but he had to use language they could
+understand. He knew if they prayed faithfully in that spirit, bye and
+bye the spiritual meanings would flash upon them. Oh, how much, how much
+it means! I can never lose this, for it means unutterable things, and I
+_know_ there is no reality in sickness for I am _well_!'
+
+"Miss Singleton is, or has been troubled for years with heart disease
+and a slight curvature of the spine.
+
+"It was not very light in the room, and I had not noticed her figure
+particularly, but as she spoke, her face fairly shone with a heavenly
+light (I can think of nothing else to describe it), and she was straight
+as any one! She declared over and over that she was well, but more than
+all else she appreciated the spiritual uplifting and knowledge that had
+come.
+
+"Mrs. Dawn had no special revelation to-day, but she seems to be
+unfolding most beautifully. We talked a long time, and then sat in the
+silence. They have just gone. How I wish I could see you, but it is late
+and I must again close. Give my love to Grace and Kate. I am so glad
+Kate is getting into the light. I felt she would be all right after she
+begun. Of course, Kate, you will read this, but you will not care, I am
+sure.
+
+  "M. H."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "Not till the soul acts with all its strength, strains its every
+     faculty, does prayer begin."--_Frances Power Cobbe._
+
+
+"I have always thought a great deal on the subject of prayer," said Mr.
+Hayden, drawing his chair up closer and bending over to look at his
+listeners, Grace and Kate, who had called to get the letter which had
+just been read, "and it appears to me," he continued, "that subject has
+been misunderstood."
+
+"Well?" interrogated Grace.
+
+"Well, we have always been taught to pray to a God who could be informed
+of our wants and needs, and be induced to change His mind about the
+method of dealing with them, or be softened in His judgments concerning
+His children. Now if God is all-wise and all-powerful, why need we so
+carefully instruct Him? If He is all Love why need we ask Him with
+piteous tears to bless our sick and afflicted? If He is everywhere
+present, and no respecter of persons, why need we ask Him to do for one
+more than for another? As God is omniscient, is He not all the knowledge
+there is?"
+
+"The great mistake has been to regard Deity as Person, instead of
+Principle," said Grace, as he paused a moment.
+
+"As God is changeless and eternal, the essence of Love and Life," he
+went on, not heeding the interruption, "how can it be otherwise than
+that we have an influx of this divine Life into ourselves as we
+acknowledge its eternal and omnipresent existence, realizing the truth
+of what we say?"
+
+"There the trouble has been," said Kate, taking up his thought, "that we
+have not realized the divine Presence which we call Truth, because we
+have not acknowledged it."
+
+"That is exactly the reason, and it needs a constant acknowledgment of
+the Good to keep us from admitting false beliefs that beset us because
+of an acknowledgment of the opposite of the Good."
+
+"What then is your idea of the true method of prayer?" asked Kate, much
+interested.
+
+"More of thanksgiving, as Mrs. Pearl teaches. I like her comparison to
+the servant and prince. We can not dwell too much on the thought that
+God is always giving us blessings. They are here, have been from the
+beginning of all knowledge, and our part is to take them. I often think
+of that comparison between the earthly and the heavenly Father, given by
+Jesus, when he said: 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
+gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
+heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?' Here is Mabel, for
+instance. Passionately fond of flowers as she is, suppose some day I
+should bring her a rare bouquet from the florist's, and with a smile
+hold them out to her, saying: 'Here Mabel, are some roses for you!' How
+would I feel if she came with the most pathetic expression of longing
+and misery in her face, and dropping down on her knees, should beg me
+to give her one flower? But instead, like a true child that knows the
+father love, she would fly to take the beautiful gift and say, 'Oh,
+thank you, papa!' as she gives me a rapturous kiss, then runs for a vase
+to hold her treasures."
+
+"Indeed, that is like the true child we all should become, and give
+thanks for the beautiful gifts of God," said Kate, softly, as if to
+herself.
+
+"What do you think of the Lord's prayer as it was revealed to the lady?"
+asked Grace, to whom this part of the letter seemed a little hard to
+understand.
+
+"I think her revelation far exceeds mine, but I have enough to know that
+it is as she says: 'We must finally get the inner meaning, but I would
+uncover the spiritual ideas by clothing them in more spiritual
+language.'
+
+"It would be a great help if you would interpret it for us," said Kate,
+moving her chair closer in her eagerness to hear.
+
+"Wait a moment," said Mr. Hayden, as he went for the Bible. "I don't
+know very well how to word it, but the thought came to me this morning,
+and became much plainer after I had read the letter."
+
+He read the Lord's Prayer, then gave his conception of the spiritual
+meaning.
+
+"All-pervading Father-Mother Spirit, which art in all harmony, revered
+and holy is Thy name. Thy peace and love and righteousness is conceived
+and realized amid earthly environments as it is in the highest state of
+harmony.
+
+"Give to us each day the hidden manna, the living word that sustains us,
+and give us the truth for error as we in our divine likeness to Thee,
+give truth for error to those who err against us.
+
+"Leave or let us not in temptation, but preserve us from all thoughts
+that would dishonor Thee, for Thine _is_ the kingdom and power and glory
+forever."
+
+"That is wonderful. Oh, how beautiful it all is," exclaimed Kate with
+much feeling.
+
+"Isn't it?" added Grace, "and quite in accord with the passage quoted by
+Mrs. Hayden,'what things soever ye desire, that--'"
+
+"Same principle, recognizing the omnipresence of all things good, and
+acknowledging the gift as already given," interrupted Mr. Hayden,
+shutting his book and rising to put it away.
+
+"How would you construe the passage where it says, 'with prayer and
+supplication let your requests be made known to God?'" asked Kate.
+
+"Oh, but you have not quoted it all: 'With prayer and supplication, with
+thanksgiving let your requests be made known,'" replied Mr. Hayden,
+smiling. "It means, continue to ask, and expect to receive and give
+thanks, not only by word, but by proper use of what you already have.
+'If ye continue in my word,' was the condition, so it must be that we
+continue to ask and give thanks, even if our petition is not visibly
+answered at once."
+
+Mr. Hayden had some advantage in his study over the girls, for these
+things had been more or less considered by himself and Mrs. Hayden ever
+since her recovery, and it was no wonder he could explain so readily.
+
+"After all, how would you apply this way of praying to giving
+treatments?" asked Grace. "I am anxious for the practical application."
+
+"Why, it is all practical, as far as the individual is concerned, but
+the application to others we have yet to learn, though I imagine it is
+the same. It is simply being negative to false conditions, thus putting
+them off, and affirmative to true conditions, absorbing them as the
+flower does the light and heat."
+
+"Well, it is a beautiful idea of prayer at any rate," remarked Grace.
+
+They soon went home, still discussing and deeply pondering the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Grace, what do you suppose I did to-day?" cried Kate, breathlessly, as
+she rushed in the next evening.
+
+"Can't imagine, unless you cured little Tim, the newsboy," laughed
+Grace, making her guess extravagant enough.
+
+"No, but really, I treated Fannie for a dreadful headache. Of course I
+said nothing to her, but she was stumbling so over her music, I asked
+her what was the matter, and when she told me I treated her. In just a
+few moments she brightened up and said she felt better, and before we
+got through it was all gone. Wasn't that delightful?"
+
+"Very, and I am so glad. How did you do it?"
+
+"Well, I can hardly tell, but the talk we had yesterday with Mr. Hayden
+gave me a clearer idea than I had before, and I just denied the headache
+and acknowledged the truth that she was spiritually well; then waited a
+few moments and gave thanks that it was so."
+
+"How glad we ought to be for the privilege of reading Mrs. Hayden's
+letters," said Grace, thoughtfully, as she smoothed her hair and washed
+her hands.
+
+"Yes, and what a goose I was about it," Kate replied. "I would scarcely
+take the chance when it was offered, and if it had been any one but Mrs.
+Hayden, I do believe I should have refused point blank."
+
+"We know so little what is right when we judge in the old way," said
+Grace. "Now, if I actually hadn't seen that woman cured, and known
+positively how she was before, nothing would have induced me to spend my
+time on this, although, from the first, I rather liked the theory."
+
+"Where is my gingham apron?" called Kate, looking in the dark closet
+where she had hung it.
+
+"Kate, I'm thoroughly reformed, as you will know when I tell you I am
+perfectly willing to perform the culinary duties to-night, and I will be
+the cook while you discourse some music for my edification," laughed
+Grace, as she emerged from the studio with her sleeves rolled back, and
+the lost apron pinned around her.
+
+"What!" cried Kate, holding up both hands with a mock-tragic air. "Do
+you really mean it?"
+
+"Of course, and I will show you what a talent I have for poaching eggs
+and making toast."
+
+The girls were in the habit of dividing their work according to their
+personal tastes. Kate liked to prepare dainty meals and wash dishes,
+while Grace preferred to sweep and dust, and arrange things to suit her
+artistic eye. Each disliked the other's part of the work, so they were
+well content to have it so divided.
+
+"Go on, now," ordered Grace, "and play for me. I want some music; but,
+first of all, tell me where the eggs are, and how long should they
+boil?"
+
+"The eggs are in the tin pail on the third shelf in the closet. They
+should boil till they are a pretty blue white."
+
+"Very well, now I can dispense with your company."
+
+Kate laughed merrily, and sitting down to the piano, played till Grace
+called her out to dine.
+
+"It seems rather nice to come home and play lady," she remarked, as she
+went out where Grace was.
+
+"Well, really, Kate, I was thinking this afternoon that there is not so
+much difference in the kinds of work as there is in the thoughts you
+have when you work, and I resolved, that to refrain from certain duties
+because one does not like them is selfish, and makes a person one-sided.
+Then I could see no reason why I should dislike to cook, and concluded
+to try it."
+
+"I believe you are right about the one-sidedness," said Kate, soberly.
+
+"I do want to grow into a rounded character, and am just realizing the
+necessity of doing things that lie nearest us, whether it is washing
+dishes, painting or scrubbing. If I get so I can think right about
+things I'm sure I shall like them."
+
+"That is true. I have already noticed a vast difference in my patience
+in giving lessons. You know some days I would be so nervous and get so
+exasperated with Fannie Thornton and Jenny Miles, I didn't know what to
+do with myself, but the last few days I have not minded them at all, in
+fact I got along better with Fannie than ever before, and it was just
+because I kept from thinking she was contrary and stupid."
+
+"Well, that is a practical application of your lesson. I think we ought
+to apply it to everything we do," replied Grace.
+
+"One of the chief beauties of this Christianity is that it goes into
+every thought and action," said Kate, thoughtfully, adjusting her hair.
+
+"Oh!" she added a moment later, "I forgot to give you the letter that
+came to-day." She pulled it out of her pocket all crumpled and gave it
+to Grace, who glanced at her name on the envelope and then grew white
+about the mouth as she hastily put it into her pocket, remarking in an
+ordinary tone, "It will keep a little longer."
+
+Little was said by either for some time. Grace was preoccupied and Kate
+furtively watched her face, for this was an unaccountable procedure,
+although occasionally Grace had been affected the same way before.
+
+She insisted on washing the dishes, and was glad indeed that she had it
+to do, while Kate poured her thoughts into music, feeling that she could
+best show sympathy for her friend by this, to her, most expressive way.
+
+As for Grace, she waited till she had quite finished her work and then
+sat down to read the letter. She well knew it was from Leon Carrington,
+a suitor, whom she had rejected on the plea that she wished to be wedded
+solely to her art. Pride had forbidden her being frank enough to tell
+him the real reason, caused by an impeachment made against his
+character, by one whom she implicitly trusted as a friend. Her bitter
+resolve was the result, and while it was true she loved and desired to
+spend her life in pursuing her art, she had compelled herself to think
+she loved it best, and so told him it was first choice.
+
+Hers was a proud, deep nature, and rather than admit that she had loved
+or could love one whom she considered unworthy, she cut the matter short
+by a decided rejection. It had cost her a mighty effort to come to this
+decision, and when she came out of the trial, she had lost her faith in
+all men.
+
+On all other points but this, Grace was sound and sweet in her general
+disposition, but any talk on marriage she would never tolerate even with
+Kate.
+
+This was the third letter he had written in the two years since he went
+away, and as in the preceding, he fervently begged her to reconsider.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+        "Life hath its Tabor heights,
+  Its lofty mounts of heavenly recognition,
+  Whose unveiled glories flash to earth munition
+  Of love, and truth, and clearer intuition:
+        Hail! mount of all delights!"
+
+  --_I. C. Gilbert._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Good morning, dear ones all! I must tell you a little of yesterday
+before I go to the lesson to-day. We were not in class, and I staid in
+my room all day trying to solve the many questions that present
+themselves to us all, and to claim a little more understanding. Many
+points became very much clearer after my long meditation in the silence.
+In the evening I ran down to see Mrs. Dawn, who is several blocks away.
+We were so interested, so completely absorbed in telling our thoughts
+and experiences, that it was after eleven o'clock when I arose to go,
+and then she accompanied me home, only intending to come part way, but
+as we passed a little low house about half way home, the door suddenly
+opened and a little girl of ten or twelve years ran out sobbing, 'The
+baby is dying! the baby is dying!'
+
+"She was going up an outside stairway to inform a neighbor. We rushed
+into the house and found the frantic mother sobbing and wailing over her
+baby apparently in the last agonies of death.
+
+"'What is it? Can't we do something for you?' we asked, not knowing what
+else to say.
+
+"'Oh, my baby, my precious baby is dying! Don't you see? she is almost
+gone.'
+
+"Indeed, for an instant it seemed the little life had gone out, when,
+like a flash of lightning, the words came to my inner self, 'There is no
+death.' 'He that believeth on me shall not see death;' 'I am the way the
+truth and the life.' 'Treat,' I whispered to Mrs. Dawn, and soon the
+awful lie was denied by us in the peaceful silence of our own souls; for
+all consciousness of appearances had vanished as we denied death and its
+power, till we could _command_ the waves of mortal thought to subside
+and say, 'Peace, be still.'
+
+"It was the Master, the Christ within, who spoke for us, and we were
+filled with the mighty peace and calmness of Truth that worked through
+us and was immediately made manifest. The little face relaxed, the eyes
+lost their glassy stare, the color returned to the pale lips.
+
+"The mother ceased her mourning and gazed at the precious child in
+awesome silence. The neighbor and the little girl who had come in, stood
+by in hushed amazement. For a while all felt the presence of the great
+invisible Power that had wrought so wondrous a work in their midst,
+although no one knew but ourselves what had been done. Presently the
+mother leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief, awaiting the
+doctor, for whom her husband had gone before we entered the house. We
+waited till he came, and then quietly slipped out.
+
+"Mrs. Dawn came clear home with me, and we found our thoughts and
+feelings had been almost identical in this remarkable experience,
+showing the oneness of truth. It is something we shall never forget, for
+it was indeed from the very depths of our being we were stirred and
+thrilled with the mighty Principle.
+
+"This morning I went to see the baby, and found it quite bright and
+happy, but still breathing a little heavily. The M. D. had left
+medicine, and of course, they were giving it 'according to directions.'
+I told the mother something of the Healing, and she readily acknowledged
+that something mysterious had saved her child's life, because it
+certainly was dying as much as the child she had lost years ago.
+
+"'After you left last night, the neighbor who was here said like as not
+you were Christian healers or whatever that is, but she did not believe
+a word in it, and that it was all nonsense, but I told her I didn't
+care. I thought you saved my baby, and the doctor said it had grown much
+better since he came. 'Well,' says I, 'ef you had seen her condition
+when the ladies came in, you would say she _is_ better.'
+
+"'Oh, we won't argue about what made her better, whether medicine or
+something else; all we want now is to have the child cured,' said the
+doctor, very kind-like, and I really thought a great deal better of him
+than I had before, for most M. D.'s think they know everything,' she
+said.
+
+"I was so glad to find she acknowledged even this much, so I talked a
+little longer, and explained the necessity of perfect trust in God, and
+the consequences of distrust in Him. She seemed very responsive and
+ready to believe, but then, who would not believe after such a
+demonstration? I have felt awed and hushed all the morning, remembering
+the mighty something surging through me. It seems hard to believe that
+at last my desire to have some grand sign shown me is already fulfilled.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl talked beautifully this afternoon on understanding. I wish
+you could hear the lectures as she gives them, with all her grace and
+beauty and impressiveness. Here is the essence of the lesson:
+
+"As we evolve from material to spiritual understanding, we put ourselves
+more and more into the divine current of Life, Health, Goodness, which
+is God. The higher our ideal, the higher our attainment. Believing in
+God as supreme Love, we find it impossible to conceive of wrath,
+jealousy, revenge, as emanating from or existing in Him, Her or It. As
+we are filled with love, it becomes universal. Everybody is judged by
+its tender charity, everything is tinged with its warm radiance.
+
+"As Paul so beautifully wrote: 'Love suffereth long and is kind, love
+envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave
+itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not
+account of evil, rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth in the
+truth.... Love never faileth.' If this be a standard by which to judge
+the love of men, how much more appropriately might it judge God, who is
+love itself.
+
+"In proportion as we are freed from the ignorance and narrowness of
+primitive, ancient opinions concerning God, we shall rise to broader and
+tenderer and truer conceptions of Him. To the warm, sympathetic heart,
+that knows the deepest needs of humanity, the 'mercy that endureth
+forever' is an established fact of the universal Love. To understand
+this Love is to be at one with it, to do the works and think the
+thoughts of Love. It is essential, then, first to understand the law of
+effort, then faith, then love, then spiritual understanding, which is
+the goal toward which we all hasten--understanding of all spiritual
+things, understanding of God, who is all spirit. As we make the effort
+we receive faith, as we use faith we grow in the power and capacity of
+love, and love brings us the fullness of all things, even understanding
+of infinite wisdom. Every glimpse of truth we have ever had, every
+glorious breath of freedom, is but a hint of what will be when we have
+'awakened to righteousness.'
+
+"We gain our knowledge by and through the law of right speaking and
+consequently right acting. In the Bible, the New Testament especially,
+great stress is laid upon the power of words. Solomon wrote, 'How
+forcible are right words.' 'Life and death are in the power of the
+tongue,' and from St. Paul we hear, 'Hold fast the form of sound words;'
+and James' admonition, 'Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only,'
+show that both considered it necessary to speak the word if they would
+manifest its power.
+
+"But there is another and a holier office given to the word and that is
+the office of atonement. The original meaning of atone was to 'make
+at-one, to agree, to be in accordance, to accord.' To be at-one with a
+person is to be in such perfect sympathy that the thoughts of both are
+the thoughts and feelings of one.
+
+"Another illustration would be to say of a chip thrown into the river,
+it is at-one with the current. In this sense we should aim to be so
+at-one with the divine Principle that we may say with Jesus, 'I am one
+with the Father,' for did he not say: 'They are not of this world even
+as I am not of this world,' and 'That they may be one even we are one.'
+
+"To speak absolute Truth is to come into the true at-one-ment, to be at
+one with the divine Mind, to realize that Christ the Truth is the
+atoning power. The Christ is the impersonal Word of Truth which we are
+to speak, for 'unto us hath been committed the word of reconciliation'
+or atonement.
+
+"When we think true thoughts and catch true ideas, when we understand
+true meanings and love true knowledge, we are sustained by the living
+word which sustains all who speak and live it, because we are truly at
+one with the divine Word.
+
+"Knowing the meaning of Christ to be Truth, blood to be life or word,
+and sin to be error, we catch the spiritual meaning of the phrase 'sins
+washed away by the blood of Christ,' which is, sins or errors washed
+away by the word of Truth.
+
+"In that wonderful sermon in the sixth chapter of John, Jesus used the
+term blood as a symbol of his words, and emphatically told his
+disciples, when they persisted in taking his sayings literally, 'the
+flesh profiteth nothing, the _words_ that I speak unto you, they are
+spirit and they are life.'
+
+"That the Bible writers used the figurative language of those times,
+must be taken into account when reading points that have been made
+foundation doctrines. Owing to the ancient custom of sacrificing animals
+to appease the wrath of God, whom they regarded as subject to anger,
+jealousy or any human passion, they used figurative language when
+describing Jesus as the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world.
+
+"In one of the inspired moments of the prophet, when he apprehended God
+as a God of Love, he cried out, 'I have desired mercy and not sacrifice;
+and the knowledge of God more than burnt offering.' It is the knowledge
+of God, the word of truth, that will save, and the only sacrifice is the
+sacrifice of self which makes the atonement possible.
+
+"To fast from all selfishness is to keep the true fast, so beautifully
+described in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. 'Is it not to loose the
+bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go
+free, to break every yoke? Then shall thy light break forth as the
+morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.' Here is the
+fruit of atonement, the result of understanding, for understanding God
+and being at one with God, is in reality the same. As we understand God
+we shall be at one with Him, and to be at one with God is to be whole,
+for He is Holiness, wholeness, health. 'If thine eye be single, then
+shall thy whole body be full of light.' To be single in recognizing the
+one Mind, one Power, one Creation, is to be filled with light, which is
+life, which is health, for as the mind, consciousness, becomes
+illuminated, the body responds by recording the history of thought upon
+the visible page or body.
+
+"It is the revealment of God that we seek, and our individual relation
+to Him. What more is there for us to know after we know Him, for is not
+He all there really is? He has given many marvelous signs to His
+children, who must be taught in simple childish ways and the 'still
+small voice' is ever near, speaking to whomsoever will listen. It is the
+inner guide, the 'spirit of truth that guides us into all truth.' Then
+we are 'clothed upon,' we have returned to our Father's house and the
+feast is spread, the rejoicing has begun.
+
+"For awhile our only conception of power, is in visible manifestations
+or feelings, but there comes a time when 'to be alone with silence is to
+be alone with God,' when joy is unutterable, and love the very potency
+of silence, when we wait with bated breath and let the divine Thought
+surge through us, when we put away all material beliefs and stand
+glorified in the 'secret of His Presence.' Then indeed are we baptized
+of the spirit, and in the silent chamber of our new consciousness may we
+hear the blessed words, 'Thou art my beloved son.'
+
+"No longer 'Thou shalt and thou shalt not,' but the sweet affirmation of
+sonship, of daughtership, of the precious benediction of a Father's
+love. Then glad light rushes into every dark crevice of our mind. We see
+as we never saw before, we understand as we never understood before, we
+speak as we never spoke before, we live as we never lived before,
+because we have been lifted out of the depths of ignorance to the
+radiant heights of the Promised Land, because we hear the angel saying
+as of old, 'Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
+with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
+them and be their God ... and God shall wipe away all tears from their
+eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
+neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
+away.' Finally, oh my husband, because we have been born again, and so
+find ourselves within the royal gates, the palace doors open to receive
+us and the insignia of royalty written upon our faces, for we shall be
+stamped with the signs of understanding, and know, as Jesus did, 'it is
+not I, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.'
+
+"Then, as the beauteous sunlight bathes and blesses all the world with
+its effulgent glory, so will the light of Truth, known as understanding,
+shine through us and turn pain into peace, sadness into joy, sickness
+into health, error into truth.
+
+  'Wisdom ripens into silence,
+    And the lesson she doth teach,
+  Is, that life is more than language,
+    And that thought is more than speech.'
+
+"How I long for this ultimate experience! How I yearn for the fullness
+of this knowledge now; for the ripened wisdom that shall unlock the
+doors of my own consciousness, but I know, dear, this will come to us if
+we are faithful to the few little steps we know, no matter how we
+stumble and fall in taking them. Oh, that we may reach out to all the
+world in the sweet ministry of 'peace on earth, good will to men.'
+
+"You say 'there is a rift in the clouds for you, too, and the vague
+something which sometimes loomed up in your horizon is gone.' How glad I
+am, no words can tell. What a change there will be! The old past shall
+be sweetened and sanctified by the new present, and only the good
+memories shall remain.
+
+"What a blessed comfort in this thought, 'the Lord shall be thy rear
+ward.' We have nothing to do with the past, for it shall be utterly
+annulled. The Truth has erased it, and it is swallowed up in the good in
+proportion as we recognize only the Good. This thought is a great
+consolation to me when I recall the hasty words I used to say when my
+temper got the better of me. Oh, that old failing! I hope it is forever
+vanquished--but there, I must not forget to be scientific, and of course
+it is not scientific to talk of error in any way.
+
+"Jamie is a dear little scamp, if he _did_ try to break the rules and
+get something to eat between meals by playing prairie dog. It must have
+been very funny to see him sitting in the attitude of a begging dog,
+mutely appealing for something, and being obliged at last to suggest
+that there was candy on the top shelf. Even my heart would have softened
+for the innocent little trickster.
+
+"Well, really, we must try to give the children the liberty we older
+children desire and insist upon having in such a headstrong way. Bless
+my little darlings! They shall realize the absence of fear, the presence
+of love in their home, which we must strive more and more to make
+typical of the great Home in which we are all members.
+
+"I feel that they are dearer now than ever. My love is more unselfish,
+and I can really feel that they are truly consecrated to the Good,
+because I know how to hold them in the thought of the Good, how to annul
+the opposite influences and fill their minds with the sweet, pure,
+ennobling realizations of Love. Meekly I say this, because I know not my
+own strength, or rather I know not how much divine strength I may
+recognize and use, but this is the right path, and I earnestly desire to
+walk in it.
+
+"You know some people say (in their ignorance, of course) that this free
+thinking breaks up families. Oh, if they could only know, on the other
+hand, how it strengthens the bonds, how it clears up misunderstandings
+and falsities, how it teaches us the sacredness of family relations, and
+brings us into spiritual oneness, which is the only true marriage.
+
+"Spiritual light has come to me on this subject which can not be put
+into words, but some time you will know what I know, and we shall both
+be blessed by the knowledge.
+
+"Peace be unto all God's children.
+
+  "Your loving
+
+  "MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  "If thou art worn and hard beset,
+    With troubles that thou would'st forget,
+  If thou would'st read a lesson that will keep
+    Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
+  Go to the woods and hills! No tears
+    Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."
+
+  --_H. W. Longfellow._
+
+
+Grace was in deep perplexity. She pondered her problem over and over,
+and though in reality she felt more like flinging pride to the winds
+than ever before, she was not able to formulate or even consciously name
+her thoughts. A strange, unsettled feeling possessed her. She wondered
+at herself that she did not contemptuously throw this letter of Leon
+Carrington's into the fire, as she had the other two, but for some
+reason did not do so. All night she was uneasy and slept but little. The
+next morning she announced to Kate that she would spend the day at
+Rosewood, sketching.
+
+What the trouble was, Kate could only surmise, but wisely held her peace
+feeling instinctively that now was no time for questions. She was
+relieved to hear of the prospective recreation, for Grace always came
+back from these trips with so much fresh inspiration, and renewed
+enthusiasm.
+
+It was a beautiful day, one of those mild, hazy days of October that
+seem made to teach humanity some of its most sacred lessons. Nature is
+the best of teachers if we know how to read her mystic pages, her many
+and varied beauties, her wide diversities of expression, her fine
+subtlety of language, for she is the handmaid of Truth, inasmuch as she
+holds before our admiring eyes pictures of Truth and its wondrous laws.
+If we can interpret the pictures, we are wiser and better and happier.
+
+Grace was ever ready to listen to the oracles of nature, but now they
+held a sweeter message than ever before, and she keenly anticipated the
+pleasure in store for her as she seated herself in the car and disposed
+of her sketching materials for the half hour's ride to Rosewood, a
+pretty little woodland station near Hampton.
+
+She generally walked the mile and a half to the farmhouse in the edge of
+the woods, where she had made the acquaintance of a kind hearted old
+lady, who loaned her a great Newfoundland dog belonging to the house,
+for company in her rambles.
+
+Mrs. Clayland was rejoiced to see her, for it had been several weeks
+since Grace had called, and she was eager to tell her of the great tree
+up in the ravine that had been blasted by the lightning, and about the
+beautiful little waterfall caused by the Cherry Creek freshet.
+
+Grace listened patiently as she rested, and asked questions that she had
+asked many times before, because it pleased the old lady to tell of all
+the beautiful spots and dainty bits of landscape in her vicinity. That
+was next to being the artist.
+
+Prince stood by, looking with intelligent eyes, first at the visitor
+and then at his mistress, wagging his tail wistfully as though eager to
+be off, for he seemed to realize that this was his holiday too.
+
+"Are you ready to go, Prince?" asked Grace, patting the dog on the head
+as she looked into his great brown eyes.
+
+Prince licked his mouth and pushed his nose close under her hand while
+his tail wagged violently. "Yes, of course he is. I wish my old limbs
+would let me go too, but I can't even hobble to-day for the rheumatism
+has been dreadful the last week," said Mrs. Clayland, as she wiped her
+spectacles.
+
+Grace hardly knew what to say, for here was just the place for a little
+sympathy, and yet she must shut her eyes to false beliefs and
+conditions, so she wisely talked of the beautiful day, the warm air, and
+what not, while secretly resolving that Mrs. Clayland should be her
+first patient if she ever knew how to treat patients according to the
+Christ method. In the mean time, she would give her some thoughts.
+
+While Mrs. Clayland volubly rattled on, talking of all her aches and
+pains, Grace was doing her best to think of the very opposite statement,
+that she was well.
+
+At last, however, with Prince trotting gaily in front of her, she began
+her rambles in earnest. She knew of a beautiful view from one of the
+hills near by, and slowly wended her way thitherward. The hush and quiet
+of the place seemed such a relief after the troubled hours of the past
+night, and as she came to the gentle slope of the grassy hill, she threw
+herself into the soft warm grass, in the shade of a stately elm that
+stood there alone, and gave herself up to thinking--thinking of the
+deepest and most sacred problems in human experience.
+
+Prince came and laid himself at her feet. The soft autumn sunshine
+played here and there upon her form and face through the leaves, while
+the occasional note of a bird or hum of an insect were the only sounds
+that broke the stillness of the lonely place. What an exquisite pleasure
+to lie there and breathe in all this wonderful peace, for it was like a
+taste of heaven. Far away from all perplexities and cares, she could
+have lost herself in sweet forgetfulness but for this one theme that
+would persist in thrusting itself upon her. At last it had resolved
+itself into the form of a question. Should she or should she not write
+to Leon Carrington? Might it not be possible she had been misinformed,
+and that she was mistaken in her hasty conclusions?
+
+Life presented a different aspect now from what it had two years ago.
+She was more lenient in her judgments, more charitable in her opinions,
+more softened in her pride; changed more than she ever realized until
+she began the self examination on this point. To be sure she had desired
+to change in these respects, since she had seen a glimpse of the
+possibilities of Christian life. She had denied all qualities of
+character in herself that seemed undesirable, and had affirmed
+charitableness, patience, wisdom, but that she could ever have changed
+her mind on this subject seemed incredible and utterly inconsistent.
+
+And yet, what could she say to him? She had no answer, certainly no
+encouragement. The only thing she could do would be to tell him frankly
+what her thought and judgment had been, without going into details, and
+learn the truth of the matter; but that, she would never do. Whatever
+injury she had inflicted through her silent, erroneous thoughts should
+be as silently redressed by her best and most generous ones.
+
+Over an hour she lay there, no nearer the solution of her problem than
+when she began. It was getting late, and she rose hurriedly, shook the
+leaves and grass from her dress, and opening her sketch book, set to
+work.
+
+An opening to the left in the woods revealed a view of lovely meadows
+and wooded hills, clothed in all the gorgeous robes of autumn, with a
+misty blue haze enshrouding them, and gleams of a silvery river winding
+through meadow and woodland. She rapidly sketched the outlines, studied
+the beauteous blending of tints, and wondered meanwhile, what particular
+lesson she could learn or give by this beautiful picture. Again she
+looked at the scene before her. Suddenly there came into her mind some
+lines she had often admired:
+
+  "Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature,
+    Oh, the light that is not of day!
+  Why seek it afar forever,
+    When it can not be lifted away?"
+
+Ah, here was the key. "The peace of Nature," typical of divine peace,
+"The Light not of day," divine Light itself. How sweet the thought, how
+precious the lesson; and the divine Peace and Light _are_ indeed
+forever here. Could she throw such a divine message into her prospective
+painting? Could she make every form and color, every hint of light and
+shadow, tell the sweet story, as this living picture told it? Surely,
+the heart that overflows with an inbreathing of the divine, must be able
+to teach the common heart of humanity, else what is the use of
+inspiration?
+
+On her way back to the house, Grace passed the blasted tree, described
+by Mrs. Clayland, but she had no desire to study destruction or death.
+It was life, living things, that she would portray. Was there not beauty
+and grandeur everywhere, hinting of Infinity? Even the noisy and
+monotonous waterfall now had a message for her as it rushed forcefully
+on its course, regardless of any and all obstructions.
+
+It was quite late when Grace and Prince returned, much later than she
+supposed, so that she missed the train and had to wait for the next,
+several hours later. Mr. Clayland kindly volunteered to take her to the
+station, an offer she was very glad to accept.
+
+The lamps were already lighted when she entered the car. She slipped
+into the first vacant seat, but caught a glimpse of a face several seats
+in front of her that made her heart beat hurriedly and her breath come
+quick and fast for a few moments.
+
+She resolutely avoided looking anywhere but out of the window, and at
+the end of her journey quietly but quickly disappeared in the surging
+crowd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  "Let me not dwell so much within
+    My bounded heart with anxious heed,
+  Where all my searches meet with doubt,
+    And nothing satisfies my need;
+  It shuts me from the sound and sight
+    Of that pure world of life and light
+  Which has no breadth, or length, or height."
+
+  --_A. L. Waring._
+
+
+Kate had long ago become accustomed to these uncertain movements of
+Grace, and was therefore not alarmed at her prolonged absence. She sat
+in a cozy chair, reading the last letter from Mrs. Hayden, when Grace
+entered.
+
+"What makes you look so sober, Gracious?" she asked, tenderly, after the
+hat and sketch book were laid aside and they had settled themselves for
+their usual chat.
+
+"Oh, Kate, I had a lovely time to-day, with all the beautiful sights out
+in the country; I wish you could see how much more there is in nature
+since we have studied Christian Healing," was the evasive reply.
+
+"I think we see more in everything," said Kate, whose curiosity was
+rather _piqued_ by the evasiveness, though she made no sign, "because
+everything stands for something. It is like the x in algebra, and
+interesting as the unknown quantity."
+
+Grace smiled a little. She was thinking of a different kind of "unknown
+quantity."
+
+"Don't you want to hear Mrs. Hayden's letter?" asked Kate, wondering
+more and more over the _distrait_ manner and dreamy absorption of her
+friend.
+
+"The letter, why, of course; where is it?"
+
+"Here; shall I read it?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Grace grew more interested as the reading went on. "That is decidedly
+the most reasonable explanation of the atonement I have ever heard," she
+exclaimed at the close.
+
+"Yes, it is reasonable and beautiful I must admit," said Kate, "but when
+I first read the letter my old fear came back for a moment that possibly
+it was all wrong, but I remembered my right to an interpretation. That
+one thought has been more helpful to me than any other, for it has
+brought such a sense of liberty. Then I looked up the quotation about
+the 'word of reconciliation,' and I must say it is so perfectly plain I
+can not see why it has been so overlooked and neglected before."
+
+"Where is it? I did not catch that," said Grace, following Kate's finger
+as she pointed to the passage in the Bible.
+
+"There is something so sacred in these meanings," resumed Kate, "and if
+I may only get the truth, I care not what any one says about it. I see
+now wherein lies the whole misconception or misinterpretation rather. It
+is in the idea of God. If we conceive of Him as limited to human ways
+and capacities, as the ancient Hebrews did, we naturally ascribe such
+works to Him."
+
+"In other words," added Grace, "we judge God entirely by ourselves. If
+we are broad and loving in our nature and character it is easy for us to
+regard God as love. If we are vindictive and revengeful, we can readily
+see Him as angry and unrelenting."
+
+"Yes, we are so apt to judge the whole world and God, too, by our
+moods," replied Kate, thoughtfully.
+
+"As Emerson says, 'we see in others what we are ourselves,'" quoted
+Grace, removing her jacket which until now she had retained in order to
+get warm after her evening journey.
+
+"Oh! what do you think of what Mrs. Hayden says about marriage?" asked
+Kate, putting her pencil in her mouth as she held both hands out to
+assist Grace.
+
+"She doesn't say enough to give an opinion," replied Grace, "but there
+must be something in her mind or she would not write about it now."
+
+"Her ideas must be very exalted, and I hope to know what they are, for
+it is a very important question," said Kate, with a casual glance toward
+her companion, as she bit the end of the pencil.
+
+"Mrs. Hayden decidedly denies the imputation laid to Christian Healing,
+that it is opposed to marriage, or that it tends to separate families,"
+said Grace, with more interest than Kate would have thought possible a
+week ago.
+
+"I did not know any such imputation had been laid to it," rejoined Kate,
+opening her eyes in astonishment.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have heard it several times, but people will talk whether
+they know anything or not. I am glad Mrs. Hayden mentions it for that is
+enough to show there is absolutely no foundation for such statements."
+Grace moved her chair and put her elbow on the table so she might shade
+her eyes with her hand.
+
+"Why, I don't see how people can say such things; surely the tendency is
+to draw families into closer bonds of sympathy and affection," exclaimed
+Kate, in questioning innocence.
+
+"It ought to be," replied Grace, thoughtfully, "and undoubtedly is," she
+added.
+
+"What do _you_ think of this question, Grace?" Kate ventured to ask. At
+any other time she would not have dared approach the subject, but Grace
+seemed more pliable to-night for some reason.
+
+"What question?" asked Grace, rousing from her reverie. "Oh, marriage.
+Well, sometimes I have thought the query going the rounds of the press,
+'Is marriage a failure?' a very pertinent one, but of course that
+doesn't touch the principle itself. That is right and can never be
+otherwise."
+
+"Most people talk and write as seriously as though it _does_ touch the
+principle."
+
+"That is because they judge the principle by the persons representing
+it, whereas they should stop and consider that humanity is prone to
+weakness and often fails to demonstrate its high ideals."
+
+"And it is because of failure they think there is something wrong. Take
+an individual case, for instance, and there are thousands. If a girl
+marries unhappily, she thinks there must be something wrong in the
+whole system, for she judges everybody's misery by her own," said Kate,
+secretly wishing Grace would be more confidential, and not so coldly
+intellectual.
+
+"Then the way to a happy judgment of this question would be a happy
+marriage, you think?" laughed Grace, with a faint blush, looking up
+inquiringly.
+
+"Don't trifle Grace. You know I said it all earnestly, and really it is
+no matter to trifle over, any way."
+
+"Well, that is true, Kate," replied Grace more soberly. "I don't believe
+anybody takes the question seriously enough. It is certainly the most
+important of all things to consider."
+
+"Do you think it right to enter marriage for any other reason than pure
+and devoted affection?" persisted Kate.
+
+"No, I do not. Why do you ask?" demanded Grace rather sharply.
+
+"Because that is the solution of the whole problem. If they would begin
+to talk about love instead of marriage being a failure, they would get
+some light on it," a little impatiently.
+
+Grace looked up in surprise.
+
+"I know," continued Kate, "it is because people are mistaken or misled
+in their reasons for marriage, that it even has a semblance of failure."
+
+"That is one reason, certainly, and another is that they do not
+understand each other's motives, or have not the patience to bear with
+each other's faults. We can easily see how misunderstandings can be put
+away when there is true love, when we determine to see only the good,
+and learn to 'resist not evil.' That is one of the strong points in
+Jesus the Christ's teachings," said Grace with unwonted earnestness.
+
+"I am so sorry people can't see it in the right light," added Kate,
+regretfully.
+
+"You can have much charity for them, for it is just what you would have
+said or thought, if you had not studied the matter yourself. You
+remember how Mr. Narrow influenced you and biased your judgment?"
+
+"Yes, and I see as never before that the 'Truth makes us free.'
+
+  'He is a freeman whom the truth makes free.
+  And all are slaves besides,'"
+
+said Grace, as she reached for the sketch book to look over her work of
+the afternoon.
+
+"It is no use, she never will say anything, even when she might,"
+thought Kate as she reviewed the events of the past few days. She half
+reproached herself for allowing anything to take her mind from the one
+special theme in which at last she had become thoroughly interested. She
+was eager to learn, to search in all directions for the meaning of
+things. Slowly the little grain of faith was growing into the mighty
+tree.
+
+Enchanting Truth so round, so perfect, so beautiful,--no wonder we must
+reach out in every direction for the knowledge of thy fair signs that we
+may more correctly and more fully realize the perfect revealment of our
+own divinity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "What a great power is the power of thought! And what a grand being
+     is man when he uses it aright; because after all, it is the use
+     made of it that is the important thing. Character comes out of
+     thought. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.'"--_Sir Walter
+     Raleigh._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"Dear Husband: I was just thinking of you all when the letter carrier
+came this morning and gave me a welcome surprise, for your letters
+usually come in the afternoon. It seems too wonderful to believe about
+the children, and yet I can see it is their implicit faith that makes
+their words so potent.
+
+"They are doing their part to help too, for every one in the world,
+large or small helps in greater or lesser measure to carry out the plans
+of the invisible Good.
+
+"I dreamed of being at home last night, and it seemed as though you were
+all so happy and busy. You did not see me. Even little Jem was busily
+engaged in some kind of work. I could scarcely see what it was, but a
+vague white something like an invisible net was spread between you, and
+the thought came that you and Anna were weaving something, and even the
+children had a part to fulfill for they flitted to and fro, bringing
+something to you with faces so full of light and happiness, I almost
+cried out with joy.
+
+"When I awoke I was deeply impressed that this was a symbol of united
+effort in making the seamless robe of Truth, and the family group
+represented the members of one body, each with a work to do to perfect
+the whole.
+
+"No matter how humble our part may be, no matter how childish and
+incompetent we feel, by doing the best we know, with the ability we
+have, in all joy and earnestness, we shall be serving the Master and
+weaving the marvelous robe.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl talked of the mighty power of thought in her lecture to-day.
+
+"Every individual in the universe is inseparably connected with every
+other individual, and we are, as it were, 'touching elbows' with the
+whole world.
+
+"How is it done? Simply by thinking and being susceptible to thought.
+Every thought of the individual helps to make or mar the happiness and
+health of the world. Every negative thought (and by that I mean opposite
+the good, which is positive) sent forth, goes into the miasmatic fog of
+error, and whoever believes in error or the reality of these thoughts,
+attracts to himself this quality of thought, which sooner or later,
+makes itself manifest in physical inharmony.
+
+"For instance, one who believes in the reality of sickness and the
+reality of evil is constantly attracting thoughts that make sickness
+manifest, but if a knowledge of how to throw off or counteract those
+thoughts were used, the cloud would be dispelled before it turned into
+inharmony or sickness.
+
+"This is why we are taught to deny every thought or feeling that is not
+harmonious or desirable, everything which can not be predicated of
+spirit. If this is what makes sickness and sin, truly it is not to be
+wondered at, for how many are perfectly happy, perfectly unselfish and
+kind, one single day at a time?
+
+"Suppose one gets up in the morning with a feeling of crossness and
+impatience; he goes to breakfast, impresses the whole family with his
+discomfort, and so through the entire day leaves the imprint of his dark
+forebodings on every person who sees him, besides the untold influence
+that goes forth to the unprotected world, inasmuch as thoughts go
+everywhere.
+
+"He retires at night, disgusted with himself and displeased with the
+whole world. People were unkind and unjust. Even inanimate objects were
+unusually aggravating. He wasted half an hour trying to untie a knot,
+hunted for a package of papers which were finally found in their proper
+place, had a vexing ten minutes with his office key, etc.
+
+"Every impatient thought, word or action was an expenditure, not only of
+physical force, but a loss of moral strength, and just as surely as the
+world moves, these thoughts, in their revolving circuit, constantly
+return to the thinker, 'Whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap.'
+
+"Who knows what dark trains of thought his lowering face suggested? Who
+knows what headaches and heartaches were brought on by the unconscious
+absorption of his impatience or bitterness? Who can measure the extent
+of that mysterious burden of depression, so often called 'the blues,'
+that crept into the consciousness of somebody under the influence of the
+dark thoughts sent out by this one, of whom perchance they know
+nothing?
+
+"It is this negative quality of thought that holds the world in bondage.
+To destroy it is to destroy all inharmony. On the other hand, note the
+influence of the happy-voiced individual, who comes to us so running
+over with the joy and beauty of life that we catch the thrilling
+inspiration of his mood and begin to enjoy the same sunshine, see the
+same beauty and feel the same happiness.
+
+"One look or one word may often send us off into the most delightful
+reveries, may inspire us to write a cheery letter, vibrating with love
+and hope, or prompt us to spend half an hour with one who needs the bath
+of joy our words may bring. Consciously and unconsciously we lighten the
+pathway, lift the burdens, sanctify the sorrows of the world by sending
+out and receiving this subtle thread of thought, so fine in its essence
+and quality, that any one and every one may feel its strengthening
+presence.
+
+"It is the negative or mortal thought that produces disease. See how
+grief bends and breaks the strongest constitutions, furrows the cheek,
+dims the eye, takes the appetite, impairs the mind. See how anger
+cankers everything it touches, how jealousy corrodes the thoughts with
+poisoned arrows, until the body is written over with letters of
+unmistakable meaning.
+
+"The body is what we may call the thermometer of the mind and registers
+the quality of thought. Universal beliefs in error find their common
+expression on the body. Every thought of sickness, sin or discouragement
+is recorded or bodied forth.
+
+"With all our belief in and fear of evil, sickness and death, we are
+continually subjecting ourselves to false and undesirable conditions,
+until, as Job said, 'Lo, the thing that I feared has come upon me.'
+
+"Fear is more quickly productive of disease pictures than any other kind
+of thought. Some one has aptly said, 'if the human race were freed from
+fear, it would be free from sickness,' which is verily true. Even the
+most learned doctors of medicine admit that an epidemic takes hold of
+those first who are most afraid, and frequently leaves the absolutely
+fearless unmolested.
+
+"Why is this so? Because fear weakens the power of mental control, and
+consequently weakens the body. To leave the doors unlocked, and then
+watch for the thief, is almost equal to having the thief in the house.
+
+"The material scientist says an epidemic has a material cause; the
+Christian healer says it has a mental cause. Before there is an object
+to fear there must be the sentiment of fear. Let scarlet fever appear in
+a community, and every parent will immediately send out the most
+agonizing thoughts of fear. Where will they go? Everywhere, because
+thoughts can not be restrained. Their influence goes out in every
+direction. To the tender children especially, because particularly
+directed to them. All who have left the door open to fear, though they
+may be sleeping in their unconsciousness of danger, will be liable to
+receive these uncontrolled thoughts, and some day when they least expect
+or fear sickness, it may be upon them.
+
+"So the children, to whom have been directed such thoughts, only prove
+their susceptibility to them, by picturing forth fear in the form of
+scarlet fever, or whatever may have been the naming of the error.
+Anybody manifesting sickness without consciousness of fear proves
+passive or unconscious fear, while those suffering sickness through a
+conscious recognition and fear of sickness are manifesting active or
+conscious fear.
+
+"There are two departments of mind sometimes spoken of as the conscious
+and unconscious. The conscious mind is the conscious thought, which is
+easily swayed or changed. It has an immediate or direct influence on the
+body as is shown by the blood that rushes to or recedes from the face at
+some sudden change of thought. The unconscious mind is the aggregation
+of past individual and universal conscious thought, and is the character
+formed, the second nature or instinct.
+
+"As the flesh and bones are more fixed than the ever moving blood, so
+the unconscious mind is slower to receive impressions, and slower to
+show them forth. Our bodies to-day are showing a harvest of the thoughts
+of generations or ages of the past. The person manifesting consumptive
+tendencies is not only expressing his own conscious thoughts, but is
+veritably the picture of the thoughts of his parents, ancestors and the
+entire race, concerning a belief in consumption. Year by year the
+thoughts of this error have been writing themselves in his face, his
+eyes, his chest, his very walk and talk and breath. Unless he offsets
+them with thoughts of absolute Truth, they press him out of our sight.
+He yields to the belief of death, because he never said no to sin or
+sickness, because he was at one with the world in its false beliefs.
+
+"'The last enemy to be overcome is death!' reads the inspired statement
+of Paul, confirmed and strengthened by the Master's never-dying promise,
+'If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.'
+
+"There are certain fixed beliefs inherent in every mind which we call
+universal beliefs. They are often referred to as belonging to the
+unconscious mind; as, for example, the fear of pain or suffering under
+certain circumstances will come to the surface of consciousness, proving
+that despite every feeling of confidence and fearlessness it has not
+been destroyed, but sleeps in the unconscious mind.
+
+"These unconscious beliefs and fears of sickness are ultimately
+expressed on the body in different forms of disease, sometimes given one
+name and sometimes another. The material scientist calls a certain
+outshowing on the body cancer, the Christian healer calls it the picture
+of a belief of cancer. In this way disease is always the manifestation
+of both conscious and unconscious thoughts.
+
+"Special forms of disease are born by constant attention to the thought
+of disease and their symptoms. It has been stated on good authority that
+physicians who make a specialty of certain diseases are apt to be
+afflicted with what they have especially fitted themselves to cure. In a
+medical journal a case was cited not long since of an eminent physician
+who read before a great convention of doctors, what was considered to be
+the ablest treatise on insanity ever written. 'On going home from the
+convention he killed his wife, four children, and then himself, in a fit
+of dementia.'
+
+"This reveals a startling fact, which might be corroborated by many
+others, that the body ultimately pictures forth the idea. But the
+thought is not confined to the individual. It not infrequently finds the
+most striking expression in some member of the family or in any one
+under his influence.
+
+"If one man's thoughts so influence himself, family or friend, think of
+the influence of such thoughts on those who go to him for advice or
+treatment, those who deliberately place themselves under his inspection
+and allow themselves to be guided both directly and indirectly by his
+erroneous opinions. Think of the vast stream of such thoughts going out
+from all medical colleges, students and practitioners. No wonder
+diseases increase as physicians increase, as some of the best thinkers
+of the age declare.
+
+"Not that one class of people is more to be reflected upon than another,
+for some kind or degree of erroneous thought is held by all classes.
+Physicians talk sickness and death, ministers preach evil and
+punishment, the entire race believe in and suffer for sins.
+
+"It is centuries since it was first discovered that ideas were
+transmitted without the ordinarily accepted means of communication, but,
+to-day it is positively and repeatedly, yes, continually proven that
+thought transference is not only possible or probable, but an every-day
+occurrence. To realize that
+
+      'Thoughts are things.
+  Endowed with being, breath and wings,
+  And that we send them forth to fill
+    The world with good results or ill,'
+
+is to be mightily responsible for what we think. To know that we are
+verily our brother's keeper, and that every thought makes misery or
+happiness for the whole world as well as for the individual, is
+something that should engage our deepest and most earnest consideration.
+
+"All thinking is for the weal or woe of the world that is yet in its
+infancy of knowledge. As consciousness of truth takes the place of
+consciousness of error, thoughts become light and beautiful and true
+with corresponding conditions.
+
+"Let us no longer slumber in the arms of indifference and ignorance, but
+awake to truth and righteousness. 'Better be unborn than untaught; for
+ignorance is the root of misfortune.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Blessed influence of one true, loving soul on another. Not
+     calculable by algebra, not deductible by logic, but mysterious,
+     effectual, mighty as the hidden process by which the tiny seed is
+     quickened, and bursts forth into tall stem and broad leaf, and
+     glowing tasseled flower."--_George Eliot._
+
+
+"Oh dear!" exclaimed Kate as she laid down the letter containing the
+lesson on Thought. "I didn't know we were so responsible for every
+little thing that comes into our mind."
+
+"Or goes out of it," said Grace, smiling, as she finished tinting a
+dainty plaque. "Now we can understand that 'where ignorance is bliss,
+'tis folly to be wise,'" she added rather absent-mindedly.
+
+"Yes, but I think I prefer the wisdom to the bliss. Do you understand
+this lecture as well as the rest?" asked Kate, again glancing at the
+letter.
+
+"Why shouldn't we? It is plainly told, and is a natural sequence to the
+others. I should think it very helpful, and if there really is so much
+power in thought, it is time people knew it."
+
+"But what of the people who do not know it? Are they utterly
+defenseless?"
+
+"As long as they believe in the reality of sin, sickness and death, they
+must suffer from them," replied Grace, picking a loose hair from her
+blender.
+
+"Then they ought to know how to learn and understand these things, but I
+could not tell anybody."
+
+"We can solve any problem by going back and reasoning from the premise.
+If any shock of sin or sickness come over us, we have simply to remember
+the spiritual, which is the only real creation."
+
+"It is not so easily done though. To-day I met the most miserable
+looking cripple sliding along without any limbs. I held my skirts aside
+as he passed, and forgot to even think of him as God's child," confessed
+Kate, in a regretful tone.
+
+"Anything takes time, and we can't expect to leap into perfection at
+once, but what did you do after he had passed?" asked Grace, with some
+curiosity.
+
+"I pitied the poor creature and wondered what made him so."
+
+"That was the very way to keep him in the same condition," said Grace,
+rapidly mixing some paint. "This last lesson very clearly explains that
+_every_ thought has an influence, and that you help to make the body
+manifest whatever you think of it. If you think the real and true, you
+help to make that show forth, if you only think of the external or
+apparent trouble or defect, and regard it as the real, you are harming
+instead of helping."
+
+"I can readily see that we may affect ourselves, but it seems hard to
+believe that we affect _everybody_," protested Kate, incredulously.
+
+"It is because we cannot realize the law of thought transference. I was
+reading just last week about that. An instance of Stuart C. Cumberland's
+mind-reading was cited. It was wonderful. And then long ago I read an
+old book written by Cornelius Agrippa about it, but I was not very much
+interested, and did not understand nor believe it at the time, so my
+memory is not worth much concerning it."
+
+"Then you really think I added another weight to that unhappy creature's
+burden of trouble?" cried Kate, in sharp surprise.
+
+"It would be best for you to deny his apparent conditions and affirm his
+real ones, and instead of thoughts of pity, which are only weakening,
+you could think of happiness and contentment. I truly believe we can
+learn to think of people this way, if we only catch ourselves for
+correction every time we think wrong."
+
+"How shall I ever learn to bridle my thoughts?" was Kate's despairing
+wail.
+
+"By learning to bridle your tongue; I found a splendid text to-day on
+that very theme. It is in James iii: 2. 'If any man offend not in word,
+the same is a perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body.'
+
+"Why, it tells in those few words the substance of all we have learned
+in these lessons," exclaimed Kate.
+
+"Only we would never have had sense enough to understand without the
+lessons," added Grace, with a smile.
+
+"They may be likened to a golden key that opens royal gates," said Kate,
+going to the piano to play while Grace was putting away her paints and
+brushes.
+
+A little later Grace went out to mail a letter. As she turned from the
+post-box, she found herself face to face with--whom but Leon
+Carrington?
+
+"Ah, an unexpected pleasure, Miss Hall!" he said, extending his hand and
+warmly grasping the one she slowly held out to him. He looked
+searchingly into her face, with clear, questioning eyes.
+
+She dropped her lashes and drew back with a touch of the old
+haughtiness, murmuring something he could not hear.
+
+"May I have the pleasure of a little walk with you?" he asked, suiting
+his step to hers and ignoring her apparent coldness.
+
+"Certainly. How long since you returned to Hampton, Mr. Carrington?"
+recovering herself as they walked.
+
+"Only a few days ago. I was called here on business for my uncle, and
+will probably be detained several weeks." He glanced at her as he spoke,
+but she gave no sign, only remarking it was a lovely season of the year
+for a visit. They walked along, talking only commonplaces, until they
+neared her home.
+
+"Did you receive my letter, Miss Gra--Miss Hall?" he asked, with some
+unsteadiness in his voice.
+
+"Yes," she replied, shortly. She did not understand herself any more
+than he did, and was vexed to find it so impossible to throw off her old
+proud ways, for she really intended to relent enough, at least, to have
+an explanation, and possibly--her thoughts could never go farther than
+this, and here she was, in the same imperious way, shutting her better
+self away from even a fair consideration of duty. These thoughts flashed
+through her mind while she walked on, apparently with the greatest
+indifference to either his words or his presence. But with a great
+effort she compelled herself to say again, with more warmth, "I received
+it, and intended to answer before this, but--" She stopped abruptly.
+
+He gratefully caught the morsel she had given, and asked if he might not
+call the next day.
+
+"Yes, you may come at three," she said, careful to set a time when Kate
+would surely be out.
+
+At the door they parted, and as she went up the stairs, she wondered
+more than ever at her hardness, for almost unconsciously she had given
+up all doubts of his honor as a gentleman. What was it all about
+anyway? Nothing but a report that he was engaged to a young lady at the
+time he proposed to her, and on the testimony of a single friend, she
+had allowed herself to be miserable, and make another miserable, through
+this foolish pride that she _would_ conquer by to-morrow afternoon.
+
+What! would she compel herself to so utterly ignore her own nature? She
+leaned against the wall half way up the stairway, startled at this
+revelation of herself. She did not know she was capable of such changes,
+and yet the last two weeks had greatly modified her opinions in many
+things.... Why should it not be so? If it were right she could be glad,
+and she reverently felt that it was right to let the Truth erase all
+errors and right all wrongs. To-night she would deny away every fault in
+her character, especially pride, deny every obstacle to understanding,
+and then earnestly ask for guidance, and wait till it came, for this was
+truly a crisis in her life.
+
+The next day she received her guest with a perceptibly softened manner.
+The hour was spent in mutual explanations, and the renewal of a more
+friendly relation on her part, much to the satisfaction of Mr.
+Carrington, whose perseverance was surely worthy this much reward, but
+Grace would go no further, although she gave him permission to call
+again. She must know herself fully before another word on the subject
+were said. Marriage was a vague and solemn theme, something to be
+pondered over days and nights and months perhaps, she thought, and said
+to him.
+
+Mr. Carrington was a man of earnest aim and high purpose, thoughtful,
+intellectual and cultured, in every way congenial to her, and she was
+glad to accept his friendship. That he had loved her through all her
+coldness and neglect, she no longer doubted, which fact was of no small
+import in his chances for her favor. Finding how absolutely false had
+been the report that had caused her misjudgment, she was anxious to
+prove herself at least, a friend.
+
+After he was gone she reviewed the situation. Had she gone too far? No.
+All was well. She was content. Even if it should end in marriage, for
+marriage was the highest symbol of perfection and--. What the symbol
+meant was yet to be revealed, but she already knew that it had a
+profound and sacred meaning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     "The study of Heredity, _spiritual_ anatomy and physiology is
+     highest of all. The key to this study is your own soul. Study
+     yourself; gain possession and mastery of your own spirit and you
+     hold the key not only to the heights of liberty, but the key that
+     unlocks imprisoned souls."--_Mary Weeks Burnett M. D._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October----.
+
+"My dear husband: Gradually the vision broadens and we become more
+accustomed to the light. It is as though we were put into a beautiful
+room filled with all manner of lovely forms and dainty colors, flowers
+and perfumes, where we have groped blindfolded from one thing to
+another, trying to form some conception of the surpassing loveliness,
+when gradually the bandage is removed, layer by layer until the whole
+enchanting scene, radiant with light is revealed to our wondering gaze,
+showing the vast difference between supposition and reality.
+
+"The light grew clearer than ever to-day, for we had our first practical
+hint on healing, inasmuch as we were told how to take up a case for
+treatment.
+
+"We must never forget that we are, and wish to remain as little
+children, in our desire to apprehend and understand Truth. The natural
+attitude of the child-mind is one of receptivity and eager interest.
+Under the guidance of wise parents he will always be willing and anxious
+to learn more and more, continually growing in wisdom and love.
+
+"Back to the zeal and innocence of childhood we go then, to learn the
+ever mysterious but ever charming alphabet of Truth, which leads us into
+the kingdom.
+
+"As we present ourselves in the great school room of life, and take or
+recognize our appointed place beside the ever present School-master, we
+learn the letters of the grand knowledge that shall teach us how to read
+the most learned books, understand the deepest philosophy, the
+profoundest science, the divinest religion. We would learn the ministry
+of healing, that will set free the 'spirits in prison;' we would be glad
+messengers of the gospel of peace. The door to great attainments is
+faithfulness in small ones.
+
+"There are three kinds or modes of healing. The first or lowest, is the
+intellectual; the second or next higher, the intuitional; the third and
+highest, the spiritual. The first only can be taught, the other two are
+attained by individual development. The first comes by reason, the
+second by faith, the third by understanding. The first is by argument or
+a system of reasoning, the second by implicit trust or confidence in the
+Principle, the third by the realization of Truth and the speaking of the
+word or perchance, by one's very presence.
+
+"But there is nothing arbitrary about this. The person who never heard
+of Christ's teaching till yesterday may have so caught the fire of Truth
+that to-day he stands at the altar a priest instead of communicant, a
+teacher instead of pupil.
+
+"Many just beginning their study of this method of healing require
+explicit directions and explanations of details, in order to apply the
+principle, feeling that they have no intuitional leadings and can not
+depend upon the invisible power because they know so little about it.
+
+"Wait; be patient; trust. Remember that 'he who is faithful in little,
+shall be made ruler over much.' You need not learn the rule if you learn
+the principle, and only so long as you are ignorant of the principle
+will you need the rule. To use the rule, as the child uses the chair in
+learning to walk, is to grow strong, and able to dispense with it; to
+use it as spectacles are used, is to make it indispensable.
+
+"If we can not yet learn through divine ways, let us learn through human
+ways. The human is inadequate to express the divine, but many nameless
+hints and light-gleams and sudden illuminations will flash upon the
+faithful worker all along the way. Words are signs of ideas and ideas
+are signs of God. When we think or speak true words, we have begun our
+mission of healing or helpfulness, and from words we go on to the
+inexpressible thrill of realization.
+
+"We can not tell when we may thus change from the letter to the spirit,
+can not tell when we come into the exalted condition of a spiritual
+understanding, and having received the illumination, we are not to feel
+that we have grown above the use of argument, for it may be necessary to
+go back to the rule with the very next treatment.
+
+"Above all else must the student of this Truth guard against what may be
+called spiritual pride. No thought of supremacy or greater advancement
+should be harbored for a moment. All such things are clouds that obscure
+the light as much as other material beliefs.
+
+"To gauge ourselves by that inimitable thirteenth chapter of I.
+Corinthians is to maintain the perfect equilibrium of a loving,
+charitable heart, that can heal and bless all human-kind, for 'love
+never faileth.'
+
+"We become, as it were, the cleansed window pane, through which shines
+the divine light of Truth. Could we always be the cleansed pane, Truth
+would melt away all error, just as the sun melts the frostwork, but
+being still in the current of human thought we must wait patiently for
+further power to reveal the God-likeness.
+
+"Wrong thought as the real cause of disease, opens new avenues of
+information; but we continue to explore and discover. Any kind of
+thought opposite the good is sure to break forth into some form of
+disease-pictures, and the question is, what kind of thought is it which
+thus reflects itself upon the patient's body? All error will produce
+pictures of error. The world's naming of the belief in heredity is the
+naming of its greatest error, or belief in sin, because that implies all
+sins of the flesh as manifested in the body.
+
+"Back of all effect is a cause; the disease is the effect, the wrong
+thought is the cause. One of the great causes of disease is sensual
+beliefs, the appetites and passions of the carnal man.
+
+"It is error to suppose he is subject to conditions unlike God, the
+Source. 'He that is born of God, can not sin, because his seed remaineth
+in him.' Being in and controlled by the universal thought current, the
+error of supposition, he manifests it in his condition. Supposing
+consumption hereditary, he suffers from the supposition; supposing
+impurities of the blood transmitted through the flesh, he finds it even
+so. Supposition, false thinking, being at the bottom of all erroneous
+conditions, we proceed to deal with them as we do with any other errors
+or lies.
+
+"When we seek for anything with a desire to gain happiness, it is
+because we hope to gain what our previous efforts have failed to bring
+us, so the one who comes to be healed by Christian Truth, comes with a
+hope at least that this will bring the health he has sought in vain from
+other sources. He has turned in all directions in response to the advice
+received from this or that one of the friendly advisers, so ready to
+constitute themselves the body guard of the world. He has tried doctors
+of every school; he has traveled east, west, north and south; he has
+plunged into healing waters of all kinds and had all kinds of healing
+waters plunged into him; he has been burned and steamed and pounded and
+starved, till he is finally disgusted enough to want something that will
+not harm if it will not cure, so he drags himself before us with
+possibly a gleam of hope, possibly the faithlessness of despair, and
+asks for a treatment.
+
+"And now you wish to know in what a treatment consists; simply in
+silently telling the patient the truth about himself as God's child, in
+giving him the principles we have learned concerning God and man, and
+with earnest gladness assuring him of his freedom. For the benefit of
+the young practitioner, we will give a few directions or suggestive
+treatments.
+
+"We ask the patient for a statement of his belief, which he is only too
+glad to give with elaborate and vivid details. We meet every statement
+with an emphatic mental denial.
+
+"The faithful student who has fasted and prayed (denied and affirmed),
+is now the embodiment of one vast negative that should wipe out the
+positive belief of any inharmony. The patient, being in the belief of
+false conditions, is of one mind with the world, and so reflects the
+beliefs of mankind. That we may be sure of meeting all classes of false
+beliefs, we deny for him the reflection of any false conceptions of
+himself from the race, his parents and ancestors, his friends and
+associates, himself and ourself, for we are still one with humanity.
+
+"Everybody has a conscious or unconscious belief in heredity, and since
+it is one of, if not _the_ most formidable of human beliefs, we deal
+with it first as the possible cause of our patient's belief in
+suffering.
+
+"After he has finished the statement of his condition, we say to him
+mentally: 'James Martin! Hear what I say, for I tell you absolute truth.
+Not one word of all this you have told me about dyspepsia is true,
+because the carnal mind, to which you have been listening, is not
+subject to the law of God, and _you_, the spiritual, immortal you, are
+subject to the mind of the spirit which recognizes the spiritual
+creation, therefore your spiritual self can not be sick or suffer from
+any inharmony.
+
+"'This carnal mind belief named dyspepsia is not a condition of your
+real self. The belief of the race, ancestors, daily associates, yourself
+or myself in heredity and the sensual appetites can not be pictured
+forth by your body in the form of dyspepsia, because the real you is
+spiritual and not subject to material beliefs. It is utterly impossible
+for you, who are spiritual, to be influenced by any thought that is
+opposite the spiritual, as it is impossible for the light to coalesce
+with darkness.
+
+"'_You_ are God's child, made in His image and likeness, and must be
+perfect like Him, for His conditions are changeless and eternal. Listen
+to this glad message that tells you absolute Truth. Realize that as
+God's child you can not suffer, for spirit knows no suffering. You can
+not be weak, for God is your strength; you can not fear anything, for
+God is your refuge and fortress. 'God hath not given us the spirit of
+fear, but of love and of power and of sound mind.'
+
+"'Listen to me!--The 'Truth sets free.'--_Now, you are free_. You gladly
+acknowledge the truth, and prove it in every thought, word and deed.
+Like the Master, I say unto you, 'Lazarus, come forth!' Come out of the
+errors in which you have been so long entombed, throw off the grave
+clothes of mortal thought, and rise to new thoughts, new conditions, a
+new life! Rejoice that you are whole, and let the world rejoice with
+you.... It is finished. In the hands of omnipresent Good, in the name of
+immaculate Truth, I leave you.
+
+"'So may this be established, yea, it _is already_ established. I thank
+Thee, Father, that thou hast heard me.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"This lesson, John, is very hard to report. I find so many questions
+suggested to my mind, and so many if's and but's.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl desired us each to take up a case for absent treatment, some
+one we would like to help, and from whom we could hear every day or so,
+or who would be under our personal notice. I am going to treat a little
+boy in the house where I board. It is quite a severe case of catarrh.
+
+"I wish you would take a case, too. Just try this form of treatment that
+I have given. It may not seem clear to you at first, but it is not the
+words you are to remember so much as the ideas. Get the thought firmly
+fixed in your mind, and the words will come of themselves.
+
+"You readily see it is using the same principle with the patient that
+has been applied in self training. First, the denial of all error, and
+then the affirmation of truth. This treatment is for any chronic
+condition, and is given twice a day, in the morning and at night.
+
+"Now, I must say good-night. It is nearly eleven, and I really ought to
+say my denials and affirmations some more, besides giving my patient the
+treatment.
+
+"With many kisses to the dear ones,
+
+  "I am your loving MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+     "Once let friendship be given that is born of God, nor time nor
+     circumstance can change it to a lessening; it must be mutual
+     growth, increasing trust, widening faith, enduring patience,
+     forgiving love, unselfish ambition and an affection built before
+     the Throne, which will bear the test of time and trial."
+
+     --_Allen Throckmorton._
+
+
+"It seems to me, Grace, you have been touching up your complexion with
+some of the same paint as that in your roses," exclaimed Kate,
+playfully, as she inspected Grace rather critically.
+
+"Really, Kate, you must be more careful, or I shall add the sin of
+vanity to my other faults," answered Grace, looking out of the window
+and smiling pleasantly, with the least touch of absent mindedness in her
+manner.
+
+"No danger of that, you dear old Gracious, but if you should say
+secretiveness, I might be willing to stop," said Kate, boldly, yet
+hardly daring to look toward the window.
+
+Grace did not answer, but continued looking out of the window for
+several minutes. "What makes you say that, Kate?" she asked at last,
+turning around soberly, while the rosy flush crept up to her temples and
+back of her ears.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, Gracious, only it seems to me you are like a pure
+white lily bell, and I want to creep into your heart and live in its
+fragrance, but--" She stopped abruptly. It seemed as though the almost
+imperceptible veil of reserve was falling lower than ever.
+
+Oh, why could she not gain Grace's confidence? These thoughts passed
+rapidly through her mind while she stood as if transfixed, waiting for
+Grace to break the interminable silence. If she had only known it, Grace
+was nearer to her at that moment than ever before, but with her eyes
+cast down, she saw not the yearning look on the face of her friend.
+
+Grace spoke at last:
+
+"But what, Kate?" she asked, taking up Kate's words where they had
+dropped.
+
+"But the petals will not open, and I am left out," finished Kate,
+determined to be frank.
+
+Grace looked out of the window again, and was about to reply, when a rap
+at the door startled them both. It was a boy with a note. "Miss Grace
+Hall?" he said, handing it to her.
+
+Grace looked at the letter and then at the boy inquiringly. "I am to
+wait for an answer," he said.
+
+"Oh," she murmured, in a dazed way, and hastened to find pen and paper
+for reply.
+
+"More mystery! I declare, it is getting interesting," thought Kate,
+recovering herself, as she furtively watched the rosy face of Grace.
+
+"Any answer?" asked the boy as he took the note.
+
+"No." The door was shut and Grace sat down beside the picture she had
+been working upon, but presently arose and began pacing the room. Kate
+looked up at her as she passed, but said nothing. She could see that
+some deep thought was struggling for utterance, and wondered much.
+
+After a few moments Grace stopped beside her. "I wish I might speak
+freely to you, Kathie, but--" she hesitated, "but it has never been
+natural for me to be confidential, and--"
+
+She began her promenade again, but presently came back, and drawing her
+chair close up to Kate, told her the whole story, with long pauses and
+much hesitating speech.
+
+"And now he is in the city; he--wants an answer. He has invited me
+to--ride with him--to-morrow."
+
+"Surely, you will not refuse him that privilege?" cried the impetuous
+Kate, with visions of a romance unfolding in thrilling chapters before
+her very eyes.
+
+"No, of course not," in a low tone, "but how shall I answer him?" The
+last was scarcely audible. It seemed almost as though she spoke to
+herself. With her forefinger she idly traced some hieroglyphics on her
+lap.
+
+"What says your heart, my Lilybell?" asked Kate, softly, as she caressed
+the hand that was at liberty.
+
+"'The prisoned bird doth ofttimes sing, but never at the bidding of its
+jailer,'" was the low reply, with a faint smile, but tearful eyes.
+
+"Poor Lilybell; she can not bloom before her time. I can wait for her to
+open now, for I am close to her throbbing heart. Wait, dear Grace. Let
+us sit silently and ask the Father for guidance."
+
+Sweet and solemn moment, when with one accord, they waited for the
+Spirit to pour out the full vials of love and wisdom. It was a precious
+time of sweet communion, of giving and receiving the best, a
+consecration of self to better efforts, higher aims, holier living; a
+baptism of strength and peace and lovely thoughts.
+
+Grace had entered upon a new epoch. The past, with its longings and
+struggles, its loneliness and bitterness, was already fading into the
+background of memory like some dark, ill-favored picture, and in its
+place came the present, with its balmy atmosphere and dainty colorings,
+promising joy and peace. The morning looked fair. How would be the noon
+and eventide?
+
+Ah, no questioning when you ask the Father's guidance! Have you not
+asked, dear heart?
+
+Wait till the answer comes. Wait till the soundless message is delivered
+into your heart's safe keeping....
+
+The last beams of the setting sun came through the window and bathed
+them in its red-gold glory. In her exalted mood, it seemed to Kate like
+a heavenly vision. She saw Grace glorified with a divine radiance,
+baptized with a new peace. White-winged angels hovered near, like pure
+thoughts personified. Every glinting sunbeam seemed a golden shaft of
+love.
+
+The glory paled into a mellow twilight. The enchanting picture faded,
+but the essence of its beauty changed into a heart-melody of softened
+sacred joy. What but music could speak in this hallowed moment?
+
+Kate's very soul would utter itself. She went to the piano as in a
+dream. Soft, low notes, faint and sweet, breathed of tender questionings
+and tremulous doubts; then a higher, more triumphant strain of victory
+swelled the notes that lingered but a moment, ere a tone of sadness and
+regret struck the keys, whispering of sacred duty and solemn
+responsibility.... Again the music changed. Now peace and joy thrilled
+and rippled through the melodious chords....
+
+Dearer than ever was the friendship thus cemented. They had been caught
+up to heaven, as it were, and that which had been bound on earth was now
+bound in heaven.
+
+"Mystical more than magical, is the communing of soul with soul, both
+looking heavenward. Here, properly, soul first speaks with soul; for
+only in looking heavenward, take it in what sense you may, not looking
+earthward, does what we can call union, mutual love, society, begin to
+be possible."
+
+They sat till late into the night, discussing and considering all phases
+of life and its problems.
+
+Kate read Mrs. Hayden's letter, which in the agitation and excitement of
+the first part of the evening she had quite forgotten. Because of their
+deep earnestness they were well prepared to catch the healing mood. This
+experience seemed indeed the shower that most opened the blossom of
+understanding, and ere they slept, each had taken some poor suffering
+mortal into her care as a patient. The blessings they had received were
+already being passed to the waiting neighbor.
+
+It is the deep, unselfish God-love that takes the world in its embrace.
+To perceive, feel, live the divine Love, is to have broken the old shell
+of selfishness, when we may begin to send the tender rootlets of being
+into the ready soil of the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+  "The power to bind and loose to Truth is given!
+  The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of Heaven.
+  The power, which in a sense belongs to none,
+  Thus understood belongs to every one."
+
+  --_Abraham Coles._
+
+  "Thro' envy, thro' malice, thro' hating,
+    Against the world, early and late,
+  No jot of our courage abating--
+    Our part is to work and to wait."
+
+  --_Anon._
+
+
+  MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"Dear ones at home: Your letters were all received this afternoon. Am
+pleased to know that Mabel is so interested, for it will help her so
+much in her studies and work. I must begin my daily report at once, as
+there is not much time before class.
+
+"There was no lesson yesterday, and about noon Mrs. Dawn came after me
+to go with her and Mrs. Browning, her hostess, to the dentist's, as Mrs.
+Browning had to have a tooth extracted. We started, treating her all the
+way with the quieting, reassuring thoughts that allay fear. Before she
+went in we agreed to hold that thought.
+
+"When Mrs. Browning went into the office, we remained in the waiting
+room thinking as intently as possible:
+
+"'There is not a thing to fear, Lida Browning, there is no tooth-ache
+with your real self, there is no sensation in matter. You can entertain
+nothing but the One Life. The One Mind thinks, and you are His idea,
+perfect as your Creator. Good is all, Love is all, Peace is already with
+you, for you are one with the Father.'
+
+... "It was done. The dentist was so amazed that he hardly remembered to
+give his patient a glass of water.
+
+"'Well, I never knew a cuspidate to come so hard. Didn't it hurt
+terribly?' he asked sympathetically.
+
+"'Not a bit except when you first put on the forceps,' was her prompt
+reply as she rinsed out her mouth....
+
+"I need say no more. You can imagine our pleasure at this victory. We
+never know how little our faith till we see how astonished we are at the
+demonstration.
+
+"You ask if Mrs. Pearl has explained your queries. A few questions were
+handed in yesterday, but I had not time to put them in my letter. One
+that always puzzled us, was: What is the origin of evil? The questions
+are written on slips of paper and laid on the table. She answers them
+before giving the regular lesson. When she read this slip there was not
+a little stir among the fifty eager questioners. 'What is the origin of
+evil?' she repeated. 'It has no origin,' was the unsatisfactory answer,
+after a momentary silence. Oh! the blankness of those faces! 'But,' she
+resumed presently, 'if you ask how _seeming_ evil originated, I may give
+you the ideas that came to me as a solution of that mortal mind
+question.'
+
+"You know we might ask questions of each other forever, but unless our
+thoughts are tinged with same quality, or run in the same direction, the
+satisfactory answer to one may not be at all satisfactory to another. In
+other words, we will not recognize the same phase of truth, unless we
+are in the same stage of development, so if you are not willing to take
+my explanation as true, it may be that you are not yet where you can
+perceive it, or it may be, you require a different illustration to
+convey the same thought, or, there may be innumerable reasons, but of
+this one blessed fact be assured: if you hold yourself in the receptive
+attitude, and sincerely expect to be guided by the spirit of truth, some
+day the answer will come to you with such irresistible force and
+plainness that you can not forget it, or ever be in doubt upon that
+point again.
+
+"It was in this way the light came to me. That question had puzzled me
+more than all else, and I asked every healer whom I met as to the
+correct solution. For several months I pondered and fretted over it. At
+last, in despair, I let it alone, resolving I would not be further
+troubled. But one day it unfolded itself so clearly and beautifully I
+was completely satisfied.
+
+"Here it is: Taking the first account of creation, we find man made in
+the image and likeness of God, given dominion over all things. If we
+believe man to be spiritual and not material, if we know that spirit
+_can not_ change its character or quality, we must know that spiritually
+man never fell, but that he _seemed_ to fall through our misconception
+and misunderstanding of appearances.
+
+"Man now manifests what he believes in; his consciousness of truth is
+not fully developed and he mistakes appearances for realities. Having
+all possibilities of recognizing only the good, he is perfect. For every
+mistake that is made he manifests error, the fallen, or rather the
+undeveloped state. The Truth and Love that he manifests in his life, is
+the revealment of his God-like nature. In the glimpses of his true self
+he recognizes his inheritance of power, and in his mistaken conceptions
+forgets to acknowledge God. He then judges according to appearances, and
+says things are true because they appear true to the senses.
+
+"The creating principle of life is perfect, but man neglects to
+acknowledge this divine power in proportion to his selfishness. It is
+therefore his selfishness that prevents him from recognizing the Good,
+and causes him to see, name and believe in matter and its consequences;
+and he thus becomes materially minded, and is known as the 'Adam' in
+'whom all die.'
+
+"Adam signifies error, clay, unreality. Christ signifies Truth, Spirit,
+Reality. If we believe in things that appear to be the creation, we are
+believing in nothingness, which so proves itself by death and
+disintegration. If we believe appearances to be the _sign_ of the real,
+we are acknowledging the spiritual to be the all, hence it proves itself
+by making even the body its sign, manifest life, health, perfection.
+
+"If we cast out all selfishness, pure love takes its place. We must be
+purified from the beliefs of the world in selfishness and its
+consequences by recognizing that our 'sufficiency is of God.'
+
+"This was very plain to me, John, and I hope you will find it so too,
+but if you do not, wait, and as soon as you are ready for it, the answer
+will come to you.
+
+"The lesson to-day was on deception and personal influences. The whole
+world has been deceived into believing man is fleshly instead of
+spiritual, so many false thoughts and beliefs have arisen, which are the
+cause of all disease and trouble. Universally we are deceived,
+individually we are deceived, and it is not only because we are making
+our beliefs visible on the body, but because we suffer from them
+mentally and physically that it is necessary to discover what they are
+and cast them out.
+
+"The term deception will cover the mistakes believed and made in
+ignorance, and deceitfulness will include the beliefs in and expression
+of deceitfulness. On the second day the patient is treated for the
+world's next greatest beliefs, which are deception and deceitfulness,
+and as before, we set him free from this belief, as possibly reflected
+or absorbed through one or more or all of these five avenues we
+mentioned in the first treatment.
+
+"Because the world has admitted the first great lie, that the material
+creation is the true one, or synonymous with the true, we have 'yielded
+ourselves servants to sin,' hence will see the consequences of such
+false conclusion, until we deny the lie and affirm the truth.
+
+  'Oh what a tangled web we weave,
+  When first we practice to deceive,'
+
+is a couplet I remember learning long ago, when I was a child, and how
+applicable it is to this problem of deception. Truly, it is a tangled
+web, and the only way to get it untangled is to break off the thread and
+go back to the beginning where we can truly say, I am created free and
+perfect and whole in His image, and can not be influenced by anything
+different from Him.
+
+"This is _always_ spiritually true, but if we deal with the worldly
+beliefs, we find that according to appearances, we are under the
+influence of our own and every other person's wrong thought. We say of
+some people, 'how happy I am in their company, how it uplifts me to be
+in their presence.' With others we feel a nameless depression, a
+fearful, unhappy feeling, and shun their company. As Emerson so aptly
+says: 'With some I walk among the stars, whilst others pin me to the
+wall.'
+
+"Now, in reality, no good ever comes from personal influence, although
+in the first instance it might seem so. Personal, from the word
+_persona_, a mask, is only applied to the physical self or carnal mind;
+therefore we can receive no benefit from the _personal_ quality of our
+friend, but we are benefited and uplifted by his freedom from
+personality, or in other words by the divine individuality flowing
+through him and expressed by his benevolence, his love, his
+cheerfulness, his wisdom. Inasmuch as he is free from personal or
+selfish thoughts, he is filled and permeated with gifts from the divine
+Fountain of _all_ benevolence, _all_ love, _all_ cheerfulness, _all_
+wisdom.
+
+"There is a difference between personality and individuality which most
+people do not recognize. Personality only pertains to the physical,
+while individuality is the term properly applied to the spiritual self.
+'There is but one Mind, the Universal Mind, which, if we can lay hold
+on, will give us all knowledge, wisdom and power,' said Emerson.
+
+"When we can throw aside a belief in personality, or personal influence,
+we will be free. The negative thoughts sent out by the world have no
+power over one who has become filled with positive thoughts of
+righteousness. When we trust wholly to the Good, and become wholly at
+one with the Good, recognizing the supremacy of the Good, we are free
+from all belief in miseries or burdens. We breathe purer air, which is
+invisible but life-giving; we feed on heavenly manna, the true word that
+is divinely nourishing; we escape the awful bondage of fear, knowing the
+perfect love that casts out fear. We can not fear any false beliefs or
+wrong thoughts, for we are so filled with true thoughts, no such
+falsities can enter our mind.
+
+"Some people talk as though we have great cause to tremble at this awful
+counterfeit power of mortal mind, but if they would not talk of it, nor
+fear it as having power, it would vanish as mist before the morning sun.
+
+"The great sin is in admitting a lie. Admit the belief of sickness as a
+reality and you will see many witnesses to prove it. 'Agree with thine
+adversary quickly, lest he turn and rend thee,' means make haste to
+dispose of the lie that will throttle you, if you fellowship with it
+ever so little. Let us not be deceived, but let us 'awake to
+righteousness and sin not.'
+
+"Another question, and a very important one, was: 'What is the
+difference between the different teachers of Christian Healing?' I can
+best give the substance of Mrs. Pearl's reply by reference to Mrs.
+Fuller, the healer from Trenton.
+
+"You remember when she gave her parlor lecture at Mrs. Haight's, she
+said: 'Everything that did not come from her teacher was mesmerism, that
+it was altogether false, and it was so much of a power that it was
+indeed to be feared, for there was no telling what its subtlety and
+cunning would suggest and execute; that no cure effected by it was
+permanent, but that the patients would sooner or later be worse than
+before.'
+
+"Oh, dear, I must not rehearse it, for of course you remember how my old
+headache overtook me when I got home, and how wrought up I was all
+night. Now I know what caused it, and _now_ I know the difference.
+
+"In the first place, these people are taught the pure and beautiful
+foundation of pure Christian Healing, but instead of holding to their
+premise that all is good, they begin to talk about people and things
+that are _not_ good, imputing false motives, and giving false power to
+those who, as they say, are not in the truth.
+
+"If they would only remember that counterfeits can have no power except
+as it is delegated to them, that unreal thoughts must disappear in the
+presence of true thoughts, they would not be troubled and puzzled.
+Adhering to the law, they would recognize and talk about the Good only.
+
+"Ah, John, here is the secret of Jesus' words, 'Resist not evil.' If we
+resist anything, we recognize it as something. If we regard evil as an
+entity, we can not help fearing or fighting it, but if we know it is
+nothingness claiming to be something, we deal with it accordingly.
+
+"Whoever resists evil or calls evil a power, has not denied the reality
+of evil faithfully enough. To talk of anything as having power, is to
+believe in the power and become entangled in its meshes. That explains
+Mrs. Fuller's remark that she was 'actually afraid to meet one of those
+false teachers on the street, and always took pains to warn people
+against them.' I speak of Mrs. Fuller because you know so well what she
+did and said, that you will understand this explanation better.
+
+"Another remark she made was, that 'this power of mortal mind is wholly
+ignored by these false teachers, although they secretly use it so
+effectually and disastrously.' Because they do not talk so much of evil,
+she thinks they ignore it, while really they silently but earnestly and
+vigorously deny it, thereby getting a sure control over it. She was
+taught to call this seeming power of mortal thought Mesmerism, and
+Animal Magnetism, and after giving it such formidable names, and so
+mighty a place, it is most natural for her to say that it affects
+herself and family or her patients, causing them to be slow in yielding
+to treatment. Thus you can readily see how she accounts for her
+failures.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl teaches that we can deal with this influence of carnal or
+mortal mind, by denying for the patient the conscious or unconscious
+reflection of it from these five different sources. To the patient who
+is ignorant of truth, mortal thought has a power, because he has
+acknowledged it as having power, but in our silent conviction of its
+powerlessness, we speak the true word that sets him free. The whole
+secret lies in our own freedom from belief in this false power.
+
+"The name Mesmerism or Magnetism makes it seem like some awful monster,
+lurking in every corner, ready to devour us, while, as Mrs. Pearl says,
+we go our way, quietly denying all appearance of evil, proving the law
+of Good by recognizing only the Good in thought and speech.
+
+"How beautiful this teaching is! and how wonderfully the spirit leads us
+into all truth. But it can not teach us if we talk error, or
+deliberately judge others. Never till we are faithful in acknowledging
+the one Principle of Life will it prove itself the only power over us.
+
+"After the questions, Mrs. Pearl spoke of the third treatment. We treat
+for everything we might have missed in the first two treatments.
+Sometimes this is called the sin treatment, for it takes up so many
+things that belong more or less to everybody, according to the world's
+belief. A more explicit naming is selfishness.
+
+"Selfishness is the beginning, the mother of all the rest. It reminds
+one of the seven devils from which poor Mary Magdalen was freed. It is
+not unlikely these were their names: Selfishness, pride, envy, avarice,
+jealousy, malice and cruelty. This we deny for the patient through the
+five different sources, and you can see how apt it will be to touch him,
+for who is there of all earth's children that is perfectly free from
+any of these qualities. With our strong faith in the law and power of
+the word, we sturdily deny everything that might be the shadow
+obstructing his light.
+
+"As we go on in this study, we learn the meaning of these outshowings of
+disease. Every visible thing is the expression of a thought, whether
+God-given or man-supposed. We look into a patient's face and read or
+interpret the signs of his thought. Is he selfish, unkind or severe in
+his disposition, there are the lines and expressions that betray him. Is
+he lovely, gentle and kind, a nameless feeling of peace and trust steals
+over us.
+
+"In the moments or times of silence that every healer should seek, there
+may come something to hint of the truth, some word or text or
+mind-picture that will teach what no book or teacher could tell, for
+'the spirit of truth leads us into all truth,' and the ways and means
+are varied according to our capacity to receive.
+
+"A mind-picture is a symbol representing some thought. For instance:
+Suppose while I sit in the silence, there comes to my consciousness a
+fragment of landscape, a child's face, a storm, a sun. These are ideas
+symbolized. If it be a pleasant scene, it may be to me a glimpse of the
+'green pastures and still waters' that David sang about when depicting
+the life of the righteous. It would mean peace for my patient. If the
+symbol be a child's face, it may mean that I must become as a little
+child in order to be led into the kingdom. A storm may signify that my
+patient is passing through a crisis of mental commotion, in which case I
+must use the invariable rule, deny the false and affirm the true.
+
+"On the other hand I may never see a symbol, but some suggestive text
+may come into my mind. If I were depressed or discouraged, these words
+might give me new courage and hope: 'Fear not, for I am with thee;'
+'wait patiently on the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine
+heart.'
+
+"Or I might not be conscious of anything while I am sitting thus in the
+silence. The answer to my silent question may come to me in the most
+commonplace way days or weeks after it is asked. Some person may say
+something that will be the very clue I am seeking. We are not to be
+anxious or troubled if many questions perplex us, or many problems seem
+insoluble, but wait, trusting that 'he is faithful who promised.' We
+must not be wishing for the same signs or powers that others have, but
+appreciate what is given to us, for faithfulness shall receive its full
+reward in due time 'if we faint not.'
+
+"No more to-day. Love to the babies. How glad I am to know they are so
+well and happy.
+
+  "Faithfully, MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+  "Comfort our souls with love,
+    Love of all human kind;
+  Love special, close in which, like sheltered dove,
+    Each weary heart its own safe nest may find;
+  And love that turns above
+    Adoringly; contented to resign
+  All loves, if need be, for the love divine."
+
+  --_D. M. Mulock Craik._
+
+
+Grace looked very lovely, as she stepped into the carriage, when Mr.
+Carrington called for her. A suggestion of reserved feeling gave an
+added lustre to her beautiful eyes, and the faintest wild-rose tint in
+her cheeks made her a fit study for any artist.
+
+She looks like Psyche just awakened. Can it be possible, that with all
+her charms, she was sleeping, before to-day? he thought as he took his
+seat beside her, thrilled with new hope.
+
+He drove into one of the broad, quiet avenues that led out of the city
+and into a country road. "I thought you would like to visit 'The Glen,'
+and see its autumn dress," he said, as they came in view of the river
+over which lay the "Glen" road.
+
+"I have been wishing I might go there, before the leaves fell, and this
+is exactly what I enjoy," replied Grace, looking out over the scene
+before her with a keen pleasure.
+
+"Perhaps this is an answer to your wish. Sometimes I think our wishes
+are answered because of their intensity," said Mr. Carrington, looking
+meaningly into her face.
+
+"George Eliot says: 'The very intensity keeps them from being
+answered.'" What gave him the sudden, triumphant certainty that he could
+bide his time? She had lost all her haughtiness, apparently. He had
+never seen her in the mood of to-day.
+
+"_Apropos_ of wishes," he resumed, "which are properly thoughts, I have
+two friends in Boston, who can communicate with each other, no matter
+how far apart they may be. They call it the power of thought."
+
+"Yes, thought transference. I am quite interested and fully believe it,"
+said Grace, glad to have the opportunity of sounding him on this and
+kindred themes.
+
+He glanced at her in polite surprise. "Indeed," he said, "are you
+acquainted with the subject?"
+
+"Somewhat; I have seen enough to know it is founded on law," she
+replied, briefly.
+
+"What law?" he asked, wonderingly, with a slight smile of incredulity
+lighting his face.
+
+"Mental law, of course."
+
+She then went on to explain to him something of her study of mental
+healing. At first he was rather skeptical, but on seeing her
+seriousness, he very soon grew sober and gave the most respectful and
+apparently absorbed attention. By the time she finished, he was really
+interested.
+
+"I have often thought that some day there would be more light upon the
+philosophy of thought, but I was not aware it was so close upon us," he
+finally said.
+
+"It is certainly much needed now," she replied, looking dreamily at the
+white clouds floating in the bits of blue above the trees. She was
+thinking how much it had been worth to her in her trial last night. He
+noticed the far-away look and wished he might know her thoughts.
+
+What would have been his surprise, could he have been told at this
+moment how much he was already indebted to Christian Science? for had it
+not softened the cruel pride that had so encrusted her before? He knew
+nothing of this. He perceived a change in her manner and even character
+since he last saw her two years before, although even then his great
+love had been able to condone all weaknesses, or what others would call
+weaknesses. To him they were part of her lovableness.
+
+When she so coldly rejected him, unlike most men, he had determined to
+wait patiently for her indifference to turn into reciprocation. He had
+recognized but one thing, the simple, supreme fact that he loved Grace
+Hall. In regard to her, there was and never could be any other thought.
+Inspired with such love as this, such sublime patience, such infinite
+hope, is it any wonder he looked into her eyes and read a hint of
+victory?
+
+The time was drawing near. His two years of waiting surely gave him
+liberty to ask, and the right to receive.... As for that, love, such
+love as his, had royal rights and it would win its own way when the
+moment came. He would approach the subject gradually, talking about his
+coming departure, although he had mentioned that in his note, had even
+dared to tell her this must be his excuse for requesting an answer
+sooner than she wished to give it.
+
+"Oh, what a lovely group of colors!" exclaimed Grace, involuntarily,
+pointing to a tree decked in the most gorgeous foliage.
+
+"Shall I get some leaves for you?" he asked, anticipating her desire,
+and descended from the carriage.
+
+Presently he returned, with his hands full of small branches. "They are
+lovely hues. Is there not something else you would like? I saw some
+beautiful ferns over yonder," he said, pointing to the spot.
+
+"Will we have time? I _would_ like to get out," she exclaimed eagerly.
+
+"Time! 'There's time for all things,' Shakespeare says," laughed Mr.
+Carrington, as he assisted her to alight.
+
+Grace was in her element amid the speaking grandeur of Nature's hills.
+
+"Have you a sharp pencil, Mr. Carrington? I seem to have lost the one I
+always carry with me, and that grand oak tree I must have as a model."
+
+He quickly sharpened one and gave it to her.
+
+How beautiful she looked! He delighted to watch every movement of the
+deft fingers, to study every expression of the beautiful eyes and mobile
+mouth. He revelled in her beauty, because to him she was the
+personification of all that was lovely and noble and great. Her
+character he would have loved just as much had she been plain instead of
+beautiful, for his ideal was the inward, not the outward beauty, except
+as the two blended into one, as they did with her.
+
+"You seem to be partial to the oak, Miss Hall. Is there any reason for
+it?"
+
+"Yes, I am. It is a grand symbol of strength and firmness of character,"
+she replied, still sketching rapidly. "I like to paint trees, for they
+express so much. Some show such kindly benevolence, with their broad,
+spreading branches and friendly shade, some are so graceful, with their
+tall trunks and delicately veined leaves, as though showing a fine,
+tender nature; while others are stunted and rough, with coarse, thick
+foliage. I place each one as to character and station, and they teach me
+many beautiful lessons."
+
+"And they will teach me many after this, Miss Grace."
+
+He wanted to say something more, but she was so innocently unconscious
+of anything but her work that he must wait for a better opportunity.
+
+Having finished her sketch, Grace looked up. The self-consciousness that
+had scarcely left her, save these past few moments, now returned with
+painful suddenness. Her eyes met his, and a vivid flush overspread her
+face, but she said nothing.
+
+"Shall we go?" he asked, holding out his hand to assist her. His eyes
+expressed the question his lips could not frame, but she did not see
+them. They went to the carriage in silence.
+
+The road presently left the woods and turned into a broad country lane.
+Both had forgotten the proposed trip to "The Glen," but it made no
+difference. At last the undercurrent of feeling had burst through all
+reserves.
+
+Mr. Carrington awaited the final answer, and what did she say?
+
+It was the sacred page in a maiden's life that is read but once.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Grace had found in her lover a man who was broadminded and liberal
+enough to fairly consider these matters from a woman's standpoint. They
+freely discussed a married woman's rights and privileges, and both
+agreed that a wife should have an individuality after marriage as well
+as before. "I desired to express myself on this point before, my dear
+Grace," said Mr. Carrington, "because to my mind it is a mutual life,
+and should be a mutual development."
+
+"It is, indeed. I have never looked at it in the right way, till the
+last few weeks. I used to feel that marriage was degrading rather than
+elevating, because it seemed as though a woman had to give up so much
+that really belonged to her, her name, her property, her freedom as an
+individual. But now I see that true marriage should bring freedom in the
+fullest sense of the word."
+
+"In love there is no bondage," he replied, admiring her independent
+thought.
+
+"Yes, but the world has a faint conception of love, the love that saves
+to the uttermost, and endures forever," said Grace.
+
+"With such love there would be no danger of marriage degrading the
+individual, no need of divorce."
+
+He spoke strongly for he felt strongly. Any one speaking from the depths
+of a heart-conviction, speaks with authority.
+
+"The world needs to be lifted to a higher standard on these matters. The
+subject of marriage is too sacred to jest about, and people in general
+think it no harm to toy with the word and all that pertains to it with
+the utmost carelessness."
+
+Grace was more like herself now. She was very happy in the thought that
+Mr. Carrington understood this as she did, but she was not a little
+surprised to find herself giving such free expression to her opinions.
+
+"Indifference and laxity is the result of the trifling. My theory is
+that these things should be sacredly spoken of in the family, when boys
+and girls are growing up. That is the way my mother did," said Mr.
+Carrington reverently.
+
+"Yes, the family is more responsible than society, for it makes
+society," she replied, secretly touched by the allusion to his mother.
+
+She felt more and more confidence in Mr. Carrington. It seemed
+surprising to find how rapidly her love for him had increased since she
+gave it permission to grow. She did not realize that it had been a
+smothered plant before, trying to live without sunshine. Now it could
+grow in the warmth and brightness of beautiful day.
+
+It was early twilight when they returned. Kate was waiting for her. The
+joyous light in Grace's eyes, though she tried to veil it, told the
+story. Kate put her arms about her, saying, as she caressed the rosy
+cheek:
+
+"Lilybell is bloomed at last."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+  "Be cheerful: wipe thine eyes:
+  Some falls are means the happier to arise.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Before the curing of a strong disease,
+  Even in the instant of repair and health
+  The fit is strongest; evils that take leave,
+  On their departure most of all show evil."
+
+  --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+For two days no letter came, and then Mr. Hayden received two, which he
+handed to the girls as he met them on the street the same evening.
+
+"Can you spare them both?" said Kate, holding out her hand eagerly.
+
+"Oh, yes; I am especially engaged to-night, and besides they are better
+together. I am rather glad for the delay. I was afraid the first one had
+miscarried," he replied.
+
+The waiting had only increased their interest, and on reaching home they
+at once sat down to read the the two letters handed them by Mr. Hayden.
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"Dear John: I suppose you, like the rest of us, are anxious to know how
+the patient feels after such a vigorous denial of the seven evils. It is
+quite necessary to know what to do at this stage.
+
+"After the treatment for special sins, James Martin comes with bitter
+complaints that he is worse instead of better. He tells a doleful story
+of how he suffered all night; had chills and fever exactly as when he
+had the ague long ago; how he coughed and choked and broke out with
+something like measles, and was all the while so vilely sick it seemed
+as though he was about to die.
+
+"As he is telling his pitiful tale, with perhaps a gleam of hatred,
+disgust or helpless anguish in his eyes, we are to sit calmly by and
+very soothingly give him the mental information that 'there is nothing
+to fear.'
+
+"When he concludes his mournful story, we assure him in quiet tones that
+there is no occasion for alarm, as we know how to deal with these
+symptoms. Then, very gently and slowly, with a most self-possessed
+attitude of mind, we talk to him mentally something after this fashion:
+
+"'There! James Martin, it is all right. Oh, no; nothing has hurt you,
+nor can hurt you. You are not afraid of anything; you know there is no
+reality in sickness; you are not suffering any inharmony because of fear
+or remorse for sin. It can not be possible for you to reflect fear or
+remorse from your parents, or the race or your daily associates. Neither
+is it possible for you to suffer from your own fear or remorse, nor
+mine. Remember, you are spiritual and not material, and can fear
+nothing. God is your intelligence, and you know that truth is
+all-powerful. Now, listen! You are happy, you are content, you are
+filled with blessed peace, 'the peace that passeth all understanding.'
+You know the Lord is your shepherd. He leadeth you beside the still
+waters. He maketh you to lie down in green pastures _now, this moment_.
+There is no future to God's promises; they are in the eternal present.
+There! James Martin, a sweet ease comes to you, the burden is taken
+away; you are in the gentle care of Truth, which ever whispers, 'Come
+unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest.' Sh--h! Gently the arms enfold you, sweetly peace and love embrace
+you, and you are at rest; sleep if you like. Softly come sweet words of
+divine love to your waiting ear, 'fear not, fear not, for I am with
+thee.' Peace ... peace be with you, Amen.'
+
+"This stage is called chemicalization, because our words of truth,
+dropped into the mind filled with error, produce a fermentation similar
+to the effect produced by the union of different chemicals. Sometimes
+the patient chemicalizes after the first treatment, in which case the
+second and third treatments are omitted.
+
+"When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to a
+last year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of the
+beliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rooted
+in the mental soil.
+
+"Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnished
+plowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in its
+path. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettled
+and his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gently
+soothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure him
+there is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peace
+and assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverized
+and prepared for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fair
+truth-flowers.
+
+"To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to dig
+down into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that are
+imbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs he
+may have had.
+
+"Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously or
+unconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization only
+marks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of which
+the bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law for
+chemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without even
+noticing it.
+
+"Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires the
+soothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhaps
+unconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous,
+rousing thoughts should be given--sharp, decisive and emphatic, as when
+awaking a heavy sleeper.
+
+"When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acute
+condition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimes
+called. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting every
+thought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make the
+law--and the true word is always law--that they do not or can not
+reflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives,
+taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear for
+the little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, according
+to mortal thought, besides the near ones in the family, deny that any
+thought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon the
+child or manifested in this belief of sickness.
+
+"Sometimes children are treated entirely through the parents, that is,
+the parents are quieted and assured of the truth concerning their little
+one--that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fear
+can touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.
+
+"Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or rather
+long-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very little
+denial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to be
+applied more to the parents--the denial of fear.
+
+"If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are not
+at one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treat
+the patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will prove
+itself through you. _Know_ truth and do not tamely believe it, then you
+may have marvelous proof of the difference between knowledge and belief,
+God-like understanding and blind faith.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl very clearly answered the question which was asked
+concerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.
+
+"There is always punishment so long as we are in mortal belief, but it
+is only in mortal belief we can suffer, for the spirit made in the image
+and likeness of God can not suffer, neither know suffering.
+
+"The word everlasting should be translated age-lasting, to give the
+original meaning. Fire is a symbol of purification, and in the language
+of ancient times it was customary to use strong figures of speech.
+
+"In the fifteenth chapter of John, wherein Jesus explains about the vine
+and branches, what could be plainer than his illustration of the dead
+branches? 'Every branch that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and
+every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth
+more fruit.'
+
+"Every false belief is a branch that beareth not fruit, hence must be
+taken away and destroyed even as dead limbs are burned. Falsity or evil,
+being nothingness, can not exist because it is not of the real creation
+and is necessarily cast into the fire of purification, an illustration
+well understood at the time, since all the city refuse was taken to
+Gehenna, a place outside Jerusalem, where fire was always kept for the
+purpose of burning this waste matter.
+
+"'Every branch that beareth fruit is purged'--that is, if you are a
+mixture of good and evil beliefs, you will have to be cleansed of the
+evil, before you can do much with the good. This cleansing process is
+quite properly named purging. This is what we undergo in suffering.
+
+"'He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' means the good in us chastens
+us, cleanses us for the further working of the Good. Punishment, then,
+there must be, just as long as we believe in, and fellowship with error.
+
+"Mrs. McClaren, a staunch Presbyterian, did not seem satisfied with this
+explanation, but Mrs. Pearl told her not to let the question trouble
+her, for if she would do the best she could with what she knew, in due
+time the solution would come to her.
+
+"In the night it came. After she retired, the question kept pressing
+upon her so that she could not sleep.
+
+"About two o'clock it seemed as though a great flood of light came, and
+with it the clearance of the whole problem. The texts on that theme
+became illumined as it were, and she could see how impossible it is for
+the spirit to suffer or be punished when it is like God who can not
+'behold evil.' She came over this morning and told me about it. I will
+give you her explanation of Matt. xxv: 31, 32. 'When the Son of man
+shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
+sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all
+nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
+divideth his sheep from the goats.'
+
+"The Son of man, consciousness of Truth, shall come (be developed) with
+all glorious thoughts (angels) and judge us in all our ways (nations)
+and shall discriminate between the false and the true, the evil and the
+good, then the good motives or good thoughts (sheep) shall coalesce or
+be set on the right hand with Truth, and the evil or erroneous beliefs
+(goats) shall be relegated to the left, the negative or no-side, and
+swallowed up in their native darkness which is nothingness.
+
+"This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same line
+with Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that it
+came to _her_. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted from
+her heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would make
+her disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was an
+incontrovertible doctrine. Now she realizes that nothing but Truth
+itself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burst
+for joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, and
+after all, you are used to enthusiasm since your wife is an enthusiast.
+
+"Is it not wonderful? I ask myself over and over, and echo answers
+'wonderful'! But oh, how ignorant we ever will be, unless we stop and
+wait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance and
+foolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, for
+it is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we have
+learned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplessly
+bound to error's ways.
+
+"Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have been
+baptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough to
+answer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not know
+just how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weak
+to do the things that come to us to be done.
+
+"'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us--'why doubt
+your knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence,
+when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is your
+strength?'
+
+"As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent,
+omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts will
+fade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whose
+thoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we are
+unsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no foundation, no sense of
+security, to the one who is continually listening to other than the
+Good.
+
+"Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws his
+knowledge by inspiration from this source shall become as one with you,
+and we all shall be as one with the supreme Mind.
+
+"There is an indelible but invisible stamp of truth marking the
+utterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and the
+invisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,'
+sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
+world,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgment
+faculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teach
+us how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read the
+thoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growth
+of his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to another
+while we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well to
+take a music lesson from a different teacher every week.
+
+"We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of the
+doctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we do
+when we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow in
+knowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth that
+sets us free.
+
+"Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many times
+the discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Work
+with an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you serve
+the only Power, are governed by the one Principle, Infinite Justice,
+that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Best
+rewards you.
+
+"Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we ask
+of the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do is
+always with us.
+
+"This is the fifth stage in the patient's progress, and we treat him for
+ignorance and foolishness as possibly reflected from the five different
+sources. Deny that he can be ignorant of the truth, or foolish in
+believing error. Affirm all strength and courage and steadfastness. He
+comes to-day with an uncertain ring in his voice. He is undecided as to
+what to do; is weak and nerveless; can not tell whether he is better or
+worse. The treatment for strength and courage will bring him back to
+Truth, and he will brighten and revive under the warm influence of your
+sunny faith.
+
+"One more lesson! I shall be glad, yet sorry, when it is over. Oh, what
+an experience this has been! Surely, I shall never be such a weak,
+impatient woman again. Thank God! Now I know what there is for me in
+this beautiful world.
+
+  "Good bye,
+
+  "MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+  "Build on resolve, and not upon regret,
+  The structure of thy future. Do not grope
+  Among the shadows of old sins, but let
+  Thine own soul's light shine on the path of hope,
+  And dissipate the darkness. Waste no tears
+  Upon the blotted record of lost years,
+  But turn the leaf, and smile, oh smile to see
+  The fair, white pages that remain for thee."
+
+  --_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"I suppose this is the last letter I will write on the lessons in
+Christian Healing, but I will be faithful as ever, even though I tell it
+all over again when I see you.
+
+"Everybody looked regretful enough when they went into the class room
+to-day, but a hundred fold more so when we went out and the good-byes
+were said. It means so much to us all. We have passed through twelve
+lessons which may symbolize twelve epochs or stages through which we
+proceed from ignorance to understanding, and understanding to complete
+demonstration.
+
+"We have been together scarcely three weeks, and yet so much has been
+uncovered that we stand face to face with our real selves. All that was
+conventional has been laid aside in our intercourse, and the best and
+sweetest and most sacred phases of our lives laid bare, so that we have
+had a clear glimpse of God's children as they are, not as they usually
+appear; and indeed it gives us better courage and stronger faith to go
+forth into the world again, knowing that the possibilities of one are
+the possibilities of all, for 'God is no respecter of persons.'
+
+"I know, perhaps better than some of the rest, that we shall be walking
+in the valleys many times when our eyes are on the sun-crowned heights,
+but if we can be patient and earnest, our feet shall reach the fertile
+slopes and sunny grass lands of well attained effort. My experience of
+the past shall be only a stronger incentive to perseverance in the
+future, and while it seems human to fall, it is divine to rise, and
+knowing the divine privilege of proving divinity, I trust God to work
+through me in my daily effort. So said we all when we left the class
+room to-day, and with a holy consecration to our new-born faith, we
+trust we shall ever grow in grace and wisdom as God's children,
+according to the promise.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl spoke of our method as the science of silence, and told us
+not to be zealous without judgment, not to speak when silence would be
+golden, not to act so as to bring reproach upon our cause or ourselves,
+but remember to 'avoid even the appearance of evil.' She said many in
+their first joyous enthusiasm and overwhelming conviction would
+indiscreetly tell people 'there is no matter,' for instance, so eager
+were they to bring everybody into the sweet liberty of the spirit; but
+the world not being ready to properly consider the subject, would of
+course ridicule and argue hotly against such a statement, so that false
+opinions would spring up and most absurd practices and claims be
+attributed to Christian Healing.
+
+"Our system should have a dignified place in the world's opinion, and if
+we want to help give it that place, we should aim to be living
+representatives of the principles, maintain a dignified attitude
+regarding it, and if we can answer any questions pertaining to it, let
+our answer and manners be ennobling and Christ-like.
+
+"We never argue audibly with unbelievers. Argument kills the spirit of
+any religion, and the person who desires to prove his position by
+argument is not ready to be convinced by the spirit. If you are obliged
+to carry on a conversation with an argumentative person, silently deny
+all his statements of error, and with calm positiveness affirm for him
+intelligence, wisdom, and a desire to know truth. In other words,
+recognize his spiritual self, which is in perfect peace and harmony, and
+the outward disturbance or inharmony, which is simply nothingness
+expressed by him, is annulled. Possibly you may seem obliged to submit
+and listen to him. Never mind. Carry on your silent thoughts
+scientifically, and constantly think truth. Thus you will plant a seed
+that shall bring forth beauteous blossoms, excellent fruit.
+
+"Whenever you hear error talked, deny it. This is 'shutting your ears
+from hearing of blood, and your eyes from seeing evil.' _Any_ error must
+be denied in order to see the proof of its opposite truth.
+
+"If everybody would learn to deny all the slander or gossip they hear,
+we should soon have a new social world. Cruel tongues would cease their
+wagging, timid hearts could breathe again, and fair names bloom in every
+home.
+
+"This would be the beginning of a much needed reform in the daily press.
+Poor editors, they are obliged to fill orders, like the cooks and
+waiters serving the gentlemen and ladies in the elegant dining-room,
+ladies' _ordinary_ and ground-floor _café_. Alas! that the discovery
+should not be made by everybody, so they could send in different orders.
+How gladly would the bill of fare be changed!
+
+"But there is nothing more certain to change it, than the little leaven
+of truth dropped in the highways and byways of daily life. We must 'be
+diligent in season and out of season,' silently as a rule, but at times
+audibly, perchance forcibly, for some minds seem so dull and sluggish as
+to need a startling thunder-clap to awaken them from their slumber of
+ignorance. Thus some patients that come to be healed must be told
+sharply and definitely how to think or what to say, for sometimes it is
+necessary to make them say their own word of healing, they are so
+completely absorbed in material beliefs.
+
+"We grow more in wisdom and spiritual judgment as we proceed faithfully
+along our way of scientific thought and living, and thus have an
+unerring insight into what we shall do and say in order to give to each
+the healing gospel.
+
+"When we go to church we ought to acknowledge and emphasize every true
+statement made by the clergyman with our silent affirmation, and as
+emphatically deny every erroneous statement, that we may turn the tide
+of Truth into a broad stream of spiritual uplifting for the whole
+congregation.
+
+"Should the minister be inclined to speak about the awfulness and power
+of God's wrath and punishment, we can silently assure him that God is a
+God of love, not wrath, and tell him he desires to present only the
+_true_ side of religion. Some people might say this would be wrong, to
+dictate to any one how they should talk, but you will notice that it is
+not dictation of action, but rather recognition of motive--the true
+motive of the true self. We have a right to recognize the highest and
+best of every person. Indeed, we are going directly opposite God's
+commands if we acknowledge any but the good creation, which is the
+spiritual.
+
+"What can the spirit, which is perfect, made in God's image and
+likeness, have to say of God's anger or punishment, when it knows
+neither, inasmuch as it is pure as the Father in heaven? 'Shall not the
+judge of all the earth do right?'
+
+"Not only in the social circle and in the church, but in all kinds of
+work, in all affairs of business, and above all, in the home, must we
+thus live up to our principles which soon prove our sublimest theory by
+our sublimest practice. And, blessed privilege, we do not need to
+understand all, before we can begin to demonstrate our precious
+religion.
+
+"We need not worry about the burden of to-morrow and thus drop that of
+to-day, but only carry that of to-day with the strength that is given
+for the day. 'Consider the lilies of the field, _how they grow_;' daily
+appropriating their portion of sunshine and air and dew, they unfold and
+blossom, exhale their fragrance, display their matchless beauty, thus
+fulfilling their appointed mission; so we may unfold and blossom into
+rare excellence and strength of character. Refreshed by the dew of a
+pure purpose, nourished by the sunlight of true thoughts, fed by the
+all-abounding manna--the living word, we soon grow strong enough to
+withstand driving tempest or boisterous gale.
+
+"Mentally we are quickened, learning to discern the opposing force in
+ourselves, and meeting it with the sharp sword of truth, lay it low at
+once. But it requires practice to wield this spiritual weapon; it takes
+judgment faculty to discover whence comes selfishness that exhausts and
+weakens; whence comes the material or sensual thought that sickens and
+wearies, or the jealousy that poisons and embitters the life-forces.
+
+"Faithfully and diligently do we use the word of denial, that sets us
+and our patients free from these subtle enemies; faithfully and
+earnestly we affirm all truth and purity and goodness as our portion, as
+our strength, our refuge, and our defense.
+
+"By the blessed law, when we have thus cleansed ourselves, we become at
+one with the one Life. We intuitively draw to ourselves the best quality
+of friendship and give forth the best; we seek the most uplifting and
+spiritual literature, because it gives us a fresh baptism of spiritual
+light, which in turn we give to others, so there is a continual
+receiving and giving, a continual blessing and being blessed.
+
+"'Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends,' said the Master
+before his departure. Now 'the servant abideth not in the house forever,
+but the son abideth forever.' We came as servants to be taught. While in
+our ignorance, we were the servants or inferiors; knowing the Truth we
+became free, and henceforth are brothers, sisters, 'heirs of God and
+joint heirs with Christ.' We now claim our inheritance, the privilege to
+enter into the kingdom and possess the land, our royal birthright. In
+this kingdom are 'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'
+
+"The patient who comes to us must on this day be told of the royal gift
+of health, and we may say: 'Now are ye clean through the word I have
+spoken unto you.' He, too, must now become the friend, and need no
+longer be the servant. When he first came to us he was like a little
+child that had lost his way. We could not show him the way to the velvet
+slopes of health without taking hold of his hand and leading him through
+the thickets and underbrush in which he was lost. So we graciously
+reached down to him, by talking of things with which he was familiar, of
+animal passions, of selfishness, of sin. We gently and kindly showed him
+they were not the true, proved to him that his belief in them had led
+him off the right path, and talked to him of brighter, better, truer
+thoughts that led to smiling skies of hope, to balmy airs of peace.
+
+"Each day we assured him of his true inheritance, and now we confidently
+assert that he is in full possession of it. Now he is ready to believe
+the affirmation without the denial, because he is convinced that the
+affirmations are true, and he comes to us this day with clear, clean
+eyes, and a child-like joy in his recovered health. We give him the
+final word, the benediction, the binding assurance of his birthright.
+
+"Realizing as we must ourselves the wondrous truth concerning his real
+self and all which that implies, we impressively and with the most
+thrilling conviction affirm for him that only health, strength, joy,
+courage, peace, satisfaction, can come to him as the child of God, the
+idea of Mind _in_ the power of the Thought that thinks him into being.
+We assure him that he can recognize and reflect nothing but Good, that
+he can manifest only the Father whose son he knows himself to be.
+Nothing but Mind can affect him. He is like a column of light against
+which no darkness can be thrown; like a true answer to a problem which
+any number of wrong answers can not change. Spiritual like God, he can
+only recognize and appropriate what is God-like. Henceforth he knows
+himself and his Father, knows that whatever he may ask (realize) will be
+granted unto him. Knows that he must acknowledge the Truth, and he will
+abide in the kingdom of Good.
+
+"We send him forth with all the blessings he can desire, because we have
+realized for him the possession of those blessings. Knowing that God is
+all there is, and that our patient lives, is moved and has his being in
+God, we point with unerring finger to the sunny uplands of health. He
+can never more relapse as he will ever walk in the open fields of Truth.
+We bid him God speed on his journey, and thank God that he has come
+into the consciousness of life everlasting, into health and joy without
+measure. So be it forever more.
+
+"The thought of perfection should be held steadfastly, even though the
+patient do not manifest health at once. No matter if the cure is not
+effected in one, two, three weeks, or even as many months, hold fast,
+with unwavering faith (even if you do not give regular treatments all
+the time, and it may be well to skip a week or so occasionally),
+_knowing_ that good seed _must_ bring forth good fruit; when, where or
+how, you nor no other may know. Time is unthinkable with God. We are
+dealing with Principle, not time. We plant the seed, 'God giveth the
+increase.'
+
+"Do the best you know, and work out your own problems. No one else can
+do that for you. Jesus gave us the key, showed us the way; more than
+that he could not do. We must live our lives and maintain our place by
+our own efforts. It is 'he that overcometh' who receives the supreme
+gift of eternal life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+  "May I reach
+  That purest heaven,--be to other souls
+  The cup of strength in some great agony,
+  Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
+  Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
+  Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
+  And in diffusion ever more intense--
+  So shall I join the choir invisible,
+  Whose music is the gladness of the world."
+
+  --_George Eliot._
+
+
+"Mrs. Hayden's was a joyous home-coming. No sooner was the first
+rapturous welcome from children and husband received, than in came Grace
+and Kate, who, in their eagerness to see her, had scarcely been able to
+let her have the first half hour to her family.
+
+"I think you will have to include us in your family, Mrs. Hayden, for we
+could not resist the family welcome, said Grace, smiling with happiness,
+as she grasped Mrs. Hayden's hand and drew Kate close beside her with
+the other.
+
+"You _are_ included my dears. There is but one family you know," was the
+cordial reply grasping the hand of each.
+
+"What a change in you, Grace--Kate--why, I should hardly know you,"
+exclaimed Mrs. Hayden, after the first excitement was over.
+
+"Grace has lost the cloud of perplexity and doubt, and Kate the
+expression of fear," she added, turning to Mr. Hayden with a pleased
+surprise.
+
+"Didn't I tell you they were both growing beautiful?" was his laughing
+answer. "But girls," he added, "don't you notice something different in
+Mrs. Hayden? That is quite wonderful, I think."
+
+"Really, Mrs. Hayden," exclaimed Grace, with wonder, "you are not nearly
+so fleshy are you? I can hardly define the change, if that is not it,
+but I noticed something the moment I saw you."
+
+"I have lost something in weight since I left home," she replied,
+somewhat amused at their looks of astonishment.
+
+"Your figure is so much better proportioned, too," continued Grace.
+
+"And your complexion clearer," added Kate.
+
+"Do tell us what it all means. You certainly look better than I ever saw
+you," said Grace again.
+
+"I am quite thankful she came home before all resemblance to my wife was
+lost," said Mr. Hayden, with a hearty laugh, as he looked at each in
+turn.
+
+"Well, be serious now, and I will tell you something after I have put
+the children to bed," said Mrs. Hayden, cuddling the sleepy Jem in her
+arms. Fred and Mabel stood beside her, frequently interrupting the
+conversation, for they, too, wanted to share the good time with mamma.
+When Mrs. Hayden returned, she resumed.
+
+"It may seem strange to you as it did to me at first, but I see it
+clearly now, that desiring, searching and living for right, brings the
+body into harmonious expression. If we think truth, we see it expressed
+in harmony, beauty, symmetry, because the external is the expression of
+the internal."
+
+"It was particularly by the denial of matter that I lost the superfluous
+flesh, for since I was too fleshy to be of symmetrical form, it was
+superfluous and----"
+
+"Did you know the denial of matter would have such an effect?"
+interrupted Kate.
+
+"No, not till I heard some of the rest of the class speaking of it, and
+then I could hardly believe it, but after I understood the theory
+better, of course it seemed more reasonable."
+
+"It is both wonderful and reasonable too, I think. Why didn't you write
+something about it?" asked Kate again.
+
+"Oh, there are many things that can be told better than written."
+
+"And many things that can be thought better than told," added Grace,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Another lady in the class had about the same experience," said Mrs.
+Hayden.
+
+"But tell us the scientific reason for such an effect?" continued Grace.
+
+"I will, as well as I can. Have you noticed that it is people who are
+materially minded in their tastes and habits that are apt to be fleshy?"
+
+"That depends upon what you would call materially minded," was Grace's
+smiling reply.
+
+"I mean those who like what the world calls the good things of
+life--those who think a great deal of material pleasures or
+environments, and find it comparatively difficult to think or realize
+spiritual things."
+
+"Oh!----yes, I believe that is true, although I have never thought of
+it," said Grace, slowly.
+
+"Because the denial of matter makes all these things secondary, the
+effect of the new thought is to make the body more spiritual."
+
+"Of course! Why could we not see it before?" was Kate's conclusive
+query.
+
+"What effect then, has this denial on lean people?" asked Mr. Hayden,
+more seriously, for until now he had been inclined to regard this as a
+little 'far fetched,' as he would have expressed it.
+
+"It does not effect them like the denial of evil, because material
+things are not so important to them, while they are apt to be pining and
+fretting about the evils and ills in the world, either as touching
+themselves or humanity in general. Denying evil and evil conditions
+would then have the opposite effect, and cause them to gain flesh, or
+grow into the expression of physical harmony to correspond with the
+spiritual."
+
+"This is only a higher reading of what we have already learned, and it
+is lovely to know we may go on indefinitely, ever reading something
+new," said Grace.
+
+"Now tell me something of what _you_ have all been doing?" said Mrs.
+Hayden, as she looked at Grace.
+
+"Oh, Kate has been doing some wonderful treating among her pupils, and
+the patients we took up, are all doing nicely."
+
+"Grace is very modest. She doesn't say a word of how quickly she cured
+me of neuralgia, or a horrible fit of the blues," supplemented Kate,
+looking fondly at Grace, who had become dearer than ever since their
+confidential talks.
+
+"Mr. Hayden has a good report for himself and the children, too, though
+I suppose you have heard from him," Grace remarked with a smile. He
+looked rather pleased at her thoughtfulness, but said: "I would rather
+hear more from Marion. Were there many cures in the class?"
+
+"Several. Mrs. Dexter, the lady I mentioned in my letters as having been
+a long while under the doctor's care, went home perfectly well, and Miss
+Singleton also, of whom I wrote. A gentleman who had been in a previous
+class told his experience. His right arm had been fractured in the army.
+Orders were given that it should be amputated, but by the intervention
+of a physician with whom he was acquainted, the arm was saved, though he
+had never been able to use it much. At times it was very painful. It was
+so weak he could scarcely lift a plate of bread to pass it at the table.
+After a few lessons, that arm was just as well as the other. In his joy
+he told everybody. When the doctors got hold of it, they laughed at him
+saying if that arm was as large as the other in six months, they would
+believe there was something in Christian Healing. In six weeks it was as
+large and strong and sound as the other."
+
+"That was remarkable," said Mr. Hayden, speaking for all. "Did you hear
+anything about treating animals?" he added after a momentary silence.
+
+"Oh, yes. We may think of an animal as the perfect expression of God's
+thought, as manifesting the true Life, the same as human beings."
+
+"After all," said Kate, "that is something we ought to expect, for are
+we not promised dominion over all things?"
+
+"Certainly, and we are not proving our right, till we prove the
+dominion," answered Mrs. Hayden. "It is a beautiful thought to me, and
+several of the class told of successful work in this line. One lady had
+treated a frightened horse, and made him so gentle any one could drive
+him. It is mostly fear that is reflected upon animals. They manifest
+thought, even as humanity does."
+
+"I have often noticed horses. They are apt to show the same disposition
+as their masters. This explains it," said Mr. Hayden thoughtfully. "Why
+didn't you write about all this?"
+
+"I was afraid it would be too strong meat for you, for I could scarcely
+realize it myself."
+
+"It seems as though we have had so many wonderful suggestions it will
+take a life time to understand them," remarked Kate.
+
+"There is no end to the study of Infinity," was Mrs. Hayden's reply.
+
+"How do you account for the _quick_ cures?" interposed Grace.
+
+"It all depends upon how quickly one receives the consciousness of
+Truth. That is the healing process. But there are not very many quick
+cures, comparatively, though it is the quick cures we should aim for
+and expect, for the cure is always in the degree of our realization of
+the allness of God.
+
+"Another of the older students told of some wonderful absent healing. A
+lady that had been four years an invalid, and given up to die by five
+physicians in the place, was healed in three weeks by absent treatment."
+
+"Is that considered as effectual as present treatment?"
+
+"There should be no difference, because we ought to realize that with
+Truth there is no space nor time. All is the eternal _now_ and _here_.
+Some prefer to give present treatment, especially in acute cases; with
+others absent treatment seems more effectual."
+
+"I am glad to hear that, for I feel that I can do better absently," said
+Grace, with a look of relief.
+
+"But tell me," questioned Kate, eagerly, "have all persons the same
+gifts?"
+
+"In the germ, yes; but all are not equally developed. We enter this
+study in different stages of unfoldment. Some heal quickly, others
+slowly; some teach naturally, while others find it more difficult,
+especially at first. We develop the gift we desire to use by continually
+claiming it and using it, and bye and bye we shall marvelously prove
+that we have it. In Love we recognize no partiality, no time and no
+place, and thus we can truly say all we desire is truly ours."
+
+Grace laid her hand on that of Mrs. Hayden, saying:
+
+"Words can never express our gratitude to you both for your extreme
+kindness in allowing us to read your beautiful letters, Mrs. Hayden.
+They have made life seem entirely different to us." She was deeply in
+earnest, and her quivering lip spoke more than a volume of words.
+
+"Grace speaks for us both," added Kate, huskily.
+
+"Dear friends," replied Mrs. Hayden, much touched herself, "I am glad,
+yes, more than glad, that you can speak so of my letters, of which the
+greatest merit lies in their simple earnestness--." She ceased abruptly,
+and for a few moments all were silent....
+
+It was a silence too full for words. A door had opened--a morning dawned
+for each of them. The mysterious future verged into the mighty present.
+All that was grand and noble and tender filled the measure of their
+aspirations. The world surely might enter into their joy, for their joy
+surely entered into the world.
+
+Mrs. Hayden broke the silence, saying:
+
+"'Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it
+shall be opened unto you.' Many years have I asked and sought for the
+kingdom of heaven, but never till now have I found the right knock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+     Love is the high consummation and fulfillment of all Law. It casts
+     out fear, discord and imperfection. To minister is God-like,
+     Christ-like. * * * * The law of love reaches down, rules, and
+     overcomes adverse laws which are below itself.--_Henry Wood._
+
+
+Outside, deepening twilight of a midwinter's day: inside, a bright grate
+fire, soft curtains, beautiful rugs and simple but elegant adornings for
+mantel and wall in this lovely room of a lovely home.
+
+The only occupant is a young woman--young because of the real life of
+which she so vividly and strongly expresses a consciousness, the only
+life after all to be expressed, and which, rightly appropriated will and
+must forever be clothed with the freshness and vigor of youth. The young
+woman is Grace Hall Carrington.
+
+She sits before the glowing embers in an expectant attitude. She is
+evidently waiting for some one, and as she waits, her mind seems full of
+pleasant musing. The three years that have passed since we saw her have
+ripened her character. We can see that. The unrest and longing which
+pervaded her whole being in the old days are gone. A poise and calmness
+of spirit have taken their place. Even her attitude as she sits there
+with the shadows flickering over her, is full of a suggestive alertness
+that expresses an awakened life. The forces that had slumbered so long
+in her being are fully alive to their duty and their privilege. Yes,
+Grace Carrington is awake, and happy as a wife and woman should be. She
+is thinking even now of the richness of effort and opportunity that
+have been hers in these last years. She had been particularly fortunate
+in her marriage. Few women have as much to be thankful for as she has in
+this respect, but then, she waited to find her true womanhood before she
+found a husband. Perhaps that had something to do with it. At any rate
+she is satisfied that she waited.
+
+The door bell rings. A moment later she is greeting two visitors. Who
+but the friends we knew in the old days--Kate Turner and Mrs. Hayden?
+
+"I really expected you sooner, Mrs. Hayden; Kate is more uncertain. One
+never knows when to look for her; but never mind, we are together again,
+so come up to the fire and let us get settled for the evening." And
+Grace hastened to make her friends comfortable.
+
+"Oh but it is nice to get home occasionally," cried Kate with a shrug of
+pleasure as she looked around the beautiful room and then at the smiling
+hostess.
+
+"I only wish you would come oftener Kathie. It seems like the old days
+to have you here," replied Grace with a loving pat.
+
+"I suspect Kate has a bit of news for us," remarked Mrs. Hayden, as she
+sat down near the fire.
+
+"Indeed," exclaimed Grace, lifting her eyebrows, and tightening her hold
+of her friend's hand. "And is the momentous question decided, dearie?
+
+"Yes, and I am to report for duty next week," was the reply.
+
+"Good for you, Kathie. I always knew the Truth would make your music
+heard, and as Professor Beal's assistant it will be heard a long way and
+to good advantage."
+
+"She is reaping the reward of her trust in the Law," said Mrs. Hayden.
+"That is the only thing that will make the working sure."
+
+"Well Kate, you have trusted surely, and to think what a proof this is!"
+
+"How you talk Grace! One might think you had never proven it at all, or
+that your work didn't bear witness to your own trust," reproved Mrs.
+Hayden, smiling.
+
+"Oh well, girls, my work has been of the silent order altogether, or
+rather it has consisted more of silence than work. There's no telling
+how it will show up," was the blushing response.
+
+It had been a standing joke with the three as to how Grace managed her
+"liege lord," inasmuch as he had never been quite won over to the
+Healing, protesting that he had no time for such things, persisting in a
+good-natured skepticism, although strangely enough he believed a great
+many things when they were presented without the name of "Healing"
+attached to them.
+
+"Perhaps that very silence is the secret of its showing, for I assure
+you it shows," resumed the elder friend, who still seemed to the other
+two, the incarnation of all that was noble and wise.
+
+"Do tell us the way you manage anyway, Grace," begged Kate, with special
+reasons for inquiring.
+
+"Why my dear, there's nothing to tell unless it be that a bland silence
+is a good thing to cultivate. There's no use in making so much of a
+bugbear of these people who seem to oppose, and the best way to lead
+them into the green pastures is to let them nibble along the outside
+until they want to jump the fence and get over in spite of you. Now
+Leon is really quite hungry to know some things, especially about the
+practical application of thought to business, but he knows just where
+and how to find what he wants, so I let him take his own time and his
+own way."
+
+"Which will end, of course, in his wanting to know all, providing you
+have the patience to wait", laughed Kate.
+
+"That is a foregone conclusion. I _can_ wait, and I will," said Grace.
+"Besides," she continued more soberly, "I must consider Leon's rights.
+He should not be forced to a conclusion simply because I hold it. A
+hot-bed growth, produced by whatever means, will not bear the hardy,
+healthy bloom of a natural development. He may be slow but he must be
+true."
+
+"There Grace, you have touched the keynote," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden
+warmly. "It is freedom people need, freedom to think and act the
+highest, for everybody has a highest."
+
+"Yes, if they can only keep the channels open for the inspiration of the
+highest to come to them or work through them," remarked Kate with a
+gesture of doubt.
+
+"What better way is there to give freedom or open the channel, than to
+destroy prejudice, put away antagonism and--"
+
+"Either in yourself or others," interposed Grace, "for to hold prejudice
+or to believe in evil is always an obstruction."
+
+"After all, it all hinges upon the non-resistance of evil," said Kate.
+
+"Yes, one of the first laws of the beautiful Christlife, and yet one of
+the very last to be practiced in my experience. I tell you girls, it is
+the lesson of non-resistance we most need." Mrs. Hayden spoke earnestly
+as she always did, and her words carried weight.
+
+"Go on, Mrs. Hayden. If I'm asleep anywhere, I wish you would wake me
+up," cried Kate, drawing the hassock upon which she sat, close up to the
+elder lady, and putting one hand in her friend's lap, as she waited
+expectantly for the answer.
+
+"Well dear, I'm only talking on general principles, and what I have
+discovered in myself--"
+
+"Please tell us what you have found Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "We need
+all the light we can get, and no matter how it may cut, we won't shrink
+will we, Kathie?" with a loving glance at the latter.
+
+"No, we'll only know and be glad that the hot blaze of truth is melting
+some more of the dark spots in our range of vision," returned Kate.
+
+"It is only this," began Mrs. Hayden, modestly. "I have been looking my
+theory and practice squarely in the face lately, and I find them in many
+things quite widely separated. For instance, I have been saying for
+three years that there is no evil, while in many cases my actions have
+carried the very opposite idea, and--"
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Mrs. Hayden?" cried Kate in astonishment, "who
+has been more faithful, who more loving, and who more successful in
+proving the unreality of sickness and evil?"
+
+"For one thing then, I have never put away the tendency to pronounce
+judgments on people or things, and I must get beyond that before I
+prove that I mean what I say, when I say there is no reality in evil."
+
+"But surely we can't help seeing the negative side of things," was
+Kate's remonstrance.
+
+"No, but we _can_ help making it positive, and we can avoid fighting
+against it if we only stick to our first statement that there is but one
+Law."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Grace quietly. "You mean that we must hold
+so perfectly to the allness of Good, that no shadow of ignorance can
+ever darken our vision or our consciousness."
+
+"Yes, indeed, we all see that that is the ultimate," interposed Kate
+with some warmth, "but when and how are we to reach it?"
+
+"In the first place we must know that the ultimate is always in the Now,
+and that by holding to our highest statements with that thought, we can
+rest in the consciousness of the allness of Good as Grace has expressed
+it. With that consciousness there is no judgment and no resistance."
+
+Kate still looked mystified, "Please make it a little plainer," she
+begged.
+
+"Well, last summer when I was called to treat Mrs. Hart's child, as you
+know, the father knew little or nothing of the Science, and when he
+insisted on having a physician what did I do? Instead of calmly
+realizing that all the medicine in the world could not hurt Truth, and
+dealing with his ignorance as I would with his fear, I felt that it
+would be a terrible thing to countenance such disloyalty, and so
+withdrew from treating the case, forgetting that the father's ignorance
+could not be called disloyalty; forgetting that my faithfulness to
+principle would be the same regardless of any and all ignorance. In fact
+my action belied my words that there is no reality in evil."
+
+"But--why, what else could you do?" asked Kate with a puzzled frown.
+
+"I could, or at least I ought to be able to maintain my faith and my
+consciousness of Good just the same under those, as other circumstances,
+and so make no resistance."
+
+"Oh yes, I see what you mean," exclaimed Grace suddenly. "You mean that
+we make _something_ of what we declare as nothing?"
+
+"Exactly, Grace. We resist it by thinking it something antagonistic to
+Truth, whereas we should remember our first statement that there is but
+one Power. It is the One that heals in every instance. We know that. Why
+should we stop to combat what other people think or do not think?"
+
+"There! Now I understand you," ejaculated Kate with a brightening face.
+"It is the One only which acts under all disguises, and--but what would
+you have us do?" suddenly falling into doubt again. As of old Kate was
+ever the questioner.
+
+"Dear, I am not talking of persons or laying down rules of action for
+anybody, but I am giving you my idea of the non-resistance of evil. The
+question with me is, am I 'about my Father's business.' If I accuse
+someone of being unfaithful, or if I criticise any methods, means or
+persons, I still believe in something besides the Good. Even if I
+accuse myself in any way no matter how slight the fault, I am
+recognizing that which I have declared does not and never did exist. You
+see what I mean. There is no use to multiply examples."
+
+"Oh yes, I see, but can I live up to it? That is the all important
+question," was the dreamily earnest reply.
+
+"As for that I might say the same, but we are not to look at that side
+of the question. A safe and I think the very best guide to right living,
+is to measure every act by the standard of love. Would love prompt this
+or that thought, or decision or action? It is very easy to decide."
+
+A thoughtful silence fell upon the group. The evening shadows grew
+deeper outside. The firelight cast long crimson shafts of light into the
+corners, and flickered fitfully over the faces and forms before the
+grate.
+
+"I have been learning a lesson too." It was Kate who broke the silence.
+Her voice was reverential. Her eyes were bright with an inner light. "I
+have been holding strongly to the name--the name of Jesus Christ--and
+realizing what it means, and it has helped me more than anything."
+
+"What does it mean, Kate? That is something which is still a little
+tainted with the old superstitious worship of a personality," said
+Grace.
+
+"Beware, Grace; that is criticism. Put it away until you know," warned
+Mrs. Hayden.
+
+"Thank you. Tell me every time," returned Grace humbly.
+
+"Indeed, this contemplation of the name takes one farther from
+personality or the recognition of mere person than anything else," Kate
+went on earnestly. "Jesus Christ means God or Truth manifest. Holding
+the words with that thought, all sense of person, limitation, or time,
+disappears. Wisdom and power come to fill your consciousness, until the
+Christ life seems not only a possibility but a real demonstration." Kate
+paused. Perhaps she had said too much!
+
+But there was no mistaking the vibration of a sympathetic thought, even
+if the pressure of friendly hands had not reassured her.
+
+"It is wonderful how many ways there are of attaining the same end,"
+mused Grace. "Now I can gain the same state of mind Kate speaks of, by
+holding to the idea of Law. To me everything is embodied in that,
+although of course, any great word understood as to its real meaning is
+an all-inclusive term. But we cannot always live in an ecstasy."
+
+"We should not if we could," said Mrs. Hayden. "We must get beyond that
+if we ever attain the mental poise that will carry us through
+everything."
+
+"But I am so weak," murmured Kate. "How shall I ever--"
+
+"There, child, you are doing the very thing that will keep you from
+growing strong. What right have you to pass judgment on Katherine Turner
+anymore than on anyone else?" said Mrs. Hayden almost sternly; then
+suddenly softening her tone she added, "Dear heart, we must not let self
+judgment or self condemnation creep in upon us to leave their blight of
+discouragement or failure. No, the only way is to keep our eyes fixed on
+the mark of the high calling, resisting nothing, carrying on our lips,
+success, in our hearts love, in our lives truth. By the outer we judge
+nothing: by the inner we know all. Personally, that is, physically we
+are only a part of all external limitation. Individually, that is,
+spiritually, we are the potentiality of Infinity itself."
+
+"And that means the possibility of true living, which is positively
+necessary to perfect demonstration," added Grace.
+
+"Yes, perfect demonstration in oneself or in others," said Mrs. Hayden
+emphatically. "In fact the first, last, and only consideration is or
+should be true living, or the ability _to be lived_."
+
+"That is what it amounts to, after all," accorded Grace, "for what is
+true living but the setting aside of self, so that the great, infinite
+Life may be established in our action, as a manifest reality?"
+
+Kate rose softly, and went to the piano. Then spoke the mighty Voice
+through Music, and through that wondrous harmony a consciousness of the
+perfect Life, with all its power and presence, burst upon these three
+who were no longer three but One. For that moment they knew and lived
+only as the One, and in that moment the world received a baptism of
+blessed, healing tenderness.
+
+
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+THE MYSTIC SUCCESS CLUB
+
+was founded to carry on and extend the Teachings and Ministry of _Our
+Magazine_. One supplements the other. Both are doing an _unparalleled
+work_ in the redemption of humanity from Disease, Sorrow and Poverty.
+
+To spread the glad gospel of _Health, Happiness and Prosperity_ is the
+_special object_ of the
+
+NEW YORK MAGAZINE of Mysteries.
+
+To show how to attain and keep these God-given blessings, is the
+_wonderful mission_ of the _Mystic Success Club_.
+
+Not by theory alone, but by _daily, hourly practice_, can an individual
+demonstrate any law. The Law of Success is no exception. The Mysteries
+of Life can be known _only_ when man understands the mystery of his
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+
+Through wise Counsel, Sympathy and the Mystic tie that binds all
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+will bring out in you all the resources of your soul, mind and heart. It
+will fit you for the highest and noblest service--the highest and
+noblest success. It will help you to make your life now and here larger,
+broader and grander in every way. You are invited to write and ask
+advice, _whenever_, and as soon as you feel moved to do so.
+
+With Holy Love, Peace and Good Will to all beings in the Universe, we
+wish you Success, Health and Happiness.
+
+  The MYSTIC SUCCESS CLUB
+  c/o NEW YORK MAGAZINE of Mysteries
+  22 North William St.
+
+  New York, N. Y.
+  U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+Carol's Conversion
+
+JUST PUBLISHED
+
+ANOTHER GREAT BOOK FROM THE PEN OF
+
+_HELEN VAN-ANDERSON_
+
+PRICE, $2.00, (beautifully bound with cloth)
+
+This book is a wonderful delineation of the spiritual life, and how it
+comes to him who is "AS A LITTLE CHILD."
+
+No earnest seeker after God and the higher life can afford to be without
+this story of life and living.
+
+  PUBLISHED BY
+  The New York Magazine
+  OF MYSTERIES
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+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT KNOCK***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 24177-8.txt or 24177-8.zip *******
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Right Knock, by Helen Van-Anderson</title>
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Right Knock, by Helen Van-Anderson</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Right Knock</p>
+<p>       A Story</p>
+<p>Author: Helen Van-Anderson</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 5, 2008  [eBook #24177]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT KNOCK***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>PRICE, $2.00.</i></h4>
+
+<h1>THE RIGHT KNOCK</h1>
+
+<h3>A STORY</h3>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2>HELEN VAN-ANDERSON</h2>
+
+<h4>Author of "It Is Possible," "The Story of Teddy," "The Journal of a Live
+Woman," etc., etc.</h4>
+
+<div class="cpoem">
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">"Go to your bosom;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<h3><i>THIRTEENTH EDITION</i></h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">Published by<br />
+
+THE NEW YORK MAGAZINE OF MYSTERIES<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">22 North William Street, New York City</span><br />
+
+<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1889, by Helen Van-Anderson</span><br />
+
+<i>All rights reserved</i><br />
+
+<span class="smcap">The Right Knock</span></p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1903, by</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The New York Magazine</span><br />
+OF MYSTERIES<br /><br />
+<i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a><span class="smcap">Contents.</span></h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="75%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr><td align='right'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter</span>.</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">Page</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Hayden</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_9'><b>9</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Girls at Home</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_17'><b>17</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Fire and a Retrospect</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Beginnings</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_30'><b>30</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Doubts Again</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Too Good to be True</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_44'><b>44</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A New Hope</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">What the World Said</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_63'><b>63</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Struggle with Self</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hints of Help</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_79'><b>79</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Leaving Home</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Pearl's Lecture</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The True Foundation</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Questionings</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">What is Not True</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Studying and Proving</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">What is True</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_131'><b>131</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">It Must be So</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Spiritual Birth</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tangles and Talks</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Inspiration and the Bible</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Church Committee</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_184'><b>184</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Prayer</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Every-day Practice</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Understanding</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_211'><b>211</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A New Problem</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_222'><b>222</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Undercurrents</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_228'><b>228</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXVIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Power of Thought</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_234'><b>234</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Unexpected Meeting</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_243'><b>243</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Practical Application</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_249'><b>249</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Confidences</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_257'><b>257</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Practical Application</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_262'><b>262</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Grace</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_274'><b>274</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXIV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Practical Application</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_281'><b>281</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Practical Application</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_291'><b>291</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Found at Last</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_300'><b>300</b></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXXVII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">After Three Years</span>,</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_308'><b>308</b></a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Preface" id="Preface"></a><span class="smcap">Preface</span>.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Although most excellent food is to be found on the table of metaphysical
+thought, there has never yet been a metaphysical story setting forth a
+picture of every-day life, in its search for, and attainment of
+satisfaction through the knowledge of Christ Philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing the pressing need of such a book among the many inquirers and
+students on this theme, and with the hope of helping to fill that need,
+this story is told.</p>
+
+<p>It is a book of facts, not fiction, although wearing the dress of
+fiction. Every case of healing, every seemingly marvelous experience has
+come under the observation of the writer and can be authenticated as a
+veritable fact.</p>
+
+<p>That there are hundreds, yea, thousands to-day, who leave their homes
+and go to distant cities for the sake of pursuing the study of Christ
+Philosophy, or receiving the benefit of its healing ministry, is proof
+enough that the story of one woman's experience will be interesting and
+helpful to all.</p>
+
+<p>While the lessons contained in Mrs. Hayden's letters are not exhaustive,
+they are valuable for their very simplicity, and are thoroughly
+practical, complete instructions for the beginning and continuance of
+the study of this wonderful truth.</p>
+
+<p>With every lesson supplemented by personal experiences, the reader sees
+not only the theory but the practice demonstrated, and in this simple
+story he may find the mirror of his own inner hopes and aspirations,
+with a broader view of their possible attainment than he has yet seen.</p>
+
+<p>Carlyle says: "If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach
+other hearts." "The Right Knock" is presented with no other apology than
+this: it has come from the heart.</p>
+
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Helen Van-Anderson</span>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_PRESENT_EDITION" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_PRESENT_EDITION"></a>PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>To a new and awakened public the author gives greetings and begs to say
+a few more words about <span class="smcap">The Right Knock</span>.</p>
+
+<p>After all these years of work along the lines laid out in the book and
+with a wide knowledge of prevailing systems of mental training, the
+author is happy to be able to say with unbounded confidence that there
+is nothing to excel this system for beginners, for those desiring to lay
+a lasting foundation. The emphasis laid upon the necessity for
+persistent, regular and systematic practice of word speaking by audible
+repetition, is great, but none too great. For the faithful student this
+never fails to bring results, never fails to put him in the way of
+understanding and demonstration. With regular practice and constant
+application in the daily life, with good judgment as to the details of
+practice, length of time at one exercise, etc., the pupil is assured in
+one way or another certain convincing experiences which develop
+individuality and, with that, his God-like gifts. Thousands have proven
+this.</p>
+
+<p>The unnumbered letters of gratitude, the kind words, the warm
+hand-clasps, the many testimonials of sick beds forsaken, depressed
+spirits revived, vices discontinued, of physical and moral strength
+regained, prove that the work of the Spirit is not to be measured by
+puny human standards of judgment, prove that simple things&mdash;the things
+from which we expect the least, in which we put the least ambition or
+worldly desire may be those which will yield the "hundred fold" of real
+blessing.</p>
+
+<p>The test of any spiritual truth lies in its demonstration and in the
+inspiration and faithfulness with which it can be lived. Be true to the
+truth and you will demonstrate it. Live the Christ life and the works
+will follow; yet seek truth for its own sake, not for its power.</p>
+
+<p>A word about Christian Science. Sometimes persons aver of <span class="smcap">The Right
+Knock</span> that it teaches Christian Science pure and simple. With all due
+respect and a recognition of the grand and marvelous work done by Mrs.
+Eddy, the author feels called upon to say, in justice to Mrs. Eddy as
+well as herself, that this is not true.</p>
+
+<p>There are undoubtedly many similar statements, yet there are many
+differences which the careful reader will discover. Please note, for
+example, that not matter itself, but matter as the real substance or
+power, is denied. Not sickness of the body, but sickness of the Spirit,
+is a falsity, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>In brief, the author of <span class="smcap">The Right Knock</span> believes there is a name, place
+and condition for <i>everything</i>, and that the discrimination of the plane
+on which a thing or condition exists, is the key to placing it in the
+right relation to the whole.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, the author would say most earnestly, study one writer or
+teacher at one time, just as you would study music of one instructor at
+one time. It is not the many books but <i>the Book within</i> which is to
+reveal all things.</p>
+
+<p class="center">God speed you.</p>
+
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Helen Van-Anderson</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Right Knock</span> is now in its THIRTEENTH edition, a fact which speaks
+for the <i>great helpfulness</i> of the book, and proclaims without further
+comment its <i>world wide Scope</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><br /><br /><a name="THE_RIGHT_KNOCK" id="THE_RIGHT_KNOCK"></a>THE RIGHT KNOCK.<br /><br /></h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"When you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not
+weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world."&mdash;<i>Emerson.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>There was a brilliant light in all the windows at Terrace Hill. Even the
+verandahs were gorgeous with the gayest Chinese lanterns, and every bush
+and tree in the lawn did duty as chandelier. Flowers, too, festooned
+every arch and embowered every corner, while rare vases fulfilled their
+esteemed privilege of holding and showing fragrant blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody declared the decorations superb, and agreed that no one but
+Mrs. Hayden could display such exquisite taste and such perfect judgment
+in selection and arrangement. Animated groups of gayly attired guests
+sauntered up and down the rose-bowered walks, or promenaded the
+verandahs, while sounds of music and merriment from the house proclaimed
+the joy that reigned throughout.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautifully Mrs. Hayden entertains!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> remarked Kate Turner to
+her friend Grace Hall, as they stopped beside a marble fountain to
+survey the scene. "I wonder what place such a woman would take in
+society without her wealth," she continued.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably wouldn't have <i>any</i> place, I am sorry to say, because there
+are thousands of women just as capable and bright as Mrs. Hayden, yet
+because they have no social position, or rather no money to buy
+themselves one, they are unrecognized and alone," said Grace, with a
+tinge of bitterness in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I could never fancy Mrs. Hayden alone or unrecognized, although I only
+know her as a society lady, and that mostly through Mrs. Nottingham."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no telling what a person really is till they have gone through
+a trial of some kind, or had something disagreeable to bear. <i>Then</i> one
+of two things happens: you will see either a saint or a sinner, and I am
+not sure which Mrs. Hayden would be. She hasn't yet seen a flame from
+the fire of adversity, I'm sure. See how wonderfully she is blessed with
+this beautiful home, a good husband and three nice children."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! it must be lovely to have everything you want," sighed Kate, under
+her breath.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Kate! She was alone in the world, making the best of life with her
+talent for music and through a mutual friend had been introduced to Mrs.
+Hayden, who, after hearing her play, immediately engaged her for Mabel,
+and always invited her to the parties, more as a musical attraction,
+than out of any real regard, for Mrs. Hayden had an abundance of friends
+without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> troubling herself to cultivate in any warm fashion, the
+friendship of a poor little music teacher, thought Kate, somewhat
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"But after all, Kate, life would need more than luxuries to make it <i>my</i>
+ideal of happiness. I should want every human being to be agreeably
+employed; every woman, no matter how much or how little she might have,
+should be occupied with something that she could put her heart into and
+speak to the world through her work, whether it be painting pictures or
+darning stockings."</p>
+
+<p>"Now Gracious, you are riding your hobby and you ought to see you can't
+ride with all these fine people in your path. Come down at once or I'll
+desert you! Let's go in and hear that waltz," and Kate laughingly pulled
+the hobby-rider into the path that led to the conservatory where they
+could listen to the music.</p>
+
+<p>"What a beautiful home Mrs. Hayden has!" said Mrs. Ferris to her
+neighbor with the severe collar and plain hair, as they examined the
+exquisite frescoing on the parlor ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but she ought to look into poor homes once in a while. She don't
+use her money in the right way. Just think of the good she might do for
+our church, if she would contribute to the charity fund, or take some
+poor families to look after."</p>
+
+<p>The fat neck folded itself over the severe collar and the face settled
+into rigid lines of judgment. Mrs. Dyke was a practical woman and talked
+in a practical way. Being a wonderful church worker she naturally
+considered it everybody's duty to give when they did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> work for the
+cause of religion. She belonged to the First Methodist Church on High
+St., and talked about "our church" as though there were no other.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Ferris was at a loss. She had said something that had not brought
+forth a pleasant result. She merely wished to be sociable, and what more
+convenient topic than these beautiful surroundings? She was a meek
+little woman, who always wanted to say something agreeable or soothing,
+and she felt quite frightened at the mistake she had made. She wished
+somebody would come to the rescue, but there was no immediate prospect,
+and she scarcely knew how to proceed again, but ventured to ask if there
+were many poor people who needed attention now.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed there are no less than fifteen families in the mission
+quarter nearest Mrs. Hayden who would consider it a privilege to pick up
+the crumbs from her table, and I am afraid she'll have to give an
+account <i>some</i> time when the reckoning day comes, for those who have not
+'given cups of cold water, or visited the sick languishing in prison.'"</p>
+
+<p>The air almost trembled with a suggestion of something. Little Mrs.
+Ferris looked longingly towards the door and just then spied her husband
+who was seeking her. After she was gone, Mrs. Dyke looked grimly about,
+and not finding any one to listen, she relapsed into a meditative
+silence. People always wondered what made Mrs. Dyke so popular that she
+received an invitation to every aristocratic party, but it was according
+to the old adage, "Where there is a will there is a way."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This was a <i>gala</i> night for Hampton. Such large social parties were
+always an event, and no one refused an invitation to Mrs. Hayden's, for
+it always meant beautiful rooms, carpets, pictures and <i>bric-a-brac</i>,
+superb refreshments, and a splendid time generally. Mrs. Hayden was a
+favorite with the world because she fed the world with sugar plums, and
+after smacking its lips it was always ready for more. And she usually
+had one to drop in. To-night it was a remarkably sweet one. This was a
+general affair, and every big body and big body's cousins and friends
+were there. To be sure they discussed their hostess as freely as though
+they were not big bodies, but with rare exceptions the discussion was
+complimentary in the extreme. Mrs. Hayden, what she said, what she did,
+what she wore, what she served as refreshments the last time, what were
+the probabilities next, her children, her husband, what they all did and
+said and how they acted, etc., were always interesting themes.
+Sometimes, to be sure, there were adverse remarks like Mrs. Dyke's, but
+few made them.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, Mrs. Hayden was decidedly popular, and although no one was ever
+heard to tell of any particularly grand or noble deed she had done, she
+was supposed to be doing good all the time. There were those who, in
+earlier years, would have pointed her out as an enthusiastic
+philanthropist, eagerly helping whatever project needed her most, but
+gradually she had dropped it all, no one knew why, and now her principal
+work was to shine in society, at least this was the general verdict of
+the adverse few who judged from the superficial standpoint of the world.
+Of her inner life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> they knew nothing as the world knows nothing of any
+one's inner life. There may be depths or shallows in any character never
+dreamed of by the most intimate friend, much less by the babbling world.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden moved about among her guests with a stately grace. She had
+always a pleasant faculty of adjusting the broken links of conversation,
+supplying a <i>repartee</i> or asking a question, introducing strange
+gentlemen and reviving timid <i>debutantes</i> with a pretty compliment or a
+gracious smile.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, I wish you would play something," she whispered to Miss Turner
+as she passed her, "I think the group in the drawing room need a little
+change;" and no wonder, for there was Mrs. Dyke in a hot dispute with a
+Unitarian over Robert Elsmere, while her pastor sat near, occasionally
+adding something to Mrs. Dyke's emphatic remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a most blasphemous piece of presumption to present such a picture
+as that of the church. As if it were in its last stages of decay,
+indeed! It was well such a weak-minded idiot as Robert Elsmere died at
+the beginning of his career. I could never forgive the author if she
+hadn't killed him," she was saying in an angry voice.</p>
+
+<p>"We can take it simply as a symbol of the decay of his religion, and
+that is comforting," added the minister, complacently.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not at all in sympathy with the holy Catherine, with her prejudice
+and bigotry. If it wasn't such a true picture of the many Catherines we
+find in real life, I should be quite disgusted, but I do love to see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+real people in novels, then I know so much better how to deal with
+them," said a pretty young lady who aspired to be called intellectual
+because she liked to study character.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Catherine had a deep religious nature, which might be worthy of
+emulation in many respects, and she is certainly a high ideal of wifely
+love," Mrs. Hayden interposed at this critical juncture.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't read the book for Catherine, but for the sake of knowing
+Robert and what he did to make such a stir in the world. I'm opposed to
+novels, as a rule, and read as little of one as I can," said Mrs. Dyke,
+smoothing her lap and looking at the minister. Mrs. Hayden motioned to
+Kate to play, and presently the rooms were filled with harmony.</p>
+
+<p>Kate Turner was a natural musician, and to-night she fairly excelled
+herself. The little passage at arms just recorded had inspired her with
+emotions that could only be expressed in music, and she played some time
+to the continued delight of her listeners. She finished at last with a
+song that stirred every heart, and even Mrs. Dyke was visibly softened.
+"Verily 'music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,'" murmured the
+intellectual young lady, who was sorry that discussion of Robert Elsmere
+had been interrupted. She rather enjoyed Mrs. Dyke, for she was an
+immensely interesting "character."</p>
+
+<p>This reception, like all others, came to an end at last. Everybody
+expressed themselves as highly delighted with their entertainment, and
+one by one reluctantly took their departure; the gay lanterns on the
+lawn and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> among the shrubbery went out, the lights inside the splendid
+mansion were finally extinguished, and only the quiet starlight
+illumined Terrace Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden, from her high bay window, looked out over the sleeping
+city, then at the North Star that beamed so brightly above her&mdash;that
+unerring beacon-light that guides so many lost mariners into port. Some
+deep thought must have moved her, some hidden impulse stirred her mind.
+She sighed. There was no visible reason for it. Then she turned and went
+down the stairs to the nursery. Her two babies were sleeping sweetly.
+Mabel was asleep in her room, and all was quiet. The hush seemed
+oppressive after so much gay confusion. Now she was in another element.
+Now she was the mother, then she was a fashionable woman. She hastened
+back to her room, once more gazed without and then thoughtfully
+retired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Christianity is not a theory or a speculation, but a <i>life</i>; not a
+philosophy of life, but a life and a living process."&mdash;<i>Coleridge.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>Kate Turner walked slowly along the street at the foot of Terrace Hill.
+She looked up at the beautiful home where she had spent the previous
+evening, and as she saw the velvet lawn and terraced walks bordered with
+bright flowers, she half pitied herself because she was only a plodding
+music teacher. She was not envious, but she had such longing aspirations
+to be somebody in the world; she wanted so many things, needed so much
+to complete her education, and starved herself in so many ways for the
+sake of completing it, that sometimes she grew discontented with her
+lot. Fortunately her moods did not last long, however, and especially
+when she went home to her artist friend, Grace, with whom she shared
+rooms. They were both making their own way in the world, and were a
+great help to each other, as well as a great comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Kate was wondering what Mrs. Hayden did every day with her leisure. She
+should think she would be tired always going to parties and lunches and
+operas, or receiving calls. "But then, I am thankful to know her," she
+concluded, casting a last glance at the stately mansion before turning
+the corner. "After all, life might be worse for me, and I can be a happy
+nobody if not a famous somebody," she said to herself, as she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> ran
+upstairs, after stopping at the baker's for a loaf of bread and a pot of
+jam.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Gracious, what noble message have you given to the world through
+your work to-day?" she cried, a moment later, gaily peering into the
+studio through the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> that separated their parlor from the work
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, Kate? Well, I've been trying the whole afternoon to make
+this Hebe look like a modern Hypatia, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"In other words," interrupted Kate, "you would change innocence into
+intellect. Now, look here, Grace, just leave this dainty girl alone. She
+would never do to serve the gods if you gave her the aspect and bearing
+of a goddess. Let her alone, or the world would not recognize her as a
+representative woman," laughed Kate, inspecting the picture with
+critical eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Kate, stop laughing, and tell me truly if you think it would not do to
+give her a little more independence."</p>
+
+<p>"You know it's the worst thing in the world to give a woman even an
+inkling that such a thing exists," said the mischievous Kate, with a
+total abandonment to consequences as she gave the artist an impetuous
+hug.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us have tea, and we'll discuss the subject later," said
+Grace, somewhat mollified.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid, Gracious, you are something in the same mood I was when I
+started home to-night, but I concluded to let 'dull care' take care of
+itself, and be merry while the sun shines, which means as long as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> we
+have enough to pay our rent, and the prospect of a little more next
+month," continued Kate as she brought a tiny oil stove from the depths
+of a closet and proceeded to "put the kettle on."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been so full of thoughts of the nineteenth century that I found
+it hard to go back to the Pagan ages, but here this picture is ordered,
+and I must finish it by next week, so I guess this one will have to go
+without my message," said Grace, a little gloomily, for above all things
+she loved to put her own individuality into her pictures, which she
+generally did with rare success.</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't have just one ideal of woman, or you'll lose the art of
+painting the sweetest phases of womanhood," replied the busy housemaid
+from the sepulchral closet.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! if I have such excellent models as you make in that checked apron
+and dusting cap, I can do nobly."</p>
+
+<p>Grace laughed good humoredly as she cleaned her palette and set Hebe in
+one corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my dear, isn't there something I can do to help arrange the
+feast?" as she went into the little back room they used for a kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, wash the grapes and open the jam while I cut the bread and pour
+the tea."</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later they were <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> at the little table, and as
+they sat down Grace said with a comical smile: "Quite a difference
+between our banquet of last night and this, isn't there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should remark there is, but after all, Grace, I believe I am quite
+content. As I was passing along at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> the foot of the hill this evening a
+momentary dissatisfaction came over me that I couldn't have a few
+advantages <i>like</i> Mrs. Hayden's, not hers of course, but similar ones,"
+with a smile at the distinction, "and then I wondered how she spends all
+her leisure, for of course she has the whole twenty-four hours at her
+disposal, and&mdash;well, to be brief, I would not want to live without some
+object in life, and so I thought it best the way it is now."</p>
+
+<p>"Very wise conclusion, Kate, that's just what I always say, and really
+who is there with whom we would care to exchange places? There are so
+many kinds of people and so many things for humanity to contend against,
+I don't know that I should want to change burdens with anyone."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Dyke, for instance, would you not think yourself fortunate to be
+like her?" said Kate, with a merry twinkle in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, deliver me from that comparison! Why, she carries everybody's sins
+on her shoulders; I even heard she had taken Robert Elsmere to throw at
+the world!" laughed Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"But not his wife; she didn't read about her. Wasn't it too funny to
+hear her go on last night, and the way she looked at the minister to
+emphasize her position?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but how many there are like her&mdash;read just enough to know there
+are such and such characters and such and such incidents. Now of course
+she has heard the minister define Robert's crime, as he would call it I
+suppose, so she thinks she can use the whole argument," replied Grace, a
+little scornfully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hayden interposed just at the right time. I was glad she did, too.
+It seems she has considered Catherine's position and could speak a good
+word for her," said Kate, sipping her tea, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if she calls her an ideal of wifely love, I don't admire the
+reality," exclaimed Grace, with more vigor than elegance, as she put
+down her tea-cup.</p>
+
+<p>"I got positively impatient," she continued, "when I read about her
+cruelty to Robert, judging him in that inquisitor's fashion. Poor
+fellow! <i>I</i> think he died of a broken heart."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Grace, she did what she thought was her religious duty, and it
+must have been hard for her to withdraw herself so completely when she
+loved him so much," said the more charitable Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call that love which would let him go tramping off alone, with
+not even a word of sympathy, and so afraid that her religion would be
+contaminated she could not even hear him preach? I don't pretend to be
+religious, but any religion stands on a poor foundation if it can be
+swept away by anybody's opinions."</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't that; it was because she thought it was wrong to listen to
+heresy, as she supposed it was, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"How did she know? Had she taken pains to find out? Did she study it
+carefully and have a reason for her cruel judgment?" interrupted the
+wrathful Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she was conscientious and was doing what she had been taught was
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Kate, if there is anything that makes me out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> patience with people
+it is when they hang all their actions on what somebody else says, and
+that excuse is simply barbarous in this case."</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that in religion one must follow what he thinks to be right,
+and Catherine Elsmere represents a large class of people; in fact, the
+majority of religious people."</p>
+
+<p>Kate was naturally inclined to be charitable, and this, added to her
+early training in a religious home, as well as her position as a church
+member, made her understand Catherine's position from a conscientious
+standpoint much more than Grace. She could readily appreciate the fixed
+law of conscience Catherine had made for herself by pledging her sacred
+word of honor to her father, whom she revered as an infallible
+authority, as most people revere the legends and doctrines of the
+church.</p>
+
+<p>"I admit that it is right to follow the dictates of one's own
+conscience, but I believe in having an enlightened conscience, and a
+reason for opinions. For that matter, so did Robert have a conscience,
+and while I don't understand his religion, I respect his honesty and
+effort. There are a great many beautiful things in what he says, but
+there must be a mistake somewhere in a religion that can not save to the
+uttermost, and his didn't. I haven't found one that does," said Grace,
+with some irony.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, Grace, there is nothing to warrant your assertion in the
+Bible. The Christian religion is full of the most blessed promises of
+salvation in <i>everything</i>," said Kate, gently, but flushing a little as
+she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> spoke, for she disliked talking religion with Grace, who was so
+skeptical, although if compelled to do so, it was a matter of duty to
+stand up for her Christian principles.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I admit it gives many wonderful promises, but where are they
+realized? It seems to me the very fact that the church has not proven
+them, made such people as Robert Elsmere doubt them even as possible of
+fulfillment."</p>
+
+<p>"Why Grace, surely <i>you</i> don't disbelieve in the power of God to fulfill
+the promises?" exclaimed Kate, deeply pained.</p>
+
+<p>"I am talking from Robert Elsmere's standpoint," answered Grace,
+evasively.</p>
+
+<p>"My sympathy is with Catherine, for to her, religion was a living answer
+to her deepest needs and feelings, and to doubt that answer was nothing
+less than sacrilege," said Kate, with a bright red spot on either cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," answered Grace, throwing down her napkin, "I want to see a
+religion that will stand infinite investigation without falling into
+ruins, and Robert reasoned himself away from the old beliefs and dogmas
+because he investigated them. He used his God-given reason, and I think
+that is to be used as well as the blind, unquestioning faith of
+Catherine."</p>
+
+<p>"There are times when we need faith and times when we need reason, but
+faith applies to religion and reason to the things of the world,"
+replied Kate, recalling what she had heard a few Sundays before.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to me the ideal of religion is a marriage,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> a union of faith and
+reason&mdash;but this is idle talk. What does anybody know of such perfection
+as I demand anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>Grace impatiently pushed her chair away from the table, and went to look
+at her picture again, in a decidedly gloomy mood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Such is the world, understand it, despise it, love it; cheerfully
+hold on thy way through it, with thy eye on highest
+loadstars."&mdash;<i>Carlyle.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>It was a week since the party. Mrs. Hayden had been to the opera and
+returned late. Her husband was absent on a business trip, and she felt a
+vague uneasiness come over her as she entered the room. She knew not
+why, but it seemed unusually lonely without him. She seldom went out
+alone, but to-night she had gone out as much to while away the time as
+to hear the music. After paying her usual visit to the nursery, she went
+to bed, but slept little for several hours.</p>
+
+<p>About 4 o'clock she was awakened by stifling fumes of smoke and
+startling cries of fire. Was it too late? She sprang up and ran to the
+nursery stairs, but the scorching flames met her, and she retreated to
+the window, shrieking for help, only to get a glimpse of someone through
+the smoke climbing toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on!" cried the fireman, and reached out his arms for her just as
+she fell back fainting. Grasping her firmly, the brave man dragged her
+out of the window, and began his perilous descent. When about half way
+down, the ladder fell, but its burden was expected, and mattress and
+bed-clothing saved them from what might have been worse. As it was, the
+fireman escaped with a few bruises and slight scorching,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> and Mrs.
+Hayden with a broken limb. First they feared she was dead, but after a
+few moments she revived and moaned feebly for husband and children.
+Little Mabel clung desperately to her mother, and sobbingly told her
+"only the house was burnt. Fred and Jamie were safe, and now she must
+get up and be glad." Poor child, instinctively she knew the value of
+life above all other things.</p>
+
+<p>"How did it happen, where did it start, and who saw it first?" were the
+queries on every side. Some one down at the foot of the hill had seen a
+tiny blue flame licking the corner of the roof. The fire alarm was
+touched, the bells set to ringing, and the observers leaped up the
+terraced stairways and arrived at the top just as the whole house burst
+into flames. The fire company had not arrived in time to do anything, as
+it was impossible to climb the hill with their heavy trucks, and their
+hose was not long enough to reach the flames, so the house was gone.
+Many people had gathered from all quarters in the fashion peculiar to
+fire crowds, but now they had seen the spectacle, and, as there was
+nothing further to see or do, they slowly dispersed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden and the children were removed to the hotel and a telegram
+sent to Mr. Hayden, informing him of the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>When he arrived, twelve hours later, he found his wife confined to the
+bed with a nervous fever and a broken limb. The children were safe and
+well cared for, and though his elegant home was in ruins, John Hayden
+was deeply thankful. Marion would, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> course, get over the trouble, and
+things were much better than they might have been, he said. So he tried
+to look on the bright side, and after a few cheering words and a loving
+kiss he left her, to run up the hill and view the ruins.</p>
+
+<p>It was early twilight, and as he beheld the smouldering <i>debris</i>, and
+realized that the comforts and luxuries, possibly the necessities of
+life had gone up in the smoke that even now curled in sullen wreaths
+from the blackened heaps, he bowed his head and wept.</p>
+
+<p>It was but a moment, but that moment was the bitterest of his whole
+life. He knew better than anyone else that this was probably the
+beginning of financial misfortune, for a very important transaction was
+even now pending that he feared would take his all. As a merchant he had
+an honorable reputation and position, but this unfortunate speculation
+would ruin him. Failure seemed inevitable. But he hoped to save enough
+to pay every debt and still be able to live, even though in a modest
+way. Now he would not even get his insurance on his house, for in his
+financial embarrassment he had failed to renew his policy, which had
+expired but few days before. He would now have little besides this spot,
+this beautiful hill. Yes, it was valuable, and in time could be sold for
+what it was worth, but not now, and in the meantime what should he do?
+How would Marion take it? Why had he not told her before he went away?
+But he had known it himself only a few days.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear wife, would that we could commence life as we did when we
+were first married!" he groaned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His mind went back to the past. He looked again into her sweet, girlish
+face, into her clear, earnest eyes. He remembered how they had both
+desired to live a religious life, how he, having been brought up in a
+religious home, undertook in vain to explain the Bible where it was dark
+and unreasonable to her. He remembered how fruitlessly she had tried to
+be converted, and that he had found even through her earnest seeking
+that he had naught but the letter of religion and was also as helpless
+as to the manner of salvation. And then they had given up trying. She
+sought, for a while, to satisfy herself by doing for others, giving her
+time and energy to the poor that found her out and besieged her for
+favors, while he had been satisfied to let religion alone and believe
+with the majority concerning the doctrines and dogmas.</p>
+
+<p>As the years went on, and prosperity came to them, he had grown more and
+more indifferent, and finally, when they moved away from their early
+home and entered a new city, they had begun a new life, as it were.</p>
+
+<p>He remembered, regretfully, that she had entered the competitive ranks
+of society, at his wish at first, because he thought it would add to his
+popularity as a merchant and increase the number and quality of his
+customers. Too well he remembered that the elegant parties and party
+costumes were first his own instigation, and now that these were likely
+to be taken away, he felt responsible for her happiness, and had a
+secret misgiving, born of his early religious training perhaps, of
+retribution and judgment. He hoped indeed that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> she would be able to
+rise above circumstances, but he was utterly at a loss to know how she
+would take it, for although he knew that deep down in her heart were
+still traces of the early longings, he felt vaguely there was no way to
+satisfy them any more now than in the past, and probably they would only
+increase the difficulty of finding happiness.</p>
+
+<p>John Hayden was kind-hearted and upright in all his ways, strictly
+honest and conscientious, but apt to be a little one-sided in his
+judgments, simply because, as a rule, he reasoned from one standpoint,
+thought in one groove. He had never considered the questions from this
+point of view, and therefore they were seriously perplexing. Like many
+another he lived within his own world, and knew naught of any other. In
+the later years of their married life he and Marion had grown a little
+apart in the closest confidences, but it was caused by circumstances
+more than anything else, and notwithstanding the present misery he was
+sure of her love.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor girl, I must hasten back to her," he murmured, as he rose from his
+uncomfortable position. "After all, I can thank God for my family, my
+health, my honor, for no matter how much <i>we</i> may suffer, no one else
+shall suffer through me."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little pang at the thought of the privations in possible
+store for the family through him, but he had resolved to make the best
+of circumstances and be brave as possible. Once more he looked over the
+scene, but there were only dim black shadows in the starlight, and he
+went down toward the twinkling lights of the city below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Society is like a piece of frozen water; and skating well the
+great art of social life."&mdash;<i>Letitia Elizabeth Landon.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>"Too bad about Hayden, isn't it?" said one business man to another after
+the crash came.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am sorry for him, but he is coming out honorably, and I hope
+he'll commence again before long."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he is made of the right stuff if he did make one mistake, and I
+guess he will never make the same blunder again. Too bad though about
+his house. No insurance at all, and that was a magnificent property."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it was, and I hope for his wife's sake he can sell the lot and
+get another home for her."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't do it now though&mdash;real estate is too low for any use in Hampton."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's so. The only way is to mortgage, and that seems a pity in
+this case&mdash;" and they passed on out of hearing.</p>
+
+<p>John Hayden, standing within the doorway of the open store, had
+overheard the remarks, and while they pained, they cheered him. From
+that moment his resolve was taken, and as soon as everything was
+honorably settled he applied for credit of his old friends in the
+wholesale houses and they gladly gave it, for his reputation was
+unimpeachable.</p>
+
+<p>Then he rented a modest little store and began anew.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden lay sick seven weeks, and arose a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> weak and nervous invalid,
+"doomed to carry a still limb all her life," the physicians said. They
+could not discover why her limb was stiff, but there was no help for it.</p>
+
+<p>How did she bear the change in her life and circumstances? When her
+husband told her, she just put her arms around his neck and whispered;
+"All right, John, I shall do the best I can to help you bear it." And
+from that moment they began life again. She did not even complain when
+they were obliged to move into a small cottage in the suburbs, but it
+was hard for her to be ignored and forgotten by the elegant social
+world, where she had so recently been an acknowledged leader.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! she had no sugar plums for society now, so it soon forgot her
+existence. There were, however, some exceptions among her former
+friends, and she was glad to welcome among her few visitors, Kate Turner
+and Grace Hall, who had grown to love Mrs. Hayden more than they would
+have thought possible when she seemed so high above them in the social
+scale.</p>
+
+<p>"She is turning out a saint rather than a sinner," said Kate one
+evening, as they were discussing the Haydens and recalled the
+conversation of the night of the party.</p>
+
+<p>"Just wait awhile. Many people can be heroic in great things, but are
+sadly deficient when it comes to the little things," said Grace, with
+her usual caution. "I believe I could be a heroine myself, if some grand
+opportunity came," she added, smiling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Grace, don't trifle so; you know this is a very serious matter with
+Mr. and Mrs. Hayden, and they are both doing nobly," cried Kate, with
+tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, queen Katherine, I don't mean any harm, and you must not think
+anything of my brusque speeches. As you know, there is a tinge of
+skepticism in me which I can not help, and my ideals are so much higher
+than the realities of life, that I am always painfully conscious of the
+difference."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what would you wish Mrs. Hayden to be like, for instance, in
+order to come up to your ideal of the heroic woman?" asked Kate in a
+softened tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Kate dear, I love Mrs. Hayden as much as you do, and would not for a
+moment disparage her virtues, but it strikes me as a philosophical fact
+that as a rule, human nature can and does display wonderful courage in
+great emergencies, but fails miserably in details, and this ought not to
+be so. Nothing would please me better than to see one life prove that I
+am wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"That is all true, Gracie, about humanity in general, but she is lovely,
+and I am sorry for her having to be lame all her life. It's a perfect
+shame that she must lose even her health, for of course she will never
+be strong again."</p>
+
+<p>"Another defect to be noted somewhere in the universal economy. It seems
+to me we are pretty helpless creatures, generally speaking, for it all
+appears to be a matter of chance whether we get well or not, when we
+<i>do</i> get sick," mused Grace, bent upon drawing her own conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>Poor girl! Life had been rather hard for her, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> she judged it as it
+appeared, and there <i>did</i> seem a great flaw somewhere which she was
+trying her best to solve by noting every phase of life as she found it.
+Naturally bright, keenly intellectual and very independent, she was a
+philosopher as well as an artist, and always ready for a tilt with the
+world on its most petted opinions. Hers was a reasoning mind that
+observed all inconsistencies and discrepancies in anything she studied,
+and there was generally a little acidity in her judgment of the world
+and its bigoted ways.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't see why Mrs. Hayden should not be cured completely," continued
+Kate, ignoring her companion's last shot, "for it wasn't so bad that
+anybody knew of until she got up."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear madam," said Grace, striking an owlish attitude, "you have not
+read the latest opinion expressed by one of the most learned professors
+in the Allopathic school of medicine in Paris. He stood before the class
+of graduating students and said: 'Gentlemen, you have done me the honor
+to come here to listen to a lecture on the science of medicine. I must
+frankly confess I know nothing about it, and, moreover, know of no one
+who does. Any one who takes medicine is fortunate if it helps him, but
+more fortunate if it does not harm him.' Whether our friend is fortunate
+or unfortunate is a question hard to decide. I move we discuss another
+subject."</p>
+
+<p>Kate laughed in spite of herself, and Grace got up to take another view
+of the "Modern Hypatia," which at last was growing into a visible
+creation under her skillful brush.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that a woman for you?" she said, pointing to the picture
+admiringly, as she held it under the gas light.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I like her better than Hebe. She has a look of reserved power
+about her that is captivating, but there is something in her face that
+makes me sad, something that is lacking."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? Tell me, for <i>I</i> can see nothing!" Grace questioned
+impetuously.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a minute, perhaps I can define it. There! hold it so. Let me see,"
+and Kate walked off a few paces.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is dissatisfaction, an incompleteness, as though she had not
+found what she sought."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you see that, Kate? Then I am at the same time the most happy and
+unhappy creature alive," cried Grace, breathlessly dropping into a chair
+and holding the picture fondly near her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" said the astonished Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know I am forever putting myself into my pictures? And I've
+succeeded too admirably with this one. The poor thing has caught my
+unconscious fault of finding defects everywhere. Oh, I must get it out
+of her some way; how shall I, when to me she looks so perfect?"</p>
+
+<p>"You better get it out of yourself first, if that is the trouble,"
+replied Kate, with a great wave of pity in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could. Oh, why do I have to see everything in the wrong way?
+It seems to me life would be heavenly, if I could know only the good in
+every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>thing." Grace put down the picture and gazed at it with stern,
+accusing eyes. "I shall leave this one and begin another to-morrow," she
+finally announced in a subdued tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you won't rub this out, for she is too lovely," said Kate,
+softly, as she went about, gently putting things in order, picking up
+her music and arranging the books.</p>
+
+<p>Grace sat there brooding over her life problems with a new thought in
+her mind. She dimly realized that a woman must have a genuine message
+herself before she tries to give it to the world. And alas, her message
+was sadly deficient, she found. Mechanically she took a book from the
+table and opening it at random, read:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"If the whole is ever to gladden thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That whole in the smallest thing thou must see."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"That is not bad philosophy, whose is it?" she thought. She looked at
+the book. It was Goethe's poems, but she was not in the mood for
+reading, and she sat thinking till late at night. This was a new
+sentiment. She would digest it and test its practical truth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Take up the threads of life at home,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Let not the stitches drop;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The busy world will know 'tis done</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Though ne'er it pause nor stop.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace
+but the triumph of principles."&mdash;<i>Emerson.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>A year passed away, and Mrs. Hayden grew no better. She was not as
+cheerful as she had been at first, and instead of growing into the
+brave, patient woman she longed to become, she had grown fretful and
+irritable, and was in many ways different from the Mrs. Hayden Kate and
+Grace had talked about so enthusiastically. None knew better than she,
+how miserably she had failed to live the life that was soul
+satisfying&mdash;the life that brought forth fruits. In all the years of her
+prosperity, in the midst of the gayeties and luxuries, she had secretly
+longed for something she never found, and in one sense it had not been
+hard for her to give up the life of ease and idleness, because she had
+hoped to find in the new duties a new peace and satisfaction, had hoped
+to live up to her ideal of a noble woman, and it was with her whole
+heart she had promised her husband her help and sympathy, but in all the
+eighteen months, she had been but a burden; even calm forbearance and
+cheerfulness had ceased to be virtues. The children, not having a
+nursery, must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> needs be anywhere and everywhere, and in spite of her
+efforts to the contrary, their noise annoyed her.</p>
+
+<p>To-night she sat thinking it all over, in one of her most despondent
+moods, for be it said to her credit, things did not always appear as
+gloomy as she represented them to herself.</p>
+
+<p>The ruddy firelight flickered over her in fitful gleams of light and
+shadow. The children were out romping in the twilight, enjoying the
+first snow of the season. Her husband had not yet returned from the
+store.</p>
+
+<p>What was the use, anyway, pursued the relentless conscience&mdash;even the
+wish to be good was always choked by a complete forgetfulness; and
+before she could catch her breath the words were out, so, although she
+had believed nearly all her life that one might grow into goodness, she
+was quite rebellious to-night with the thought of its impossibility, and
+she felt bitter, too, to think of the long years of uselessness
+stretching out before her. Scarcely thirty-five and yet she felt like a
+cross, crabbed old woman, and shuddered to think of all the years to
+come, if they were to be like the past, and there seemed no help for it
+unless she could conquer herself. The doctor had done what he could to
+cure her dyspepsia but she was a veritable slave to her capricious
+stomach. She felt one of her oft-recurring sick headaches coming on and
+every thought grew blacker and more disconsolate. Oh! she wished supper
+were over and the children safe in bed, so she could be free from their
+noise, and here they come! she thought, as a great stamping and laughing
+was heard in the hall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma! such lovely snowflakes, just like a fairy's quilt, and they
+have been falling all over us till we're like people in frost land. Just
+look, mamma!" cried Mabel, who liked a romp as well as the boys,
+although she was thirteen. Three-year-old Jamie and five-year-old Fred
+came trooping in behind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mamma, God has turned on the snow faucets," announced Fred, with
+characteristic importance.</p>
+
+<p>"An' all 'e fevvers is tummin' down fum 'e 'ky," shouted Jamie at the
+top of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"And mamma, <i>can't</i> we have a sled and go coasting this winter?" queried
+Mabel, not noticing in her eagerness that her mamma was very sick.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>don't</i> make so much noise. Take them away and keep quiet, Mabel. I
+can not endure so much confusion."</p>
+
+<p>They went out clanging the door behind them in spite of their efforts to
+keep quiet, and as their voices grew fainter, she thought with another
+remorseful pang: "I have sent them away again. Why must I yield always
+to self instead of overcoming?" Presently, however, all attempts at
+thinking were lost in the efforts to get the camphor, bathe her head and
+find some comforting spot whereon to rest her aching temples.</p>
+
+<p>A subdued family gathered around the table that evening and everyone
+felt the necessity of being quiet as possible. Even Fred and Jamie
+understood that they <i>must</i> keep still, and managed to keep their voices
+down to something less than a shrill whisper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden partook only of a small cup of tea and was then assisted to
+her room, where she expected to remain for at least two days&mdash;the usual
+time. Her husband spent the evening rubbing her head, bathing it with
+camphor and keeping the house quiet as possible.</p>
+
+<p>The next day dawned cloudy and grey, with a faint mildness in the air,
+indicating a thaw. Mabel went to school, Fred and Jamie amused
+themselves in the back parlor until they were tired and then flattened
+their noses against the window, trying to see how many drops of melted
+snow fell from the porch roof.</p>
+
+<p>"I want a snow man," wailed Jamie, suddenly remembering what papa said
+about the snow long ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can't have it," said Fred, with great decision, who generally
+opposed anything on principle.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we can. We can go out and make one," persisted Jamie.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack Frost'll bite your fingers."</p>
+
+<p>"No he won't."</p>
+
+<p>"He will&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He won't eever&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He will, 'cos mamma said so," said naughty Fred.</p>
+
+<p>Jamie's little face clouded and the lip began to quiver; then a sudden
+thought striking him, he jumped up, beaming with delight, and cried, as
+he ran towards the hall:</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma said Jack Frost couldn't find me when I had my overcoat and wed
+mittens on, and my wed cap."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You can't reach your coat an' you've lost your mittens," insisted Fred,
+with perseverance worthy a better cause.</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes I can. I can 'tep on my high chair," dragging it after him.</p>
+
+<p>"I can get my things on first," said Fred who suddenly decided in favor
+of the snow man, and hurriedly suiting the action to the word, rushed to
+get his coat which hung under Jamie's, just as Jamie reached his little
+hands up to get his. Fred gave a tremendous flirt and pull at his coat
+which overbalanced his little brother and down came the high chair and
+Jamie plump upon the luckless Fred, whose angry squeals and kicks,
+mingled with Jamie's loud shrieks of terror made a commotion that
+brought Anna, the housekeeper, to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>is</i> the matter?" as she plucked Jamie from the general <i>debris</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Fred pulled me down&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Jamie jumped on me," said both at once as soon as they could get their
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>"An', I aint lost my wed mittens, an' my little white leg is broke off,"
+cried Jamie suddenly, spying the oft-mended leg of the high-chair, which
+in this <i>melee</i>, had completely severed company with the rest of the
+chair, and now mutely appealed for help to be put on again.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there, papa can mend it all right again. Don't cry, little man.
+Now Fred, you must stop crying and play nice with Jamie and not quarrel
+so much. There! I hear mamma's bell; I must go see what she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> wants. Run
+away and be quiet, for mamma can't stand a <i>bit</i> of noise to-day," and
+Anna left them again to their own devices. Jamie carefully laid the
+little white leg away in his box of playthings, and then both children
+went back to the window to watch the drops again.</p>
+
+<p>"I see one, two, three, seven, four, ten&mdash;" slowly counted Jamie as the
+crystal drops fell.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see a ice berg, an' I'm goin' to get it for candy," shouted Fred
+as he ran out on the porch and seized an icicle. It seemed so nice out
+there that he stayed and called Jamie to come, too. They were delighted
+with the new plaything and new sights, and any thought of being cold or
+needing their coats never entered their minds, so the icicle, the
+beautiful drops, and finally the snow claimed their attention until they
+were at last happily engaged in the much-desired occupation of making a
+snow man.</p>
+
+<p>It was near noon and the sun had finally rifted the grayest clouds, and
+was sending such warm smiles on the snow-laden earth that trees and
+fences, roofs and ridges burst into tears of joy. So, often does the
+sun-shiny smile melt the ice-bound prison of discontent or
+misunderstanding.</p>
+
+<p>Fred and Jamie were in the midst of their interesting creation when Mr.
+Hayden came home to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys! boys!" he called from the gate as soon as he saw them. "You'll
+catch your death of cold; run into the house, quick! Why haven't you
+something on your heads and rubbers on your feet?" and without waiting
+to hear their vociferous reply, he hurried them into the house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but it was such fun, papa, an' we was goin' to put two coals in his
+head, cos' his eyes was black, you know, an' your old mashed hat for his
+head, an'&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"An' me foun' a 'tick for his arm," interrupted Jamie, who must be sure
+papa knew all about this wonderful man.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he looks very promising, and I guess I'll have to finish him for
+you; but you must not go out again to-day. Just think what would we do
+if you should be sick while mamma must be in bed. Poor mamma, she would
+feel bad and cry because she couldn't help you, and it would make her
+feel very sorry indeed to know her little boys went out without somebody
+saying they might."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, papa, we didn't mean to go 'thout our things on, but two of the
+<i>beautifullest</i> icebergs hunged down an' we played they was candy an'
+all the pretty drops said stop, stop, stop, an'&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, an' the 'no was full of 'tars 'at shined right up at us an'
+laughed an' played hide an' seek wiv each other."</p>
+
+<p>"An' Jamie wanted to make a snow man," suddenly remembered Fred.</p>
+
+<p>"Cos papa did when he was a little boy, an' he telled me sometimes so
+could I&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you little rogues, it is well you can trace it back," laughed papa,
+catching each small man, and placing upon his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, look here, your shoes are all wet, and your fingers red, and your
+clothes sprinkled with water. This will never do. Take off your shoes,
+Fred. Here,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> Anna," he called, as he heard her in the dining room,
+"bring some dry stockings and aprons. These boys have been out in the
+wet snow, and must be changed right away. Put a flannel round their
+necks, too. I'm afraid they'll have the croup to-night." With as much
+haste as possible, he stripped off their wet clothes, chafed their hands
+and feet, and with an anxious look left them, to go and speak to his
+wife who, when suffering from headache could allow no one to enter the
+room except her husband or Anna.</p>
+
+<p>That night the whole household were aroused by the hoarse and
+unmistakable cough of croup. Jamie had taken cold, as his father feared
+he would. The doctor was sent for in wild haste, and after several hours
+of watchful care and frequent taking of hive syrup or ipecac, Jamie was
+at last sleeping quietly, and every one felt that after this, at least,
+those children should be so well guarded that escape would be
+impossible, and the dreaded enemy kept out. This was always a result of
+exposure, and Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had often wished for the time when
+Jamie would outgrow the attacks as that really seemed the only thing in
+which lay any hope.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Build thee more stately mansions</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh my soul,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">As the swift seasons roll,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Leave thy low vaulted past.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Let each new temple nobler than the last</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Till thou at length art free:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>O. W. Holmes.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>"How do you do Mrs. Hayden? You see I come in without ceremony as usual,
+but I heard you'd had one of your headaches again," and Mrs. Reade
+seated herself cosily on the sofa near which Mrs. Hayden sat languidly
+trying to read.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I have about recovered my usual strength, but of course I must be
+careful and not get excited or overworked, though my work I am sorry to
+say, does not amount to much." After a few moments commonplace
+conversation, Mrs. Reade said, carefully:</p>
+
+<p>"Now Mrs. Hayden, I believe there <i>is</i> a help for you somewhere.
+Wouldn't you like to try something new?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you <i>know</i> I would try anything that would give relief, but I have
+exhausted everything that ever was heard of, and now every remedy seems
+very transient or of no effect at all."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden leaned wearily back in her chair and seemed to think there
+was no use discussing the subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> any longer. After a few moments
+thoughtful silence, Mrs. Reade looked up at her friend and said,
+timidly:</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hayden, have you ever heard of Christian Healing?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell, only that it is just the most wonderful panacea for all
+ills that ever was discovered and they say it can be learned, and
+applied by everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that I could learn it and could then cure myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is what they claim."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mrs. Reade, what is all this wonderful news, and if it is true,
+why hasn't the world heard of it before?" exclaimed Mrs. Hayden with an
+amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Reade did not return the smile but a still more earnest look came
+into her eyes. She bent over her bit of sewing for a moment and then
+looking up, as though resolved to speak the truth at any cost, she went
+on:</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hayden, it is the fulfillment of the promises in the Bible, that
+to them that believe, these signs should be given. You remember the
+passage don't you, where Jesus gave His disciples the same power to heal
+that He had?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but that was long ago, and the promise was for the disciples, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it was for everybody; and do you know, Mrs. Hayden, I can hardly
+wait to learn this new method, I am so interested."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you hear about it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"When I was down to Mapleton last summer I heard something about it
+through a friend of mine, who was cured of chronic congestive headaches,
+and now my cousin, Miss Greening, from Norfolk, has come on to spend the
+holidays with us, and strange to say, she has been cured of weak
+eyes&mdash;just came straight from Princeton where she was treated,
+and&mdash;and&mdash;well, the fact is, I want you to come over and see her and may
+be <i>you</i> can be cured."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Reade was quite frightened for having said so much, but was
+reassured by the growing interest in Mrs. Hayden's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"And you know these things to be true? Why, it <i>is</i> wonderful. How is it
+done, by prayer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly, but it is by some process of thinking. Oh, I can't begin
+to tell you, only that it is wonderful, and you must come over and talk
+with cousin Helen."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid to trust myself out in this uncertain weather. Can't you
+both come and take tea with us to-morrow? I hope to be well enough then,
+and it would be a great pleasure, for if there is any truth in this, I
+want to know it. Do come."</p>
+
+<p>This was a good deal for Mrs. Hayden to say, but she was very earnest
+when aroused to interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we will," said Mrs. Reade, as she rose to go, looking straight
+into her friend's eyes with joyful earnestness, "and I am so glad. Good
+bye," and she retreated as unceremoniously as she had come, leaving Mrs.
+Hayden to wonder why she should be so childishly pleased over that
+invitation. It never occurred to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> that Mrs. Reade should be so glad
+to come merely to tell more about this new way of getting well.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Reade was a young housekeeper, who, living just across the street,
+was in the habit of often running in to Mrs. Hayden with her little
+vexations, her triumphs of cookery, her questions of how to manage
+little May, or what to do in matters of household furnishing. She was a
+very progressive little woman, and, perhaps owing to the influence of
+Mrs. Hayden, was ready at least to give everything a fair hearing. This
+new "craze," as some called it, had been presented to her in a way that
+compelled her attention and commanded her respect, and especially since
+her cousin's coming had she been intensely interested.</p>
+
+<p>Particularly was she desirous of enlisting the attention of Mrs. Hayden,
+who not only needed the physical help to be obtained, but who would be
+an excellent advocate of the principles, providing she could endorse
+them, as Mrs. Reade was sure she would, if she could only be made to
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>So it was with great anticipated pleasure Mrs. Reade introduced her
+cousin to Mrs. Hayden as they went in the next day.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Cousin Helen, just tell Mrs. Hayden how you were cured. I am so
+anxious to set the ball rolling," said Mrs. Reade, with an arch look at
+Mrs. Hayden after they were comfortably settled for their talk.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," added Mrs. Hayden; "if you have half as wonderful a
+message as Mrs. Reade fondly imagines I shall be delighted to hear it,
+but I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> first like to ask what was the trouble with your eyes, and
+something as to their condition when you first looked into this method
+of healing."</p>
+
+<p>"I had been obliged to leave school because they were so weak. They were
+inflamed and bloodshot. I could not bear to go out in the wind, ride on
+the cars, or have any excitement whatever. The occulists said the
+trouble was caused by a physical defect that could not be remedied, so
+you may imagine my despair. Father and mother came home from a visit in
+Kansas, and while there they had heard of a lady in Princeton who was
+having remarkable success with mind-cure, as they called it. They coaxed
+me to go and try it. I had no faith, but to please them thought I would
+go. It could do no harm, they said. The journey, though only sixty miles
+from home, was very hard for me. When I arrived at Mrs. Harmon's it
+seemed as though I could hardly bear the pain caused by the journey.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Harmon allowed me to stay right at her home, and though only there
+a week, I was not only cured, but learned the principles and how to
+apply them. After the first treatment I felt so well and happy she told
+me I could use my eyes to read an hour or so. From the second treatment
+I could use them all I wished. It was perfectly wonderful. When I went
+home I was cured. That is now three weeks ago, and I have been using my
+eyes constantly, have taken several journeys on the cars, and gone out
+day and night."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden had listened with the greatest interest, her mind filled
+with varying thoughts. Sudden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> glimpses of wonderful might-be's, mingled
+with doubts and hopes, had chased each other in wild confusion through
+her bewildered brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," she found breath at last to ask, "what is it, and how is it
+done, and can anybody do it?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greening was delighted to find so willing an audience, for in spite
+of her remarkable cure, most of her family and friends ridiculed her new
+"cure all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish I could explain to you as Mrs. Harmon does. I am so very new
+in the thought, but I will do the best I can to give you some idea. The
+main thing in the beginning is to know that you know nothing," continued
+Miss Greening, with a smile. "The world believes in the character as it
+appears, to be the real character, that the person who suffers sickness,
+sorrow, disappointment, anger or pain is the real self. We have always
+taken the people of the world, as they appear, to be the children of
+God. This truth teaches that the real child of God is in His image and
+likeness and in Him lives, is moved and has His being. According to the
+laws of thought, the thought of one individual affects another, and on
+this principle the treatments are given, but it is the omnipresent life
+Principle that does the work.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is perfectly wonderful, and if you could see what I saw while I
+was with Mrs. Harmon, you would not doubt a moment. She was busy from
+morning till night with patients. Hardly had time to eat or sleep. It
+seemed like the times of the New Testament come back again. Mrs. Harmon
+cured a man of rheumatism, where the joints had been stiffened and
+contracted for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> years, in seven treatments. The first week the
+treatments did not seem to have any effect, but the second week he
+suddenly recovered the use of his arm and limbs, so that he could run
+and jump or do anything else that a healthy man can do.</p>
+
+<p>"One young girl, who was suffering from lead poisoning so that she was
+given up by three or four prominent physicians, received nine treatments
+and, although not perfectly strong and robust, was able to walk several
+blocks and was so well that she did not need further treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Harmon treated an old lady of seventy, so that she laid aside
+glasses and could see to sew on black cloth. A lady who had been an
+invalid for sixteen years was cured so that in a week she was able to
+ride a mile and a half to the lectures.</p>
+
+<p>"All these things I saw with my own eyes, and if the evidence had not
+been enough in my own case, there were all these proofs. And the
+teaching! Oh, it is beautiful. If we could only live up to that the
+millenium would surely be here."</p>
+
+<p>In her enthusiasm Miss Greening scarcely noticed the effect of her
+words, else she would have seen Mrs. Hayden's expressive eyes full of a
+yearning, silent and strong.</p>
+
+<p>"Can it touch anyone's character or moral life?" she asked after a
+moment's pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed; there is not one thing in life that is not amenable to its
+discipline. Mrs. Harmon says it is a great advantage in governing
+children, that every mother ought to know it, for the help in that
+direction, even if not for their health."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What a wonderful thing it must be; and yet I always thought the days of
+miracles were past, if indeed they ever were," said Mrs. Hayden,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"These are not miracles, as the ordinary understanding of that word
+would imply, but are done in accordance with Divine Law, the highest
+law,&mdash;not the setting aside of any law," interposed Mrs. Reade, who had
+been deeply interested in the conversation, but hitherto had been a
+silent listener.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mamma, I wish supper was ready; I'm so hungry!" cried Fred,
+bursting into the room, followed by Jamie and Mabel.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, can't we have some&mdash;" began Jamie, and then stopped, abashed at
+the size of the audience.</p>
+
+<p>"No, dears; mamma don't want you to eat anything before supper. You know
+what Doctor Jackson said about the little stomachs that were overworked.
+Now, run away and be good; when everything is ready mamma'll call you."</p>
+
+<p>"But we want it <i>now</i>. Doctor Jackson don't know everything. It's only
+God that knows everything," said Fred, with unanswerable argument.</p>
+
+<p>"Come away, Fred," whispered Mabel, giving him an impatient twitch.</p>
+
+<p>"It's so, anyway; mamma told me about God just the other night."</p>
+
+<p>"He knows I want some ginger 'naps," whimpered Jem.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind; run out, as mamma says," said Mrs. Hayden, resolutely, and
+the aggrieved trio reluctantly departed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It would be an immense help to me if I could learn to manage these
+three irrepressibles without getting tired all out," said Mrs. Hayden,
+with a little sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't it be splendid? I think, Mrs. Hayden, you better let Cousin
+Helen treat you, and get you all cured, and then you can go somewhere
+and learn how, yourself," said Mrs. Reade, as she demurely wound up the
+ball.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden looked up with interested surprise. "Do you think anything
+could be done for <i>me</i>, Miss Greening?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great many worse than you have been cured, why not you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know; it seems so far away and so intangible some way."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mrs. Hayden, try it. Let Cousin Helen treat you," interposed Mrs.
+Reade.</p>
+
+<p>"What must <i>I</i> do, any mysterious unheard-of thing?" was the answer,
+with a look of evident amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! Just sit quietly passive, and be as hopeful as possible during
+the treatment. The only thing that might seem hard is to give up all
+medicine and material applications while you are under treatment."</p>
+
+<p>"That will not be hard at all, for I have lost all faith in medicine
+anyway. When do you want to begin, Miss Greening?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am willing to try my best to help you, Mrs. Hayden, but you
+must understand, in the first place, that I take no credit to myself,
+for it is God's work.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> Then I have really not tried to heal any one;
+since it was so recently I was cured myself, there has been no
+opportunity, but as I said, I will do what I can."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greening spoke earnestly and reverently. It seemed rather new to
+her to be called upon to prove her principles, and yet she had such
+perfect faith in them, she never thought of wavering.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's all settled, and you can take your first treatment to-night,"
+spoke up Mrs. Reade, volubly. "I'm so anxious to see you strong and well
+like the rest of us," she added half apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"It will seem too good to be true. I can not realize such a
+possibility."</p>
+
+<p>A thoughtful silence fell upon the little company for a few moments, and
+when they resumed their conversation, it was about something else.</p>
+
+<p>At their usual tea time, Mr. Hayden, accompanied by Mr. Reade, came in,
+and all were presently called to the dining room.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had dropped all pretension of style in their present
+circumstances, and lived like their neighbors, in a modest but
+comfortable way. The children came trooping in when they heard the
+supper bell, and delightedly filed out to the dining room with their
+elders.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hope you ladies have been enjoying yourselves this afternoon. I
+notice ladies have that faculty whenever they meet for an hour or so,"
+said Mr. Hayden, with a genial smile, as he passed the plates.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we have indeed had a lovely time, and a profitable one, too, I
+hope," said Mrs. Reade, impulsively.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You have about converted Mrs. Hayden to your ideas, you and Helen
+together, I presume," remarked Mr. Reade, as he spread his napkin out to
+its fullest capacity.</p>
+
+<p>"I should certainly like to be converted, if so many wonderful things
+are possible as I have heard about this afternoon," and Mrs. Hayden
+showed by the unusual energy in her manner and the brightness of her
+eyes that something had inspired her to an unwonted degree.</p>
+
+<p>"Well now, tell me what all this is about. You seem to have conspired to
+talk in riddles," exclaimed Mr. Hayden, with an injured air.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is this new 'craze' they call Christian Healing that seems to
+have taken hold of our worthy partners, Mr. Hayden," exclaimed Mr.
+Reade, with a half-believing, half-skeptical air.</p>
+
+<p>He really believed much more than he cared to acknowledge, but until he
+was better informed of Mr. Hayden's opinions, he thought "discretion the
+better part of valor." Someway we often stumble upon such characters in
+life. Good-natured souls they are, and so anxious to please everybody.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure but there is a good deal in that, Reade. I heard some
+gentlemen talking about what was being done in Chicago, and it is truly
+wonderful. After all, we know that the mind has a great influence over
+the body, and why shouldn't we discover new abilities and powers in that
+as we develop in other directions?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure; just what I have always said, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> now I am having an
+opportunity to prove it since my wife is willing to listen," replied Mr.
+Reade, with graceful diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is something far beyond what you gentlemen see&mdash;something so
+spiritual and beautiful, that mere intellect can not recognize it. But
+you will come to that after awhile, if you only seek to know for Truth's
+sake, though the recognition of what you see often comes first,"
+interposed Miss Greening, with a warm flush of enthusiasm on her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. I believe our capacity to recognize higher phases of thought
+grows with our eagerness to receive. That is true of any branch of
+study," said Mrs. Hayden, with conviction. She was well pleased that her
+husband was so favorably inclined to hear, and expressed himself so
+cordially. While she was quite independent in her own way of thinking,
+it was still a keen pleasure to have her husband on the same side. He,
+on the other hand, had great confidence in her judgment, and generally
+allowed himself to be convinced, even if he had an opinion in the
+beginning. They had been especially near to each other the last year.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greening was mentally congratulating herself on having found such a
+ready audience, and felt as though she could do anything in the way of
+healing, as she talked on and on, telling them the many things that had
+happened in Princeton. She finished by saying, enthusiastically:</p>
+
+<p>"When I had such wonderful proofs right before my eyes, do you wonder
+that I looked with awe and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> astonishment and wanted to know the secret
+of this power? Can you wonder that I felt anxious to go forth into all
+the world and preach the gospel? Oh, how delightful, I thought, to carry
+such blessed news and be able to give such blessed proof! So when Cousin
+Ruth's letter came, asking me to make her a visit, I felt that perhaps
+an opportunity would offer in which I might demonstrate the truth of my
+precious science, and here it is ready for me, the very work I wanted.
+Yes, just as far as possible will I use my knowledge, though as yet it
+is but little, to help Mrs. Hayden."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Greening had waxed eloquent in her unconscious enthusiasm, and
+seeing the whole company gazing at her in astonished admiration, she
+paused suddenly, with a vivid flush on her face, saying: "Pardon me. I
+did not mean to monopolize the conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"That apology is entirely unnecessary, for we have been listening to
+something so new that its very newness and unconventionality is quite
+refreshing, and certainly interesting," said Mr. Hayden, warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, there must be some healing virtue even in your talk, for I feel
+remarkably well to-day," was his wife's delighted addition.</p>
+
+<p>"How glad, oh, how glad I am," fluttered Mrs. Reade.</p>
+
+<p>A movement from Jem caused Mrs. Hayden to notice his extra dish of sauce
+and huge piece of frosted cake.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Jem, dear, you mustn't eat any more to-night, and you know mamma
+don't want you to have any cake."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"O-o-o-h, peaze, tan't I have some more?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not any more to-day. You know you had to be sick all night, not long
+ago, and mamma had to give you some medicine. You don't want to have to
+take paregoric, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No-o-o, but I want e take!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma said you couldn't have any. You're too little, anyway. Didn't I
+tell you I ought to have the biggest piece 'cause my stomach's the
+biggest, an' I'm not afraid of stomachache. Give me your sauce, if you
+can't eat it," said shameless Fred.</p>
+
+<p>Papa and mamma Hayden looked upon their oldest son in dismay, as he thus
+openly delivered his sentiments.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Freddie, you mustn't want any more, either, nor talk that way to
+Jem. You have had enough for to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've had six biscuits any way," and Fred settled himself back
+with a satisfied air as though he could stand anything if necessary,
+while poor Jem was taken away from the table crying as if his heart
+would break at the loss of his coveted sweets.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, we seldom have company, and the children are unused to sweet
+things as a rule, because the doctor always says their diet must be
+carefully attended to, in order to avoid inflammation of the bowels,
+which Jem once had," explained Mrs. Hayden with the old look of
+weariness for a moment settling back on her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Just wait till you have studied Christian Healing and then see how to
+manage," said Mrs. Reade with sparkling eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Have you taken such a fancy to this too, Mrs. Reade?" asked Mr. Hayden,
+rather teasingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's almost a crank <i>now</i>," answered her husband, with a merry
+twinkle.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is very good to have such an article in the family. It keeps
+things lively and announces the world's progress with unerring
+certainty," she retorted, and with this good-natured sally they rose
+from the table. The evening was spent in a mixture of small talk and
+earnestness, and before they departed Mrs. Hayden received her first
+treatment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Like an &AElig;olian harp, that wakes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">No certain air, but overtakes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Far thought with music that it makes,&mdash;</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Such seemed the whisper at my side;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'What is't thou knowest, sweet voice?' I cried;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'A hidden hope,' the voice replied."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Tennyson.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>The second morning after this Mrs. Hayden awoke, feeling much better
+than she had for months. A strange, happy feeling possessed her. All
+that had seemed dark and hopeless now appeared as nothing but gossamer
+fog-wreaths. The world seemed so joyous and beautiful. God seemed so
+near, so loving, so all-protecting. Why had she ever doubted the
+possibility of health? Surely it was easy to feel well when she felt
+happy; and yet, would this last? Had this delightful change any
+connection with Miss Greening's treatment? No, surely not. It would be
+too unreasonable to expect any benefit so soon; besides, she was
+probably no better physically, that is, her lameness and dyspepsia were
+not touched as yet, if indeed they ever could be. Well, how it would
+astonish everybody if she really were cured, and could walk like her old
+self again. Her stiffened limb would have to undergo a marvelous change,
+but time would tell&mdash;it seemed nothing was beyond reach of this
+extraordinary Power. Miss Greening was so sincere and earnest, she could
+not for a moment doubt the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> truth of her statements, besides Mr. Hayden
+himself confessed to having heard of the wonderful works, though he had
+never mentioned it before, strangely enough. At the time it probably
+appeared so vague and visionary, that he had thought best not to excite
+her curiosity and hope without cause.</p>
+
+<p>How glad she was that he had at last allowed her to try this without
+ridiculing or scolding her. How beautiful this theory was, but it seemed
+too good to be true. She would not be carried away with it until she had
+demonstrated beyond doubt, until she could see the reason and understand
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The clock struck nine. Why, it was time to rise, and she really felt
+hungry, so hungry that dry toast and hot water had no attractions for
+her. She wondered if there would be anything on the table she dared not
+eat; it would be hard to resist if there were. Thus musing she dressed
+with more alacrity and energy than she had displayed for many months.</p>
+
+<p>Her husband stood in the doorway as she left her room, and remarked as
+they went down stairs:</p>
+
+<p>"You must have had a good sleep last night, you are so bright and spry
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, I can scarcely remember when the night has passed so
+quickly and the morning seemed so exhilarating; please help me down this
+turn, won't you? It is always so hard to get down stairs."</p>
+
+<p>The cane was brought into requisition, and with Mr. Hayden's help the
+stairs were descended, but the refractory limb was forgotten again in
+the interest with which she viewed the breakfast table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, we've waited and waited till we thought we'd have to eat
+something, so we each took a doughnut to save time," was the explanatory
+greeting of Fred, who acted as spokesman for the three hungry culprits,
+who had this time, at least, disobeyed the imperative injunction not to
+eat cake the first thing in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, children, don't you remember how Dr. Jackson&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mamma, I heard that lady 'at was here, say 'twouldn't hurt us to
+eat if you wasn't so 'fraid 'bout our stomachs; an' she's a doctor, too,
+an' ladies know 's much 's men, 'cos you said so," interrupted the
+irrepressible, as usual, with unanswerable argument.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'll see this time, but you must be more careful to remember
+what mamma wishes you to do," said Mrs. Hayden more mildly than usual,
+while her eyes smiled a little.</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast was brought in, and, much to the astonishment of all, she
+recklessly disregarded the dry toast and hot water, mutely appealing to
+her from the side of her plate, and ate heartily of beefsteak, potatoes,
+and pan cakes. "I am so hungry, and will risk it on the strength of
+Fred's reminder," she apologized, as she sent her plate the third time
+for cakes.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't tell me you've no faith in Fred's newly-acquired wisdom," laughed
+Mr. Hayden, and then added, with some concern, "but, really, my dear,
+you ought to be careful. Remember the condition of your stomach."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just what she told me to forget."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, it beats all how things can be turned upside down," mused Mr.
+Hayden, as he rose from the table preparatory to going to the store.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly is strange about this, for you remember yesterday, I even
+walked over to Mrs. Reade's and back without any unusual fatigue."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes! I've noticed various daring breaches of the old code, and,
+more than all, I've seen the best color in your face that has been there
+for many a month," and he went out with a thoughtful expression on his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma's well now," said little Jem, timidly, "'cos she puts me to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, an' we can make a noise when we dress, an' talk 'bout Christmas,"
+added Fred, as he was walking about, wiping his hands, in his usual
+restless manner.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Of course Kate and Grace were told about the new way of being healed,
+and Grace looked on at first with her usual incredulity, but when she
+saw Mrs. Hayden getting so well and looking so happy, she began to
+wonder and then to exclaim. Then she wanted to learn something about
+this new "doctrine," and Mrs. Hayden had Miss Greening come over and
+meet the girls one evening so they could hear her explain a little about
+it. Grace was delighted, saying that was more reasonable than anything
+she had ever heard.</p>
+
+<p>"I really should like to learn it," she said for the third time as they
+walked home.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you are really enthusiastic about it," said Kate, giving the
+artistic arm a gentle squeeze.</p>
+
+<p>"I must confess, Kate, that it is nearer my idea of religion than
+anything I ever heard, and it <i>is</i> marvelous to see Mrs. Hayden. Did you
+see how bright she looked to-night? More like her old self than since
+her sickness. I can't understand it."</p>
+
+<p>"She said her limb was actually growing natural again so she could bend
+it," added Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"If <i>she</i> could be cured, it would be a wonderful demonstration or proof
+of the theory," remarked Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know, Grace, I am afraid, after all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> it might be wrong.
+You know it says in the Bible we are to beware of false doctrines, and
+the miracles of anti-Christ, and this may be that very thing," said
+Kate, with a sudden smiting of conscience and reproaching herself that
+she had not thought of this before. She had been brought up a strict
+Methodist, but had grown rather careless of religious matters, till all
+at once she realized the mighty import of her backsliding.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think if there is such a thing, it could do so much good, and
+good power must come from the God of goodness," answered Grace, with
+unusual gentleness. They walked on in silence, each pondering her own
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Three weeks after, Mrs. Hayden was known as a restored invalid, was
+daily answering a thousand questions as to how it was done. Was it
+really so? Could she walk as well as ever? Didn't she get tired? Had she
+any faith after all? etc.</p>
+
+<p>She patiently told them the truth of the matter, that her limb had
+become well and pliable as ever, that her stomach was perfectly sound,
+her head free from nervous aching, her nights a joyous rest and her days
+a round of delightful labor.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time she learned there had been many cures, and several
+classes taught in Hampton, but no case had excited the attention, public
+and private, that hers had.</p>
+
+<p>The various members of society wagged their wise heads, and cast mingled
+glances of pity, wonder, ridicule or disdain upon the poor deluded
+victim of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> "latest humbug." Even the select circles heard of it as a
+report finally reached the daily paper, which appeared with a glaring
+head and ridiculous comments.</p>
+
+<p>One of the weeklies contented itself by reprinting a scathing
+denunciation from a prominent religious paper. Another contained
+clippings from an Iowa paper giving an account of the arrest and trial
+of a so-called Christian Scientist for illegal practice. But it failed
+to add that "the judge instructed the jury to return a verdict for the
+defendant," remarking that "under the constitution and laws of Iowa it
+is no crime for a person to pray for his afflicted neighbor."</p>
+
+<p>Among the worthy M. D.'s, a miniature storm arose and spent itself in
+the characteristic fashion of storms, now carrying everything before it,
+in its impetuous fury, now quietly subsiding into a ripple of
+condescending concession, or languid comment, now breaking out with
+renewed force into explosive epithets or vindictive rage.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Crouse expressed his astonishment that anybody should have the
+audacity to practice medicine without a diploma, as this woman evidently
+did, and demanded that the authorities enforce the law at once with the
+utmost rigor&mdash;. "Such quacks ought to be dealt with without mercy, as an
+example to other upstarts!" and with an angry growl the doctor
+recklessly spat the whole width of the sidewalk.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Jones admitted that the mind had a great deal to do with the body,
+and possibly this mind cure might help nervous prostration or hysterical
+women, but if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Mrs. Hayden's limb was healed, depend upon it, the
+medicine taken all those months was the cause.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bundy considered the matter too absurd to even mention.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hone went up and down the streets, loudly denouncing such "humbugs,"
+while his partner, Lapland, laughed at the preposterous idea of learning
+all about materia medica in three weeks! "It is simply ridiculous, sheer
+nonsense! Ha, ha, ha!" and the office fairly shook at the outburst of
+merriment.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, Dr. Wilson was deeply interested, and went so far as
+to call on Miss Greening, and to her he frankly admitted there was an
+unaccountable power in the mind some way, and if it did the work for
+suffering humanity he was quite ready to welcome it, and anxious, for
+his part, to investigate the matter.</p>
+
+<p>Kind, liberal Dr. Jackson, Mrs. Hayden's former family physician, shook
+his head wonderingly, but said nothing. He was a careful thinker and
+needed time for his conclusions, but as every one well knew, he had the
+friendliest, most charitable heart that ever was, and very candid,
+withal, in his judgments, and fair in his investigations. So in time
+they would know what he thought. It was whispered about that he had
+already invested in some books, and was quietly studying Christian
+Healing in his leisure moments.</p>
+
+<p>Among the churches no less of a tumult raged. Rev. Rush preached a
+stirring sermon about the evil days in which even the very elect should
+be deceived by the miracles of anti-Christ, and warned his hearers
+against being beguiled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rev. Long openly denounced Christian Healing as but another form of
+spiritualism, and admonished his flock to beware of ravening wolves.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Morton mildly preached about being steadfast to the old faith,
+avoiding investigation in anything new, while from the gentle,
+spiritually minded Prof. Mill was heard an eloquent disquisition on the
+promises and the all-abiding power of God.</p>
+
+<p>All shades and phases of ministerial sentiments were expressed, and
+whatever was grand and Christ-like sprang up as dainty, fragrant
+blossoms amid the wayside weeds of falsity and Pharisaical bigotry.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies' sewing societies discussed the subject to its fullest extent
+with widely varying opinions, some exclaiming with wonder and awe that
+it certainly must be a higher power that would perform such miracles;
+others that it was nothing but mesmerism. A few reverently expressed
+their conviction that Mrs. Hayden was extremely fortunate to be chosen
+for such a favor, while still others of quite a contrary mind declared
+it was nothing more nor less than the devil, who was stealthily taking
+possession of the weak.</p>
+
+<p>One timid little woman ventured to say that it could not be Satan, for
+he was never known to do anything good. Another said there must be
+something uncanny about it, for she had experienced the most peculiar
+sensations when shaking hands with Mrs. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dyke had waited for a more practical time to give her opinion, and
+now she concluded the whole matter for herself, at least, by saying in a
+most practical way:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is the devil's work from first to last, and I am not surprised that
+that woman, Mrs. Hayden, has got into his clutches, for she never did
+her duty to the church, and such people can't expect he will always let
+them go their own way. Christian Healing has no right to its name or its
+pretentions. It is only the magician's rod, and I, for one, don't
+propose to look at it," with which profound announcement she went to the
+other room to oversee her charge of sewing girls.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how righteous we are!" giggled one very young lady, with a mock
+look of reverence.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, see here ladies!" declared Mrs. Grant, another "practical"
+woman, but of a different type from Mrs. Dyke, "we may as well look at
+this matter in a sensible and candid light. Here are the facts: Mrs.
+Hayden is a lovely and reliable woman. She has, as we all know, suffered
+everything from her headaches and dyspepsia, besides the limb that was
+broken at the fire. We see her well, and ought to believe what she says.
+They often say, 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' An example has come to
+our door, and why should we refuse to believe, when the proof is so
+plain? For my part, I can believe though I do not understand, and I want
+to know what there is in Christian Healing."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grant had spoken, and as she usually did, turned the tide of
+thought in her direction.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, we all want to know if there is anything in it, but there is
+an if&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>If!</i> There it is again! I've no patience with people who always tumble
+over an <i>if</i>. You can bar the very gates of heaven with that nipping
+little word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> It means doubt, and doubt is the destroyer of faith which
+we <i>must</i> have in this world, if we live at all."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Grant unwittingly preached a little sermon, which not only served
+to quell the confusion, but gave them a helpful thought to carry home.
+Scattering good seed seemed to be her mission, and many a good word
+dropped into fruitful soil, and took its time to bring forth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Soul, receive into thyself the warm and radiant life of heaven, to
+breathe it out again as spiritual fragrance over other lives, and
+so change this wilderness-world into the garden of the Lord! This
+is the lovely moral which hides within the roses of June, and makes
+more than half their sweetness."&mdash;<i>Lucy Larcom.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>And Mrs. Hayden? The old expressions of joy seemed utterly inadequate to
+describe her feelings. It seemed that she was veritably dreaming of
+heaven, such a sense of largeness, of freedom, had come over her, so
+much wider was her horizon, so much more clearly could she see and
+understand the hard questions that had always puzzled her, and yet she
+had, as it were, just come to the edge of the beautiful flower-dotted,
+dew-besprinkled field that seemed spreading out before her. So long
+hopeless, so long hungry as she had been after this taste, she only
+hungered the more. Wonderingly she looked at herself walking about
+without pain; with an elastic step and the springing freshness of
+health; wonderingly she remembered the dull, nervous throbbing
+headaches, contrasted with the refreshing clearness, the joyous comfort
+and peace of mind which made thinking a tonic, and labor a luxury.</p>
+
+<p>What a glorious strength of exhiliration seemed flowing in to her with
+every breath; how it expanded and thrilled her with its power! If this
+was life, what joy to live, to know and feel the gladness and beauty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> of
+God's beautiful world, and it must not be for her alone, but for all
+hungering, thirsting mankind. She must impart it to those who had been
+suffering and helpless like herself. It was even now flowing into her
+own family. Although Miss Greening had given her but the first and
+fundamental principles of the method, she had in many instances already
+demonstrated their worth and power. It soon grew to be a regular matter
+of course to treat every one in the family who seemed in need of a
+remedy for anything.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hayden had frequently come home with neuralgia in his face, but
+after one or two attacks the unwelcome intruder vanished. The family
+medicine case, which had recently been replenished for the winter, was
+left to its own devices, and dust gathered on the necks and shoulders of
+the cough remedies, paregoric and hive syrup bottles, until they would
+have looked quite pitiful in their desertion, if anybody had seen them.
+Jamie's one attack of croup yielded more readily to his mother's silent
+treatments than it ever had to hive syrup, and it was with a deep
+thankfulness, not unmixed with awe, that Mr. and Mrs. Hayden felt their
+little one at last free from his old, dreaded enemy. Never before had
+the children been so free from colds or ailments common to childhood, as
+this winter. Never before had there been such a seemingly reckless
+carelessness in wrapping them up, keeping them out of the draughts, or
+letting them eat just what was on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is like living in another world altogether," said Mr. Hayden,
+enthusiastically to one of the neigh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>bors. "The children are so much
+happier, quieter, more peaceable. I tell you, it is like getting free
+from prison to come into this way of living, and my wife is getting
+stronger all the time. Of course you want it," he continued. "Come over
+some time, and we'll tell you more about it." Saying good night he
+walked away, leaving his friend to wonder if the entire family had not
+turned lunatics.</p>
+
+<p>Enwrapped in the seamless robe of Truth, the sharp winds of worldly
+criticism seldom reach us, because we are no longer susceptible to their
+sharpness. A gentle mildness beams from every face, for beyond the veil
+of outward appearances we learn to discern the pure, perfect holiness of
+God's child&mdash;the divinity behind the bars. Not, however, till we know
+how to put on this wondrous robe are we invulnerable.</p>
+
+<p>Although Mrs. Hayden had learned much and lived much in these last few
+months, there came a time, as the summer drew near, when it seemed that
+everything was slipping away from her. Not her health, except that her
+old headache occasionally threatened her, but things did not seem as
+clear to her. Many problems were only in a partial state of solution,
+and a vague dissatisfaction, a helpless discouragement took possession
+of her at times, very hard to bear, especially when contrasted with the
+light she felt had so long guided her. Of late even her treatments
+seemed almost fruitless. Her old-time impatience had manifested itself
+on several occasions, and one warm June morning she went about her work
+in a decidedly old-fashioned mood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was Monday, and in addition to the washing to be seen to, the little
+extra help to be rendered the girl, her husband had sent her a large
+case of strawberries to be put up, manlike, forgetting that this day at
+least was full. She was hastening to get them ready before the dinner
+hour, and the "picking up" of the sitting-room, so essential Monday
+mornings, had been left till a more convenient season.</p>
+
+<p>Mabel had gone to school, while Jamie and Fred were playing in the sand
+in the back yard.</p>
+
+<p>With her hands in the berries, and her thoughts busily engaged, she was
+suddenly roused from her reverie by the noisy entrance of Fred, who just
+came in for a drink of water. As he turned to go out, he threw his arms
+around his mother's neck and gave her a boy's impetuous hug, and a kiss
+that ought to have rejoiced any mother's heart, but this morning it
+annoyed her. "Run away, now; mamma hasn't time this morning," and she
+pushed him impatiently away. Just then the door bell rang, and Fred
+sprang to answer it. In another moment he ushered into her presence a
+shabbily dressed, poor, miserable looking woman, who immediately asked
+for a drink of water. "I can get it," said the ready Fred. While he was
+gone, the woman began her request:</p>
+
+<p>"Plaze, Ma'am, would you be wantin' some garters to-day? They are
+warranted by the very man as made 'em. My boy is layin' sick, and his
+father is dead, and all my health has been took away carin' for him, and
+a friend of mine, she has been in this business a long time, and says
+it's very good some days, and she let me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> take her place to-day, so if
+you could take a pair or two to-day it would be very thankful I'd be,
+and I'm sure this boy would need a pair; they are only 25 cents, and
+will just fit; ain't they nice, my boy?" She poured her story out, as
+though there were no end to it, as she held up some brilliant red and
+blue elastics that quite dazzled Fred, who claimed them at once.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not time to examine and choose this morning, and Fred, you do
+not need them now," said Mrs. Hayden, with some annoyance in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, mamma, you didn't see my old ones, they ain't red and blue, nor
+stretchy, an' my stockin's come down all the time. See how wrinkly they
+are," and he held up a dusty little shoe with a sadly demoralized
+stocking above it, rich in holes as well as wrinkles. The stocking had
+been torn on a nail, he volubly explained. In his excitement Fred raised
+his voice, thus summoning Jamie to the scene with a rush that upset the
+dish of berries just picked over.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> didn't mean to, and I can pick them up again," and he swept his
+dirty little hands into the soft mushy pile, gathering berries, dust,
+stems or whatever happened to be in the way, dashing the miscellaneous
+mess into the clean berries that had escaped.</p>
+
+<p>"Jamie, you careless child! how can you be so naughty? Go and wash your
+hands this minute! Fred, leave those things and stay out with Jamie, I
+can not have you around when there is so much to do!" and with an
+impatient gesture she brushed Jamie aside and began sorting the berries
+as best she could.</p>
+
+<p>Fred started toward her with the elastics, saying:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, mamma, you haven't looked yet;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see my hands are full, and I can tell you just as well
+without looking."</p>
+
+<p>"You always tell me to do as I am told," pouted Fred as he reluctantly
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden was ashamed and yet reckless with discouragement, and
+scarcely noticed the anxious pedlar, who stood waiting for some decisive
+word from her.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no use for the supporters at present," she said at last. But as
+she noticed the look of despair slowly settling on the woman's face, she
+added, "but, if you are in such distress, I will let you leave two
+pairs. Take the 50 cents lying there on the shelf," pointing to the
+place. The woman was very grateful and soon went away with a brighter
+face.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time after she was gone, her picture remained in Mrs.
+Hayden's remorseful memory, though she put it away as much as possible
+and went on with her work. Jamie and Fred had quarreled several times,
+but even in peace, the fires of war were likely to burst out afresh, for
+it was always so when she felt this way.</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Hayden sat in her own room that evening, reviewing the events of
+the day, which seemed the culmination of many days, it seemed that the
+Marion Hayden who had been so happy these last few months, improving in
+health and strength and ability to live a more useful life, and the
+Marion Hayden who had so miserably disgraced herself to-day, were far
+apart&mdash;in fact irretrievably separated. Where, indeed, had gone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> her
+power of self-control, her wisdom and tact in governing the children?
+Why had she so harshly told Fred to run away from her when the dear
+child was only showing his affection according to his own nature? Such
+an active, impulsive yet loving child must be wisely dealt with, and she
+had often realized that with Fred, love must be the governing power, not
+force. To give way as she had to-day would be to lose her influence over
+him, not only because of repulsing the child himself, but because his
+critical eyes noticed every weakness and failure in her, to live up to
+her own code of morals laid down for him to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Her accusing conscience asked why she had not questioned and tried to
+help that poor woman who, with all her ignorance, was doing the best she
+could, to solve life's problem.</p>
+
+<p>After all, what had she, Marion Hayden, to offer the world while she had
+not yet conquered herself?</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the bitterness of regret, the repining for wasted moments and lost
+opportunities! but here she was in her old groove of thought. Could she
+not try the new way, now that she so sorely needed it?</p>
+
+<p>She would try; she would begin to look on the other side of these
+questions. She <i>would</i> regain her footing in spite of her humiliating
+downfall, although there might still be a lingering sense of shame over
+her defeat.</p>
+
+<p>Later, her husband came home. He tossed her a paper saying: "Here is
+something that will clear you up. Read it aloud. I just glanced over it,
+and found it very good." He threw himself upon the sofa, wait<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>ing for
+her to begin. Mechanically she took up the paper.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Ubiquity of Good;' is this the article?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, there are several just as strong as that one."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see; yes&mdash;I can hardly wait to read aloud," she exclaimed,
+running her eyes over the pages, instantly imbibing the spirit of the
+writer. She began with an awakening interest which increased till she
+was fairly electrified with delight.</p>
+
+<p>Her husband looked at her in astonishment although it had much the same
+effect on him. "I thought you needed something like that;" he said,
+sitting bolt upright and looking at her. "You see, Marion, if you could
+only be as enthusiastic all the time as that woman is, you could do the
+works that she does, and be as positive too."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, and if I understood as well as she does, it would be
+different, but I know so little comparatively. Oh, if I could take
+lessons of the teacher she had&mdash;just listen, she says: 'I have just had
+the privilege of going through a class in metaphysics taught by one who
+is conceded to be the best teacher in the world,' but," continued Mrs.
+Hayden, "I've looked all over the paper and can't find the name of the
+teacher; queer, isn't it? Mayn't I subscribe for this paper, John, and I
+will ask her who this teacher is, when I send the subscription?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, I think if you could get the benefit from every number you
+have from that, it would be money well invested," replied Mr. Hayden. In
+fact he was as much interested in this subject as she, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> desired her
+to "go to the bottom of it," as he expressed it.</p>
+
+<p>That night she retired with a new hope. If others could learn and
+demonstrate and keep, why could not she?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Oh, thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest
+bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know
+this of a truth, the thing thou seekest is already with thee, 'here
+or nowhere,' couldst thou only see!"&mdash;<i>Carlyle.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>The very next morning the letter was written and the money sent for the
+new paper.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Reade came over on one of her bird-like errands, and of course,
+must hear something of the great help that had come so unexpectedly.</p>
+
+<p>"How fortunate it came just now, for I have noticed several weeks you
+have been losing courage, and as for myself, I don't seem to know what
+to do in any case any more," she exclaimed, after hearing a few extracts
+read from the paper. "Now you will find out who the teacher is and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go away to take lessons as soon as possible," interrupted Mrs.
+Hayden. "Yes, I must go," she continued, "and see what there is in it. I
+have already experienced too much physically and spiritually to be able
+to give it up."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, you have certainly had as much of a proof as one could wish. If
+I could only do as much as you have, I should feel that it would be
+better to go without many other things rather than this."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Reade forgot that she had been able to keep little May in perfect
+health; that she herself had ceased worrying over trifles and learned to
+make the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> best of everything. To her, the change had been so gradual
+that she hardly knew in what it consisted. In the meetings held by the
+few who were interested she had, unconsciously almost, given many
+glimpses of her private efforts and success, which showed how faithfully
+she used what light she had.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what Mrs. Grant would say to this," she resumed, after looking
+over the paper. "I think she ought to take this paper, too. Of course, I
+expect to read yours," with an arch smile.</p>
+
+<p>"As you certainly may, I will let you have this number this afternoon; I
+can't spare it yet. You can't imagine the abyss I fell into yesterday.
+It seemed that I had not only lost the ability to hold myself up, but
+the self respect that would help to regain my footing."</p>
+
+<p>"'It is always darkest before the dawn', they say," quoted Mrs. Reade,
+merrily, "and now the dawn of our delivery is at hand, we shall know
+what to do before the twilight comes again. But I came after your jelly
+mold and must not stand here all day talking about things so utterly
+unlike&mdash;well, good-bye! I can hardly tear myself away when I talk with
+you," and she ran out with a gay smile.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly every week these last few months Mrs. Hayden, Mrs. Reade, Mrs.
+Grant and occasionally one or two others had met to read and talk on the
+all-absorbing topic and gain confidence and strength by an exchange of
+ideas and experiences; but they knew not how to draw from the fountain
+of knowledge itself, and while they had learned much and gained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> much,
+there was a lack which, in the moment of trial, they knew not how to
+supply.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days Mrs. Hayden received the coveted information as to the
+identity of the wonderful teacher, and that she was to teach several
+classes in Marlow, only two hundred miles away, which quite set her on
+fire with impatience to go at once.</p>
+
+<p>But circumstances were not propitious. There were many details to be
+arranged, much to be considered. What should be done with the children?
+Could she afford it? What could she wear? In her eagerness she could
+have overcome every obstacle within an hour, but her better judgment
+told her to be patient a little longer, a decision her husband quite
+approved.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime she tried to live more faithfully up to the light she
+had received, but the first flush of faith that had brought forth the
+works, seemed gone, and she knew not how to bring it back. Not that she
+was not just as earnest, not that she had lost a whit of her faith or
+interest, but the fire of impulse, unclouded by doubt, had disappeared.
+She thought about it every leisure moment, but concluded at last to let
+go such intense effort that must necessarily be blind, and live more in
+the "holy carelessness of the eternal Now," as George MacDonald so
+beautifully expressed it in his book she was reading.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect she fared as comparatively few women do, who hunger after
+spiritual things; she had her husband's full sympathy and co-operation.
+Afterward, when she had seen more of the world and knew more about other
+women's lives, she realized the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> value of it, realized that without it
+she would have starved before she could have feasted. Oh, the sweet
+influence of a sympathy that unites and harmonizes two natures, no
+matter how opposite in character and tendencies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"As out of a dream, paths impossible to sense and every day show
+plain and sudden transit into distant places, so from your shut
+souls widens out an entrance way into God's everlasting joy!"&mdash;<i>A. D. T. Whitney.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>At last the time came. She was to go for the last class in Marlow. The
+last problem as to what to be done while she was gone had been solved.
+The children were to be under the kind care of Anna, who agreed to do
+her best in looking after them.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden's wardrobe had received the necessary additions, the
+question of affording was not asked again, for it was like asking if she
+could afford food or clothing.</p>
+
+<p>It meant a great deal to her, going out in the world to get this
+wonderful knowledge. It was a new way of seeking the kingdom of heaven,
+and it must surely teach the right knock that would open the door. The
+little light that had already come to her proved that, for never before
+in all her years of hungry longing had she been so well fed, so visibly
+nourished. Surely her soul could not be mistaken in thus dictating her
+quest.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems too good to be true, John, that there <i>is</i> a way and that I am
+going to find it," she said a few days before she went away.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad, dear Marion, for your sake, that you are so happy in
+this. It certainly is a beautiful religion as far as we can understand
+it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the very thing we tried so hard to find during all those years of
+darkness, and I have begun to actually feel thankful for our
+misfortunes, because it seems they have led us into this knowledge. What
+would we have known or cared for Miss Greening, had we been living in
+the mansion on the hill? Or what would we have believed, even if we had
+read something about Christian Healing?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is hard to tell, but if you are content I am, wifie, although I
+should like the old home again."</p>
+
+<p>Like many others he was able to appreciate the material good things, but
+knew not that the material are but emblems or symbols of the spiritual.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall possess something far better than all the palaces and kingdoms
+of the earth, if we get this 'pearl of great price.' I know now what it
+means for the rich to hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. It is because
+they are so satisfied in their rich possessions they feel they have
+everything worth having and need nothing more. That very indifference
+and apathy keeps them from getting spiritual treasures."</p>
+
+<p>"How true that is, Marion," said her husband, stroking his mustache
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>Just then the door bell rang and the girl presently ushered Grace and
+Kate into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how do you do? I am more than glad to see you," said Mrs. Hayden,
+warmly grasping a hand in each of hers.</p>
+
+<p>"It is such a lovely evening that we felt we should like a walk, and as
+we generally gravitate toward your house, here we are," said Kate,
+laying aside her hat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you know I am going to Marlow to take the Christian Healing
+lessons?" asked Mrs. Hayden, with a bright smile, as they were cosily
+seated for their chat.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you, really? I am so glad, Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "When are you
+going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Monday, on the afternoon train, and I shall be gone three weeks. It
+seems a long time now, but I hope it will be so profitable and pleasant
+that it will not seem long while it is passing."</p>
+
+<p>Kate looked very grave. Finally she said: "Well, Mrs. Hayden, I am sorry
+you are going."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" exclaimed Mrs. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" echoed Grace, and the host looked the interrogation he did not
+verbally express.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am seriously afraid it is wrong. Just a few days ago I had a
+talk with the minister, and he is very decided in his denunciation of
+it, saying it is plainly contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and I
+have been reading an article this afternoon that is very convincing in
+its arguments against it. No, Grace, you needn't shake your head. I have
+been cowardly and lazy long enough about my religion, now I shall stand
+up for what I think is right, and I love Mrs. Hayden too well not to
+warn her of what I believe to be a most dangerous heresy."</p>
+
+<p>She had evidently nerved herself to say this, but her voice trembled
+with earnestness, and when she finished there were tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, dear Kate, for your sincere regard, and appreciate your
+motive most deeply, but of course, that can not change my mind now,"
+said Mrs. Hayden, much touched.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That, of course, is for you to decide, but I have suddenly realized my
+religious responsibility as never before, and have been earnestly
+considering this matter. At first it seemed all right and very
+beautiful, but I believe it is only the work of the devil to get people
+into his net of wickedness."</p>
+
+<p>Grace was too astonished for speech; now she understood what Kate had
+meant by her disinclination to talk on the subject since that night they
+had heard Miss Greening. <i>Now</i> her thoughtful spells were explained, as
+well as her eager desire to come here to-night.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see why the ministers should oppose it as they do," said Mr.
+Hayden, after a short silence.</p>
+
+<p>"If you look back over the history you will find they opposed giving
+freedom to the slaves; they opposed the temperance movement until it was
+forced upon them. Many of them now oppose woman's suffrage, though their
+audiences are often composed almost entirely of women. It seems a great
+mystery why they should oppose any of these good and necessary reforms,
+but I think it is because they are only mortal men, and have many mortal
+faults and a great deal of mortal ignorance," said Grace, recovering her
+tongue at last.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me if everybody would read the words of Jesus and follow
+his example they would never be harsh, or critical, or uncharitable, and
+above all, they would not judge anybody or anything without a righteous
+reason. The whole burden of his teaching is expressed in the sentence:
+'Little children, love one another,'" was Mrs. Hayden's opinion. Kate
+looked at her gratefully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We would have a very different world if every one followed that law,
+and we have never heard a better one. The only difficulty is to know
+<i>how</i> to follow it," added Mr. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"We must know the whole truth if we would be free from all error, and we
+can only get truth by earnestly seeking for it, is my firm conviction,"
+said his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"If the truth makes us free, certainly we ought to search for it, and as
+we get it we can not be moved from our position, for by the nature of
+truth it is forever the same. Imagine anybody telling me two times two
+are five. If they argued and talked forever they could not prove it, for
+a lie can never be proved true."</p>
+
+<p>"That's capital reasoning, Grace," exclaimed Mr. Hayden, admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then if these ministers are in the right," she continued, "why should
+they need to be so active and emphatic and malevolent, as they sometimes
+are, in their denunciation of what they call a lie, because if it is a
+lie, won't it prove itself? And if their position is assured, and the
+truth must necessarily be assuring, since that is the essence and nature
+of it, if their position is assured, why is there any need of such
+resistance? Jesus plainly taught the <i>non</i>-resistance of evil, if I read
+my Bible correctly this morning. I have been studying religion somewhat,
+too, the last few weeks," she concluded, glancing at Kate rather
+apologetically.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be well if we studied it a great deal more earnestly than we
+have before," said Kate, flushing warmly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, Kate, isn't one of our best ways a thorough investigation of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I intend to look into Christian Healing at my earliest
+opportunity, and see what there is in it. If there is nothing, it can
+not hurt me. If there is something, it will prove <i>itself</i>, and I shall
+gladly accept the help it gives," and Grace rested on her oars.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a suggestion to make," said Mr. Hayden, "and that is that Mrs.
+Hayden write us a report of each day's lecture, and you can come down
+and we will read them together, or I can hand them to you after I have
+finished them."</p>
+
+<p>"Capital!" exclaimed Grace. "Will you do that, Mrs. Hayden?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will do the best I can, and be delighted. It will help me as well as
+you; but they will be nothing but ordinary letters, for I would have
+neither the time nor the ability to write lectures." Then she added,
+turning to Kate, "You will read them, too, won't you, dear? for I do
+want you to understand that this is the true Christ-religion, and as
+Grace says, if it is true it will prove itself."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not object to reading your letters; indeed shall be glad of the
+privilege," replied Kate, with a deprecatory gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"You must be sure and give us the practical part, so we can learn by
+practice as well as theory," said Mr. Hayden, playfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I will promise to be a faithful student, if that will be any
+inducement," added Grace; "and I know Kathie will, too; won't you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't say any more, please. You all know I want what is true and good,"
+she replied, huskily.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>It seemed hard to say the good-byes, even to go on this little trip.
+Mrs. Hayden looked at the children and home through blinding tears as
+her husband helped her into the carriage. They did not say much as they
+drove away to the depot, and both were deeply moved. There seemed such a
+momentous meaning in this journey.</p>
+
+<p>"You must promise to write often, John?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear Marion, and don't worry about us."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall write every day, John, and I <i>do</i> want you to grow with me.
+Read the lessons please, very carefully."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>A kiss, and he was off. She waved her hand as the train started.</p>
+
+<p>Like a leaf on the rippling river, gently touching the stones or mosses
+in passing, but hurrying on to a broader outlook and a straighter
+pathway, we float in the varying current of life, now dallying with
+youth's pleasures and playfully touching the problems before us, then
+sent adrift by a deep desire to <i>know</i>, we go out on a voyage of
+discovery, and be the winds rough or gentle, we go on till harbored at
+last.</p>
+
+<p>Nor would we leave thee, gentle Truth. May thy voice guide and
+strengthen and cheer; thy sweet knowledge be the lamp to our path; thy
+words of wisdom our armor and shield, and all the sweet enchantment of
+thy presence be with us forevermore.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Our weary years of wandering o'er,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">We greet with joy this radiant shore;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The promised land of liberty,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The dawn of freedom's morn we see.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">O promised land, we enter in,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With 'peace on earth, good will to men,'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The 'Golden age' now comes again,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And breaking every bond and chain;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">While every sect, and race and clime,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Shall equal share in this glad time."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>E. B. Harbert.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden immediately sent a few words to her husband informing him of
+her safe arrival, but said nothing concerning her plans until later in
+the week, she wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"I attended a reception last night that gave me a good idea of the great
+interest manifested in this new subject by people from all parts of the
+country as well as this great city. Many who have been attending a
+convention of truth seekers this week were there, and I met, among
+others, Mrs. Harmon. She is lovely, with such a sweet pleasant face and
+clear mild eyes. I do not wonder Miss Greening was charmed with her. We
+had quite a chat about mental healing. She gave me an interesting
+account of how she came into the work and what she is doing. I also met
+many others. One thing noticeable about these people that seems
+peculiarly characteristic, was the bright, happy faces so full of repose
+and trustfulness contrasted with the dull,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> sluggish care-worn
+expression of people in general. It really rests and cheers wonderfully
+to look upon countenances that carry the gospel of healing with them.</p>
+
+<p>"After a pleasant social time, Mrs. Pearl, in whose honor the reception
+was given, was called upon for an address, the substance of which is
+about as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"It is an unexpected pleasure as well as privilege to thus meet face to
+face so large a body of people who are working or desire to work for the
+uplifting and healing of humanity by this new yet old Christ-method.</p>
+
+<p>"While there are so many thousands of the world's best workers engaged
+in lifting the burdens of sickness, sorrow and sin, there are none who
+accomplish more marvelous or speedy results than Christian healers.
+Indeed they have already demonstrated this philosophy to be a most
+powerful means of reclaiming the sinful and adjusting social relations
+as well as healing the sick.</p>
+
+<p>"It already promises a better method of dealing with intemperance than
+that of any other class of reformers. Why? Not because earnest, devoted
+women do not give time, labor and hearts' blood to the temperance cause;
+not because wise, honest men are not doing their best with tongue and
+pen, in legislative halls and political conventions, but because neither
+women nor men have learned the true principle of moral reform.</p>
+
+<p>"The wise mother knows that the best way to keep her child from mischief
+is not to talk about his temptation but cause him to forget it by
+thinking of other and better things. She encourages him to do better by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+recognizing his higher nature and showing him a better way. She
+'overcomes the evil with the good.' Thus his moral nature gradually
+gains ascendency over the lower. This, and this only is the true reform;
+but the same mother fails to carry out the same principle with larger
+children. She must learn that the same management which corrects and
+improves the child will correct and improve the sinner, for a sinner is
+only a child of larger growth.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus far, the world has been most attracted to the healing of bodily
+ills, and all discomforts of the flesh, but the material demand is only
+a forerunner or symbol of the spiritual, and the signs of the times are
+even now ready for the keenest readers. People are beginning to enquire
+if this wonderful power for healing the body can not be used for the
+healing of vicious minds, the curing of depraved appetites.</p>
+
+<p>"Since religious teachings and ethical lectures seem to be so inadequate
+to meet the crying need, why not try this new method which claims to be
+a panacea for all ills, ask the moral philosophers.</p>
+
+<p>"'The world moves slowly,' it is said, but the world awakes slowly, it
+should be. We are ministering angels to one another, in our process of
+awakening. If we have not enough realization of truth to keep ourselves
+awake, some one comes along and wakes us up, by telling us more and we,
+in turn, wake some slumbering neighbor.</p>
+
+<p>"Invisible and silent are the workings of Truth, and none may judge what
+best teaches the law. None may know what has given this or that insight
+into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> broader truth, but all at once some one has the new light, and
+hastens to impart the knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"All effort for truth points to one end&mdash;Truth. All reforms, all
+religions point to a higher standard of living, a clearer realization of
+the highest and best, a broader vision of truth, a breaking away from
+the false and a bringing about of the true.</p>
+
+<p>"Mankind is conservative and must needs consider many things in many
+ways. Old opinions are not easily relinquished because they are 'bone of
+our bone and flesh of our flesh' and not till we awake to spiritual as
+well as intellectual knowledge, shall we realize that we are free&mdash;free
+to listen, learn and live.</p>
+
+<p>"As in the history of every reform, we find opposition and persecution
+facing the Christian healers, but as time goes on, even the unbelieving
+and conservative shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth. Many
+things unaccepted and unestablished to-day shall be proverbial
+platitudes of to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>"We who have a clearer vision of the better way, who are demonstrating
+our position with such wondrous signs, must realize more and more the
+importance of the first and only law&mdash;the law of love. Judge not. Be a
+unit in Truth.</p>
+
+<p>"We come together as many, but should go away as one. We now have
+thousands of Christian healers all over the country who are striving as
+never before to live a higher life, to work for humanity according to
+the Master's teachings, and it becomes us, as true disciples of such a
+leader to so live that we shall see the fulfillment of that blessed
+promise: 'Greater works than I, shall ye do.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let us recognize the use and beauty of unity. Let us be as one, and
+then, like the brave and faithful Joshua, we shall be able to break down
+the walls of any Jericho.</p>
+
+<p>"Christ followers, truth seekers, friends! Make use of the golden
+privileges of to-day, use every moment for the furtherance of good, make
+every silent thought or uttered word a stream of influence that shall
+cause the desert to blossom like the rose. Send your thoughts out to the
+grand reformers, the women workers and the men workers, the tired
+mothers and the anxious fathers, the faithful teachers and the innocent
+children. Sow the seed diligently, no matter what the soil. Never mind
+the coldness, the indifference, the slighting disparagements, for
+bye-and-bye will come the harvest. Do in all ways as you would be done
+by.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Thou must be true thyself if thou the truth wouldst teach,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thy soul must overflow with truth, the true results to reach.'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"One Holy Church of God appears</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Through every age and race,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Unwasted by the lapse of years,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unchanged by changing place.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"From oldest time, on farthest shores,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beneath the pine or palm,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One unseen Presence she adores,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With silence or with psalm.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Her priests are all God's faithful sons,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To serve the world raised up,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The pure in heart her baptized ones,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Love, her communion cup.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"The Truth is her prophetic gift,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The soul her sacred page;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And feet on mercy's errand swift</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Do make her pilgrimage."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Longfellow.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>The next day Mr. Hayden, with great interest, read the letter containing
+the first lecture, which was given the day after the reception reported
+in the last chapter. Pertaining to the lesson he read:</p>
+
+<p>"How I wished you were with me yesterday, and could see the fifty eager
+faces as they gathered in the class room and waited for Mrs. Pearl.</p>
+
+<p>"Some sorrowful and careworn, some filled with the marks of suffering
+and pain, some hopeless and despairing, some careless and gay, some
+merely curious, but all expectant and interested.</p>
+
+<p>"It matters not with what varying motives a mass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> of people meet
+together, there is a common chord of sympathy, which, if rightly
+touched, will cause the many to think and feel as one, and herein lies
+the secret of a teacher's power. Mrs. Pearl has this faculty of
+gathering and holding the thoughts of her audience, and I could not help
+noting the calm and satisfied expression as they went out after the
+lecture.</p>
+
+<p>"The first lesson is about The True Foundation, and while much of it is
+what we have known and believed, it is stated in a new and interesting
+way. I will give it, as nearly as possible, in her own words:</p>
+
+<p>"It is necessary to have a common premise in order to sustain a
+harmonious argument, and the first thing is to find a base or foundation
+from which and upon which to build. Our doctrine is to be established by
+sound reasoning and scientific argument, and we must go back to the
+beginning and learn something about the First Cause of all things.</p>
+
+<p>"In ancient times students devoted themselves to the study of pure
+reasoning, and they found that by putting themselves in harmony with
+First Cause, they attained a power, by certain lines of thought and
+through the speaking of words, to perform wondrous works, healing the
+sick, having dominion over all creation.</p>
+
+<p>"They discovered the different results of speaking words of science,
+which are words of truth, and words of error or words contrary to
+reason. Right, true words brought forth right and true conditions to
+everyone around them, but deviation from this line of reason, would
+bring discord and trouble and undesirable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> conditions. These wise
+thinkers declared Mind to be the First Cause of all creation, and
+announced the study of Mind and the words and ways of Mind, to be the
+profoundest theme that could engage the attention of man.</p>
+
+<p>"We find this philosophy and these conclusions corroborated by the
+Bible, which we shall consider and prove to contain revelations of
+changeless, eternal truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Truth is universal, and whatever is true in one part of the universe
+must be true in all parts. That which has been understood and conceded
+to be true in all ages and climes is what we call universal truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the first chapter of Genesis, then, agrees in all essential
+particulars with the accounts of other nations and among other peoples
+we consider it universal truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is so beautiful, logical and spiritual, we revere it;
+because our own inner consciousness of truth agrees with its statements,
+we concede it to be as accurate and reasonable an account of Creation as
+we have, and we are therefore willing to use it as the basis of our
+argument.</p>
+
+<p>"We read: 'In the beginning God created,' but a more literal and
+spiritual rendering would make the pivotal statement, 'God creates.' Now
+we know there can be no beginning or end to Omnipotence, hence there
+must be a continuous creating, and thus the term 'beginning' could only
+refer to the manifestation of what had already been created. How was the
+creation manifested? By the Word. 'God said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> let there be light, and it
+was so,' and by every 'God said,' was manifested the thing which He said
+was to be.</p>
+
+<p>"The word God is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Saxon of Good, the two
+words in that language being identical. To many this will be an aid to
+realizing the omnipresence God, and add to the reverential sense of that
+personal nearness which makes the Deity a Father and an ever-loving
+Friend.</p>
+
+<p>"God is not person as to form or personal limitations, yet personal in
+the sense of Presence and intelligent communication with intelligent
+beings. Jesus said truly, 'No man hath seen God at any time, because the
+eye of the flesh cannot perceive spirit.' Through the quality or
+influence of Good, Intelligence, Love and all we may name as soulful, we
+perceive and feel God's presence.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus in the spiritual sense, the 'pure in heart may see God.' We can,
+too, perceive the quality of God in Good, as we perceive the attributes
+of the sun in its light. As the light of the sun warms the dark earth,
+making it fruitful, so the divine Light (Intelligence), shining upon our
+earth nature, makes it fruitful because of the presence of its Creator.</p>
+
+<p>"Some there are who call this ever-present Intelligence or Good the
+living Principle. As the Infinite, it wears all phases and adapts itself
+to every conception of the Finite, so in the sense of omnipresence and
+unchangeableness it might from this point of view be called Principle.
+This is the cold, mathematical conception of God as Law, which without
+Love would be incomplete. We must, therefore, know the duality of God if
+we are to understand either Law or Love. Some things can only be known
+by intuition, without the aid of the senses, and because of an inherent
+idea in our consciousness. For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> instance, every nation worships Deity in
+some way. Since we cannot know God through the senses, by which we gain
+knowledge of visible things, how can we know there <i>is</i> a God?</p>
+
+<p>"As Paul says: 'Likewise the spirit itself beareth witness with our
+spirit that we are the children of God;' and what better answer could we
+have?</p>
+
+<p>"Spirit, according to Webster, is: 'Life or living substance considered
+independent of corporeal existence&mdash;vital essence, force, or energy as
+distinct from matter.' God is the vital essence, God is spirit, and God
+is substance&mdash;'the real or existing essence,' 'the divine essence or
+being.'</p>
+
+<p>"God, therefore, is the Divine Power that creates and sustains all
+things&mdash;the All-Power, the All-Intelligence, the All-Mind, the All-Love,
+the All-Substance, the All-Harmony, the All-Life, the All-Good,
+omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. This is the one Creator, 'one God
+who is Father of all, over all, and in all.'</p>
+
+<p>"Though we cannot see this God or Good Principle, we can apprehend it
+through the signs or manifestations that we see. As we look about, we
+everywhere see the signs of life&mdash;not Life itself, but the signs of
+it&mdash;that tell of the presence of God or Good. Now Life is Good in and
+for itself.</p>
+
+<p>"We often see the divinest love manifested through every deed of love,
+every heroic act of higher living, every grand sacrifice of
+self-comfort, pleasure, even life itself. Jesus says: 'Greater love can
+no man have than to lay down his life for his friend.' Such love is a
+manifestation of the one, only Love, which is God&mdash;Good omnipresent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Every glimpse of Truth which the whole world seeks to know and wherever
+found, is a realization of the omnipresent Truth, which is God.</p>
+
+<p>"Intelligence, in its highest or lowest form, is but a manifestation of
+God as Intelligence; for whence comes our intelligence if not from the
+great and only Intelligence, which is ever flowing to us and through us,
+which is ever being generated in us, whenever and wherever we are
+willing to let it manifest itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Emerson says: 'There is one mind common to all individual men. Every
+man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once
+admitted to the right of reason is made a free man of the whole estate.
+* * * * Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is
+or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.'</p>
+
+<p>"So we reason about health and strength and justice, or any of the
+divine qualities, which we may claim as a part of our inheritance,
+because they are inherent in the All, in which 'we live, are moved, and
+have our being.'</p>
+
+<p>"Having something of an understanding as to the nature of this divine
+Creator, we can, to some extent, apprehend that the essence of all
+things manifesting it, and manifested by it, must be good like itself,
+must be of the same quality as itself; as light emanating from light,
+must be of the same essence and quality as that from which it emanates.
+God, like light, is always the same, and cannot send forth or create
+anything opposite Himself.</p>
+
+<p>"The nature of God embraces every good quality of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> masculine and
+feminine character, as also the impersonal life Principle. It is
+therefore proper to use the masculine, feminine or neuter pronoun when
+referring to Deity. As different phases of the one Love, we see
+manifested, the strong, all-protecting, intelligent father-love, the
+tender, restful, patient mother-love, the innocent, confiding, trustful
+child-love, each complete in the whole, which can be recognized by all
+or one of these attributes.</p>
+
+<p>"The great Mind of which the ancient philosophers tell us and which
+Emerson so plainly realized, is the the Origin and Force of all
+Creation, the Mind for which we have found so many synonyms and so many
+offices, the Great Invisible of which all visible things are but signs
+or symbols.</p>
+
+<p>"There is but one great Mind, one great Thinker. All thoughts of this
+Mind, which is Infinite Goodness, must be infinitely good, and man is
+the crown and apex of the wonderful creation&mdash;is made in the image and
+likeness of God.</p>
+
+<p>"If we concede the Creator, God, to be omnipresent, omniscient and
+omnipotent, the only Power there is, perfect, unchangeable and eternal,
+we must necessarily concede that all which He creates is good, and must
+remain so because everything connected with, emanating from, or similar
+to Him is, and must be like Him in quality and essence.</p>
+
+<p>"The true man is spiritual, perfect like his Father, and can only be
+subject to perfect conditions. If we continually and persistently
+recognize the true creation which is invisible, we make manifest the
+perfect condi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>tions in the sign of the true, which is the visible. In
+doing this, we are, in the most essential sense, acknowledging God,
+worshiping the one Deity.</p>
+
+<p>"Because we have so long recognized the other powers we have become
+idolators, and must now turn back to the only true God. 'If thou return
+to the almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity
+far from thy tabernacles.... For thou shalt have thy delight in the
+almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God.'</p>
+
+<p>"We have become filled with false beliefs, because we have judged
+according to appearances, and hence drawn false conclusions. How can we
+know spiritual truth without spiritual knowledge? How can we have
+spiritual knowledge without spiritual perception; how can we have
+spiritual perception without recognizing Spirit, Substance, God, as the
+supreme Essence back of all visible forms?</p>
+
+<p>"This is the fundamental principle of healing&mdash;this recognition of
+spiritual being and spiritual law. Grasping only the surface meaning of
+this grand truth, we recognize and admire the mental power which
+produces cures, hence it is frequently called mind-cure, because,
+through the agency of mind, the cure is wrought, as we say, water-cure
+or sun-cure for the same reason; but as we proceed in the study, we will
+go beyond an intellectual to a spiritual perception of what is meant by
+<i>met-a-physical</i>, which pertains not only to a science of mental
+phenomena, but the science of real being, and has to do with the
+spiritual or real self of man.</p>
+
+<p>"Now John, if you don't understand, just wait and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> study, for really we
+must study these statements, without prejudice, too, for that is the
+only way, and of course we cannot expect to understand at once. The
+great essential is to keep uppermost the <i>desire</i> for truth, but I need
+not tell you that, for what an earnest truth-seeker you are, nobody
+knows better than myself.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the best I can do toward giving the first lesson, but you must
+think well upon it and get a good foundation laid for what is to come
+next. This science is to be developed rather than learned.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to put in every moment I can get for study, so must close. Hand
+this to Kate and Grace. I do hope they will be interested.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me all about your progress, and the precious little ones&mdash;how are
+they?</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Your loving <span class="smcap">Marion</span>."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"How shall I know if I do choose the right?"&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Truth is one,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And in all lands beneath the sun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whoso hath eyes to see may see</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The tokens of its unity."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Whittier.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>"That is a very clear statement," said Mr. Hayden, as he handed the
+letter to Grace when she called the next evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think we can get much of an idea from it?"</p>
+
+<p>"O yes, indeed we can; but you take it home and read it with Kate."</p>
+
+<p>Grace went straight home with her prize for she was more interested than
+she cared to admit just yet, and Kate was still reluctant and fearful
+about the possible wrong.</p>
+
+<p>Grace had awakened in the night, just after Mrs. Hayden had gone and
+found her crying. "What is the matter, Katie?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Grace, I am so worried about this Healing, and I am afraid I did
+wrong to even promise Mrs. Hayden I would read her letters," sobbed the
+poor child.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Katie dear, we could never know anything if we did not look into
+it and use the reason God has given us. Surely you are not afraid to
+examine into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> what claims to be such wonderful truth. You do not
+necessarily accept by examining it, and I am glad we can have the
+privilege of reading what Mrs. Hayden says, for she has such a fair,
+unprejudiced mind, and will give us the matter just as nearly right as
+she can; then we can judge for ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>She reached over and drew Kate into her arms, but the sobbing did not
+cease at once. Grace was naturally kind-hearted, and respected people's
+feelings. To-night she was very gentle, as Kate gratefully realized.</p>
+
+<p>"Come Kate, put away your fears. There's nothing can change the truth
+you have, and if it isn't truth, the sooner you change your mind the
+better. What makes you feel so, all at once? Has some one said
+anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Narrow gave me such a talking to when I asked him if it was
+wrong; for someway, I got so troubled that I did not know what else to
+do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what of it; you don't see anything wrong in it yourself, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"N&mdash;o, not exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you afraid of, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't know," with a hysterical sob. She was ashamed to admit that
+she was half afraid of eternal punishment, something she had been in
+vague terror of all her life. It had been impressed upon her so vividly,
+and now she was suffering from a keenly reproachful conscience, because
+for so long a time she had been indifferent and neglectful of her
+religious duties.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grace finally persuaded her it would be all right to give the matter a
+fair investigation. Then she went to sleep, comforted, for half her
+misery had been caused by her indecision and wavering.</p>
+
+<p>When they read the letter together, Grace was delighted and Kate not
+much less so, though she demurred a little about some things.</p>
+
+<p>"What beautiful ideas of God! It seems plainer than anything I ever
+heard. To say God is Principle, not person, makes it easier to apprehend
+His omnipresence," exclaimed Grace, laying down the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Y-e-s, in one sense," slowly assented Kate, "but in the Bible He is
+spoken of as Person, or at least as having personal attributes, and you
+know they frequently refer to what He says and how He talked with
+Abraham."</p>
+
+<p>"O, I think that is figurative, if it is true at all. How can a being
+with a definite or outlined form be everywhere at the same time?"</p>
+
+<p>"But surely, you believe His thoughts can be everywhere, and that is
+what is meant by this omnipresence," said Kate, earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then do you think of Him as sitting on a great golden throne, listening
+to the petitions of men below, and able to hear and to grant or refuse
+at the same moment every prayer that is sent to Him by the millions of
+His children on earth?"</p>
+
+<p>"'God's ways are not our ways, and with Him all things are possible.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But is it not much easier to say this is Principle, which is everywhere
+waiting for our recognition of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> presence to become manifested to
+us?" pursued Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I don't know but it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Now Kate, I am truly in earnest and mean to study this very earnestly.
+I know very little about the Bible, because it has been a sealed book to
+me every time I ever tried to read it, but during these three weeks that
+Mrs. Hayden is gone, I am going to put away my preconceived opinions as
+far as possible and see if I can learn something, and now let us get the
+Bible and see what it says on these questions. You have a concordance.
+Let us look up the word omnipresence and read some of the passages in
+which it occurs."</p>
+
+<p>Kate was well pleased, not only to make the Bible the foundation of this
+study, but to find Grace so changed, and so ready to look into sacred
+things. "Perhaps she will be converted," she thought, and from that
+moment she, too, resolved to look fairly into Christian Healing. She
+brought the concordance and found there was no reference to
+omnipresence.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll look for present or presence," suggested Grace. She glanced
+rapidly down the columns and found a reference to Ps. cxxxix. and turned
+to that.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in the seventh verse it says: 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit
+or whither shall I flee from thy presence?' and here is a marginal
+reference to Jer. xxiii: 24. 'Can any hide himself in secret places that
+I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?'
+Now it seems to me that carries the idea of a personal Being," said
+Kate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us look up the references to God," suggested Grace again.
+"Here's one in Deut. xxxii: 4. 'He is the rock, his work is perfect; for
+all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
+right is he.' Yes, there He is compared to a rock. Of course that is
+symbolical, but find another. Isn't there one that tells of Him as
+spirit?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, 'God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in
+spirit and in truth,' that is in John iv: 24, and in the first chapter
+of John it reads: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
+God and the Word was God.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! there we have it very plain; word is not flesh and blood or person.
+Doesn't it say in the letter that God is Intelligence, which is only
+another way to express the same thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I remember when Jesus prayed for His disciples, He said:
+'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth;' and some place in
+the Bible it speaks of God as truth," said Kate, quite willing to give
+all the corroborative testimony she could.</p>
+
+<p>"Truth can only be considered as principle, so we have that statement
+confirmed by the Bible, and that would agree with what Pythagoras
+wrote," said Grace, quoting: "'There is one Universal Soul diffused
+through all things, eternal, invisible, unchangeable; in essence like
+truth, in substance resembling light; ... to be comprehended only by the
+mind.' Now it is comparatively easy to see manifestations of the Good.
+By the way, I think it a volume of explanation in itself to say Good
+instead of God, don't you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes, it does seem peculiarly expressive, but the old way sounds a
+little better yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," pursued Grace, "it doesn't matter so much what we call this
+omnipresent power, as whether we understand it. All humanity worship the
+same Deity in the sense of recognizing an omnipotent Power. I once read
+something comparing the ideas of God among the different peoples, and it
+was really wonderful how similar they were, excepting, of course, each
+nation had a different name for Deity. I believe I have that book now
+somewhere;" and Grace went to look for it, but presently returned
+without finding it. "Well, it made such a vivid impression on me that I
+remember a few of the principal statements. One was that the Hindoos
+teach of an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Being called Brehm
+who is the creator of all things, from whom all things emanate and by
+whom all things are sustained. The Persians, Egyptians, Greeks held
+similar ideas. The Persians called God, Ormuzd, the Greeks, Orpheus, the
+Egyptians, Osiris."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know the Pagans held such ideas of Deity. I always thought
+they believed in many gods," said Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"They did, but as Edward Everett Hale, says: 'The innumerable Gods of
+the Pantheon are but manifestations of the One Being,' that is, they had
+special names for the different manifestations of God, as He appeared to
+them in the sun, the air, the earth, and also the different qualities of
+human character. They all alike believed in a Supreme Being, and made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+statements almost synonymous with many in the Bible. That is what may be
+called universal truth, and if this philosophy is what is consistent
+with fundamental truth, it will be just what I have been wishing to
+find." Grace leaned back meditatively, adding, "Mythology used to have a
+peculiar charm for me, and many of those old stories are coming back
+with a new significance."</p>
+
+<p>"'There is but one foundation, other, can no man lay,'" quoted Kate,
+earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear," and Grace rose and paced back and forth in deep
+abstraction. "There is but one Truth and we can not establish a falsity.
+But I want to carry my reflections a little further concerning this
+universal worship. To my mind, the power inherent in everything and
+recognized in some way by every individual is the supreme, perfect Power
+in different phases of manifestation. The man who trusts an unseen power
+to bring the seed he plants to full fruition, is believing in the true
+God, though he may not know it.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole world lives on faith from one year to another, for there is
+not enough food produced in one season to last more than one year, and
+if men did not know every succeeding season would provide, they would be
+desperate indeed. What is this but believing in a supreme Power? Even
+materialists admit that the great First Cause is beyond matter. Herbert
+Spencer speaks of it as the 'Universal Reality, without beginning and
+without end.'"</p>
+
+<p>"All people reverence and admire the sentiments of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> love and justice and
+truth and mercy. Let us agree they come from the same cause and are
+everywhere present, and we shall come nearer to worshiping God in spirit
+and in truth, than we ever have before. Now let's have your opinion,
+Queen Katherine," concluded Grace, looking at Kate with a playful smile
+as she finished her long dissertation.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing I can add to that, and it seems a very good conclusion
+to our first lesson. I did not know you had thought so much about
+religious things, Grace."</p>
+
+<p>"I always had a fondness for looking on the forbidden side of things,
+and I am afraid I was more curious than religious, but I am rather glad
+if there is an explanation to these things that have always puzzled
+me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"A lie can not exist&mdash;it only appears. Truth is consciousness
+consistent with itself in every relation; error is consciousness
+inconsistent with itself in some relation."&mdash;<i>Judge H. P. Biddle.</i></p>
+
+<p>"And what an end lies before us! To have a consciousness of our own
+ideal being flashed through us from the thought of God! Surely, for
+this may well give way all our paltry self-consciousness, our
+self-admiration and self-worships! Surely, to know what He thinks
+about us will pale out of our souls all our thoughts about
+ourselves!"&mdash;<i>George MacDonald.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, September &mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear John: I hope you are as anxiously awaiting this letter as I
+awaited the second lecture. It was splendid, so comprehensive, and above
+all, so practical. It throws light on many puzzling points, and I am
+delighted so far with what seems so plain and true.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the members of the class seemed quite shocked at some of the
+statements, but it is not strange that they should seem startling to one
+who has never thought on the subject, for indeed, I should think it
+would take a good while to get used to reasoning that is directly
+opposite the world's first conclusions; still we are looking for results
+that are quite contrary to what the world looks for, so we can afford to
+collide with its opinions. When Mrs. Pearl came into the class room, all
+turned to look at her and every ear was ready to listen.</p>
+
+<p>"In yesterday's lesson we made a statement of God as the only Mind of
+the universe, the Great Reality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> beside whom there is absolutely nothing
+in existence; but as we look around at the scenes of suffering and
+poverty and ignorance, we are mightily tempted to disbelieve such a
+statement.</p>
+
+<p>"'Talk of omnipotent Light in the midst of midnight darkness!' you
+exclaim. Ah, but you are to remember we are talking of the real
+creation; the invisible and unapparent instead of the visible and
+apparent; the changeless and eternal instead of the evanescent and
+decaying.</p>
+
+<p>"If God is the only Reality, His creation is the only real creation. The
+word real is applied to that which actually exists, which forever is,
+not to that which seems or appears; therefore, in speaking of the real
+we mean the changeless and invisible.</p>
+
+<p>"If God is the only Mind, His are the only real thoughts, and thoughts
+are invisible to the eye, but discernible to the mind or consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>"If God is everywhere, there is no possible place or space in the
+universe where God is not; hence He is all there is. One of our modern
+prophets wisely wrote: 'Has not a deeper meditation taught certain of
+every clime and age that the Where and the When so mysteriously
+inseparable from all our thoughts, are but superficial adhesions to
+thought; that the Seer may discern them where they mount up out of the
+celestial Everywhere and Forever. Have not all nations conceived their
+God as omnipresent and eternal, as existing in a universal Here, an
+everlasting Now?</p>
+
+<p>"'Think well, thou too wilt find that space is but a mode of our human
+sense, so likewise Time. There is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> no space and no time. <i>We</i> are&mdash;we
+know not what; light sparkles floating in the ether of Deity. So this so
+solid seeming world, were, after all, but an air-image&mdash;our <i>me</i> the
+only reality.'</p>
+
+<p>"This me is the spiritual self, the individual idea of God, His image
+and likeness.</p>
+
+<p>"What then, about this body, which is not spiritual, you ask? What about
+the material universe?</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment. Think of the premise. As God the invisible is the
+changeless, what is the variable, fleeting, visible unreality? The real
+is everlasting, the unreal is transitory. The real is called Spirit, the
+unreal matter.</p>
+
+<p>"What is Spirit? The underlying omnipresent substance that we call God.</p>
+
+<p>"What is matter? The counterfeit, shadow, emblem, showing that Spirit
+exists or is.</p>
+
+<p>"We read in a very ancient Hindoo Scripture: 'Those who have
+understanding, whose thought is pure, see the entire universe as the
+picture of Thy wisdom;' and the thoughtful Carlyle said: 'All visible
+things are emblems.... Matter represents some idea and bodies it forth.'</p>
+
+<p>"These thoughts are in perfect accord with the principles laid down in
+our premise, hence we find that as we believe matter, believe the body
+to be the real creation, we are believing a falsity. This is the idol we
+are worshiping instead of the true and only God. The grand visible
+universe in which we see so many beauties, so many charms, is but the
+mighty object lesson before us by which we may learn of the infinite,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+invisible All. As Theodore Parker said: 'The universe itself is a great
+autograph of the Almighty.'</p>
+
+<p>"The characters used in mathematics do not constitute the science but
+merely represent to the senses the invisible ideas of the principle of
+mathematics. The visible does not constitute the invisible, but may
+carry its messages as we learn to read its poetic and mystic pages. The
+visible speaks to the mortal nature, but the invisible beyond and above,
+speaks to the immortal nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Since we find matter to be so totally opposite the real, there is no
+other name for it than as the unreal, and the unreal being a counterfeit
+of the real, must be a lie, as the nature of a lie is to make false
+claims, pretending they are true.</p>
+
+<p>"Matter is a counterfeit because it is not genuine or of God, because it
+is changeable and fleeting, because being limited to a visible form, it
+must have finite limitations and can merely give finite conceptions.</p>
+
+<p>"Taking it as a <i>sign</i> of something infinite, we learn of the infinite.
+All the students, teachers, learned men and women of the world have
+added to the world's spiritual ideas revealed by their study of the
+finite as well as their intuitive knowledge of the infinite. Charles
+Kingsley gives us a hint of how to learn: 'Do not study matter for its
+own sake but as the countenance of God. Try to extract every line of
+beauty, every association, every moral reflection, every inexpressible
+feeling from it.'</p>
+
+<p>"Our ideas of matter must then be entirely changed, and we must learn to
+look beyond the seeming, to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> true. We have believed in the reality
+of matter and material environment because of reasoning from the false
+basis that man is material or that he is a mixture of material and
+spiritual. To believe that the flesh and blood of our sister or brother
+is their real self, is to believe God capable of creating something
+utterly unlike himself (John iii, James i.) which may suffer, sin and
+die, and if He is all perfection, He can not know imperfection. If He is
+all spirit, He can not know or be matter. Keep before your mind the
+perfection, omnipotence, omnipresence of Spirit, God or Principle, and
+you will see more and more clearly the inconsistency of anything
+opposite Him emanating from Him.</p>
+
+<p>"Believing in matter as a reality, we have endowed it with all the power
+of the real, have ascribed to it life, substance and intelligence, when
+it possesses neither.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the life when the body dies? If life were inherent in the
+physical body, could it ever cease to be? God the eternal life principle
+can not cease to be. The life manifested through the body is the life
+which is God and can not be affected by the decay or disappearance of
+the body.</p>
+
+<p>"The invisible essence of life is also the true substance, the reliable
+and changeless something, upon which we may forever depend. We use the
+word substance in its etymological sense (from <i>sub</i>, under and <i>stare</i>,
+to stand), and since Spirit or Mind is the reality that underlies every
+material or sensible object, there is no substance to the object itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Plato taught that '<i>ideas</i>, are the only <i>real</i> things.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Ideas are
+expressions of thoughts, and thoughts are expressions of mind, and this
+reasoning brings us back to God as Mind and Mind as Cause. Admitting
+Mind or Spirit to be the life and substance back of or expressing itself
+through the body, we may easily see that intelligence can not exist
+apart from Mind, and hence can not belong to matter.</p>
+
+<p>"That the mind or intelligence is seated in the gray convolutions of the
+brain, is held by the materialists, and yet Dr. Laycock affirms 'that
+matter is fundamentally nothing more than that which is the seat of
+motion to ends, of which mind is the source and cause.' Professor Huxley
+crowns the statement by saying, 'That which perceives or knows is mind
+or spirit, and therefore, that knowledge which the senses give us, is,
+after all, a knowledge of spiritual phenomena.' Professor Faraday held
+to the immateriality of physical objects.</p>
+
+<p>"In the language of Jesus the Christ, we are told, 'Spirit is all, the
+flesh profiteth nothing;' thus from all classes of conscientious but
+confessedly diverse thinkers, we find statements of universal truth, and
+this is what the hungry, starving world is seeking with more earnestness
+than ever before.</p>
+
+<p>"Since there is no life, substance or intelligence in matter, it will be
+comparatively easy to prove that there can be no sensation, for where
+there is no life in the body, there can be no feeling. Even the
+physiologists tell us mind must know pain before it can be located in
+the body. We state therefore a theorem which is practically
+demonstrated; there is no sensation in matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"As we visit penitentiaries, reform schools and hospitals, as we read
+and hear the startling statements of press and pulpit, we grow
+disconsolate and heavy-hearted over the awful power and reality of evil,
+forgetting again that He who is perfect goodness can not behold evil or
+in any way permit its existence, any more than heat can permit cold, or
+light can permit darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Granting the omnipotence of Good, where is there any room for its
+opposite?</p>
+
+<p>"If there is but one Power, and that omnipotent and perfect, there can
+be no evil <i>in reality</i>; hence we are dealing with another lie when we
+judge according to appearances, which Jesus said we should not do. It is
+really disloyalty to God to impute to Him all misery, pain, sickness and
+suffering caused by the evil and ignorance of man. We are told: 'Let
+your soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but of
+God.' Because we have not done so, but have believed in every claim
+power, we suffer from 'evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,' as
+Milton wrote, or, in the words of Emerson, 'we <i>mis</i>create our own
+evils.'</p>
+
+<p>"Jeremiah said: 'It is your sins that have withholden the good things
+from you.'</p>
+
+<p>"According to Webster, 'sin is a transgression of the law of God.' There
+is but one law&mdash;the perfect and unchangeable Truth. Any deviation from
+Truth is error, and error is sin. In proportion as we deviate from the
+strictly true, then, we sin. Because we admit things to be true which
+are not true, we <i>admit</i>, then <i>commit</i> sin, and hence suffer for sin.
+'Know ye not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> that to whomsoever ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
+his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto
+righteousness,' wrote Paul. We first think wrong. Sin is of the mind,
+not of the body.</p>
+
+<p>"To acknowledge the reality of sin or evil is a transgression of the
+law, because, according to our established premise, it cannot be true.</p>
+
+<p>"Through a misconception of our relation to God, and a belief in the
+power of evil, we are obliged to admit the existence of sin, sickness,
+and death, neither of which can be true in the presence of God, as the
+only Reality, in which or in whom are all things that eternally are, not
+that temporarily appear.</p>
+
+<p>"We have believed in a mind or power of thought opposite and contrary to
+God, when in reality there can be nothing opposite or contrary to
+eternal Mind. We have believed ourselves endowed with a mind separate
+from God, and ourselves subject to temptation from some cause not Good.
+We have believed in minds, when there is but one Mind.</p>
+
+<p>"This false force, this false mind, is variously called the evil or
+carnal mind, the mind of the flesh, the old man, the serpent, the devil,
+the adversary. It is simply the opposite or contradictory of the Good,
+the god of evil.</p>
+
+<p>"Beside every true or positive statement there is a false or negative
+claim, and in so far as we are ignorant of the true, we are in bondage
+to the false. To <i>believe</i> the claims of error is to be bound; to <i>know</i>
+the reality of truth is to be free. To believe in a mind or power
+separate or opposite from God, is to be subject to any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> suppositions or
+beliefs formulated by that mind or negative thought.</p>
+
+<p>"That we are spiritually perfect is true, but it is necessary for us to
+prove that fact by 'working out our own salvation,' by manifesting the
+positive or God quality of thought through our life and actions, and the
+only way to be filled with good thought is to recognize and acknowledge
+the Good only as the real.</p>
+
+<p>"This error, tempter or devil, was spoken of by Jesus as having no
+truth, as being a liar, and the father or cause of lies (John viii: 44).
+Instead of devil (which is only another name for evil or the slanderer),
+or 'carnal mind', as Paul called it, we find mortal thought a better
+term for the expression of this power of thinking.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why have we this power of thinking wrong thoughts when there is but
+one good and only Mind?' you ask. As God's idea, in the image and
+likeness of Mind that thinks, we have the power of recognition, the
+power to be or not to be, the possibility to become sons of God. We have
+the power to distinguish, to judge, to know; we have the spirit that
+ever leads us on and on in truth.</p>
+
+<p>"But here is where we fail. In our ignorance or limited state of
+unfoldment, we have mistaken the symbol for that which is symbolized
+matter is the symbol, as also the body, we have judged according to
+appearances instead of righteous or strictly true judgment; we have
+yielded to a belief in sin, hence are servants of sin.</p>
+
+<p>"The conception of matter as having power, is based on appearances, and
+because we have delegated to it a power,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> have acknowledged it as an
+entity, separate from the eternal mind, it has enslaved us.</p>
+
+<p>"Reasoning in this way we find everywhere two opposites or
+contradictories to be recognized and judged, as the visible and the
+invisible, the material and the spiritual, the false and the true, the
+mortal and the immortal, the unreal and the real, the negative and the
+positive.</p>
+
+<p>"Judging of the true by that which is changeless and eternal, we can
+decide at once on those qualities or attributes belonging to or
+describing what is true, and by knowing what is true, we can readily
+distinguish it from the erroneous.</p>
+
+<p>"We have considered these great errors or negatives which the world has
+believed and still believes in, and they must be dealt with according to
+scientific law.</p>
+
+<p>"Through all the ages of Christianity have been heard the words of the
+Master: 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
+his cross and follow me;' but who has understood it? The letter of the
+law has indeed been observed by many earnest followers of Jesus to a
+degree not considered necessary in this age, but what has it
+demonstrated? What has come of all the fasting and renunciation, the
+cruel asceticism and severe discipline?</p>
+
+<p>"Do these conscientious disciples give an unmistakable proof of their
+discipleship by showing the signs that must follow the true believer?
+How can they when they talk of sin, sickness and death; of things
+contradictory to the nature, power and presence of God?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then they must not have understood the spiritual import of these words
+of Jesus to 'deny himself.' Deny means, according to Webster, 'to
+contradict; to declare not to be true; to disclaim connection with; to
+refuse to acknowledge; to disown.' Jesus meant deny the mortal thought,
+the false self; refuse to acknowledge it as having any authority; and it
+is only as the Christ follower proves this to be the true mode of
+denying self, that he can speak with authority as to the scientific
+method of dealing with all the errors to which mortal thought gives
+birth.</p>
+
+<p>"No other way has brought the desired result; hence we confidently
+assert that all these mistakes agreed to and participated in by mankind
+must be emphatically, persistently, scientifically denied.</p>
+
+<p>"Systematically and repeatedly we say:</p>
+
+<ul class="none"><li>"1. There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter.</li>
+
+<li>"2. There is no sensation or causation in matter.</li>
+
+<li>"3. There is no reality in matter.</li>
+
+<li>"4. There is no reality in sin, sickness or death.</li>
+
+<li>"5. There is no reality in evil.</li>
+
+<li>"6. There is no reality in mortal thought.</li></ul>
+
+
+<p>"This is denying the self recognized by the world. This is the life that
+must be laid down, that must be sacrificed, lost.</p>
+
+<p>"Humanity has proven its subjection to these errors. Now, by its
+faithful rejection of them, let it prove them lies, for the force of a
+lie is always annulled by rejection. This proves the law referred to by
+Jesus when he made a denial of self the first duty of his disciples.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In denying, it is necessary to say the words over and over again; it
+may be mechanically at first, but say them over, several hours at a
+time, if possible.</p>
+
+<p>"More is accomplished by concentration than anybody is aware, and the
+repetition of the words helps to concentrate the thought. First repeat
+the whole list of denials, then select one on which to spend most of the
+time for several days. The denial of matter, for instance, makes us more
+spiritually minded.</p>
+
+<p>"When denying, try to realize there is no space, but that anywhere you
+send your thought it will go, and as you think or say the words, you
+will be denying error for the world as well as for yourself, as every
+thought is world-wide in its influence, and helps to free or bind
+humanity, even as it is truth or error.</p>
+
+<p>"To deny is to put out of mind, to erase, as it were, the false beliefs.
+Be earnest, be faithful, and you will have an abundant reward.</p>
+
+<p>"This, dear John, is the substance of the lecture as nearly as I can
+give it. After Mrs. Pearl had finished the lesson, she requested the
+class to sit in silence a few moments and together hold the thought,
+'There is no reality in matter;' after which we were dismissed with this
+benediction: 'May we realize that God <i>is</i>, that spirit is the only
+reality.'</p>
+
+<p>"The lessons are always opened by silent prayer, which I have forgotten
+to mention before.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, dear husband, observe these rules and study every assertion as
+carefully as though you were in the class. You, and Grace, and Kate, can
+accomplish a great deal together; but by all means don't pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> judgment
+till you have carefully examined all the evidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me all about the children. Such details will greatly comfort me,
+for I must confess that to-night I am the least bit homesick.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Good night,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Your loving <span class="smcap">Marion</span>."</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"God is commanding us off, every hour of our lives, toward things
+eternal, there to find our good, and build our rest. Sometimes He
+does it by taking us out of the world, and sometimes by taking the
+world out of us."&mdash;<i>H. Bushnell.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>"The second letter has come," said Grace the moment Kate entered the
+room, after her day's lessons were over.</p>
+
+<p>"Has it? Let us hurry and get the tea over so we can study it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you want to hear it first? I haven't looked at it because I
+wanted to wait for you, but I can't wait that long," cried Grace,
+pulling it out of her painting-apron pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, then read away while I start the fire."</p>
+
+<p>"No; come and sit down like a good child, you can't half listen when
+your mind is filled with stoves and tea-pots."</p>
+
+<p>Kate smiled, and drawing her chair up beside Grace, she listened to the
+reading, while her face alternately brightened or darkened.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it sounds very beautiful and very plausible, but I can't see how
+any one can say there is no evil when the world is full of it, and to
+say there is no sin, sickness or death! why, that is blasphemous! I know
+the Bible won't corroborate that," she said, in a horrified voice, at
+the conclusion of the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, we must not be so fast; there are good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> reasons for every
+statement, and she says it is necessary to say these denials over and
+over. It is harder for me to believe there is no matter, but if there is
+a way to prove there is none, then I will submit. But first let us see
+what the Bible says," said the more moderate Grace.</p>
+
+<p>She got the Bible and concordance, but could find no reference to matter
+as pertaining to physical creation, but she found under the word "flesh"
+an allusion to John i: 12-13, and iii: 6. "The first reads," began
+Grace, "'But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
+the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
+not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
+of God.' That evidently refers to a creation possible to all, but where
+is the authority for saying 'there is no matter'?"</p>
+
+<p>She pondered a moment, then referred to the letter&mdash;"Oh, I see! She
+says, 'no <i>reality</i> in matter,' and then goes on to explain about the
+real. Yes, now I see. Do you understand it, Kate?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can understand that the body is not the real," replied Kate,
+thoughtfully, "for Jesus said 'the spirit is all, the flesh profiteth
+nothing,' but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That's so. Why didn't we think of that before? Besides, it was taught
+by the ancient philosophers as much as 4,000 years ago, that matter has
+no reality. Yes, its plain to see how it can be, theoretically, but
+where they can demonstrate it practically, puzzles me. Here is a
+reference; let us see if that will tell us something."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She read Heb. xi: 3: "'Through faith we understand that the worlds were
+framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made
+of things which do appear.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That seems quite conclusive," said Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it does. Now we will consider your problem," replied Grace,
+running her finger down the references, "and see if we can find anything
+in that. Let us bear in mind," she continued, "she does not say there is
+no appearance, but no reality in evil. Among the first references, I
+find one to the twenty-third Psalm: 'I will fear no evil, for thou art
+with me.' How plain that is! Of course there can be no evil where God
+is, and God is everywhere. God is Love. In Love there is no evil."</p>
+
+<p>"But just think of the awful crimes that are committed every day, and
+the wicked people who commit them," demurred Kate, with an incredulous
+look.</p>
+
+<p>"We haven't got far enough to solve everything; listen to this: 'Only
+with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked,'"
+read Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"That must mean that with the carnal mind we see all things opposite
+God, and with the mind of the spirit we discern spiritual things; that
+is in Romans somewhere," exclaimed Kate, with a gleam of understanding
+in her face.</p>
+
+<p>"What word shall I look for?" asked Grace, intently pursuing her search.</p>
+
+<p>"Mind, I think; shan't I look for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; here it is in the eighth chapter and tenth verse: 'The carnal mind
+is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God,
+neither indeed can be.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> That is plain enough. It means that all
+thoughts opposite God and God's creations are of the animal man, hence
+at enmity with God, and since there is nothing real but God and His
+creations, of course there is no reality in them. Now you are satisfied,
+aren't you, Kate?"</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I ought to be, for I don't see any other way to understand
+those passages," she admitted, with a sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Just one more, and we'll go on to the next denial, which will hit me,
+I'm afraid," continued Grace.</p>
+
+<p>She turned to Isa. xxxiii: 15-16: "I declare, Kate, here is the essence
+of the whole lesson," and she read: "'He that walketh righteously, and
+speaketh uprightly' (according to the true creation), 'he that despiseth
+the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes,
+that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
+seeing evil; He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the
+munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be
+sure.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I really did not know there was such a passage in the Bible, and I
+don't see why other people haven't found it before," said Kate, quite
+won over. "But how strange it seems to deny this way."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is the most unreasonable part of it, and yet I think Mrs.
+Hayden has explained it very clearly. Now what is next?" asked Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter," answered Kate,
+glancing at the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"I must confess that puzzles me," mused Grace, thoughtfully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is easy enough to understand, when you remember the spirit is
+all, besides, when a person dies the organs of the body may be perfect,
+but there is no life or feeling, and according to this new
+understanding, no substance," explained Kate, in her turn.</p>
+
+<p>"I can see it well enough as a theory, but what all this has to do with
+practical every-day living, is a mystery to me."</p>
+
+<p>"'We haven't got far enough to solve everything,' somebody said to me
+once, and here it is for you," remarked Kate, with a spice of mischief
+in her tone.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, what next?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sensation or causation in matter; but I think that is answered the
+same way as the other. But this last one; I do wonder if the Bible
+corroborates it?" Kate looked troubled again, as she read: "'There is no
+sin, sickness nor death.'"</p>
+
+<p>"The same reasoning applies to that as to all the rest. There is no
+reality to anything but God's creation, and that is changeless and
+perfect. But we will see what the Bible has to say; I. John iii: 2-10.
+In the second verse it reads: 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, but
+it doth not yet appear what we shall be;' that of course is an assertion
+of our spiritual self. Then verse nine says: 'Whosoever is born of God
+doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him and he can not sin,
+because he is born of God.' Then it seems plain there can be no sin to
+the spirit, neither can there be sickness nor death."</p>
+
+<p>"It is wonderful," murmured Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"What is next?" pursued Grace, with the concordance open before her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That is all, except she explains the use and necessity of denial, and
+suggests to Mr. Hayden the benefit of denying for hours at a time."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we can do that, too. If it is good for him, it must be for us. I
+mean to do it," said Grace, shutting her book with a snap and pacing
+back and forth excitedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, take it calmly; we can do that while we are getting supper,
+and I am hungry now. Do you know it is seven o'clock?" Kate exclaimed,
+looking at her watch.</p>
+
+<p>"Two hours we have been studying," said Grace. "Really, this is as
+interesting as painting. I don't see one thing but what is reasonable,
+do you, Kate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the way it seems now."</p>
+
+<p>After everything was put away they began making earnest application of
+the rules. Each sat silently thinking, according to directions: "There
+is no reality in matter, there is no reality in matter," etc. For two
+hours neither spoke. Then Kate said: "I feel so light; as though there
+were no weight to my body. What does it mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, unless it shows you are realizing what you say."</p>
+
+<p>"That is it. I can feel that there is no obstruction to spirit or
+thought; that spirit is limitless and God is everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>She seemed lost in her new thoughts, and went to bed as though she were
+dreaming. Grace had experienced nothing but a sense of dullness and
+extreme sleepiness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soul <i>is</i>. Under
+all this sea of circumstance, whose waters ebb and flow with
+perfect balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being. Existence
+or God is not a relation or a part, but a whole."&mdash;<i>Emerson.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, September &mdash;&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Dear husband: I was made very happy this morning by the messages from
+home, and especially Fred's and Jamie's baby efforts. They wanted to
+send mamma their love, and the straggling characters meant for words,
+convey as much meaning as though they were in good English, for they
+speak to me in unmistakable language. Why do I understand so well? Ah,
+John, I see. Because, being filled with love for them, I recognize the
+same quality in what they feel for me, and only need a sign to read the
+meaning back of it.</p>
+
+<p>"As I write, new light comes to me regarding the real meaning of signs
+and symbols. Until we are filled with a desire and love for God, we can
+not perceive or understand the real meaning of the universe, can not
+read God's love for us. Until we have a conscious apprehension that
+there is a spiritual knowledge, we can not recognize spiritual truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can not help wishing you had been here to-day! It was simply
+grand; such an uplifting, such a glimpse of the wondrous Now. We learned
+about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> what <i>is</i>, what we <i>are</i> and how to prove ourselves God's
+children. Mrs. Pearl opened with a few words on the use and necessity of
+silence, after which we were all silent awhile, when she commenced:</p>
+
+<p>"Garfield said, 'The world's history is a divine poem, of which the
+history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains
+have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been
+the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, the
+philosopher, the historian and the humble listener, there has been a
+divine melody running through the song, which speaks of hope and halcyon
+days to come.'</p>
+
+<p>"What has made possible this divine melody but the spirit of love and
+truth that ever animates the children of God? Were it not for this vein,
+nay this wholeness of the invisible spirit, what could we have on which
+to found hopes of 'halcyon days?'</p>
+
+<p>"Not from the visible man of flesh and blood do all things beautiful and
+true emanate, nor from the material and unstable, but from the one
+source that is God, as apprehended and realized by His idea, the real,
+invisible, spiritual man. Beauty, worth, can only be in idea or
+understanding.</p>
+
+<p>"What made Milton, Shakespeare, Emerson, truly great was their
+appropriation and manifestation of the invisible inheritance of spirit,
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>"What is man without intelligence, without love, without life, without
+truth? The real man is spiritual because he is the idea of Spirit, Mind,
+God, the only Creator. All that is grand, noble, true in an individual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+is a manifestation of the God-power and presence. There is but one real
+Mind, and all real or positive thought or intelligence is the
+manifestation of Mind, which is God. There is but one real Intelligence,
+and the intelligence manifested by the individual is the Intelligence
+which is God.</p>
+
+<p>"God is absolutely one Verity, the primordial Essence. But how shall we
+know this as a fact? How shall we prove it as an incontrovertible truth?
+you ask.</p>
+
+<p>"By persistent acknowledgement of God and His creation, we become one
+with Him, and to be one with God is to know absolute Truth. We are
+conditioned by the thoughts we think and by the words we speak. By
+thinking and speaking right words we manifest true conditions; by
+thinking and speaking wrong words we manifest false conditions. 'As a
+man thinketh in his heart so is he.' If we desire to manifest strength,
+justice or wisdom of God, we must 'acknowledge God in all our ways.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The only salvation,' says George MacDonald, 'is being filled with the
+spirit of God, having the same mind as Christ.'</p>
+
+<p>"In order to realize the essence of these words, in order to realize the
+essence of any truth, we must enter into its meaning by becoming one
+with it, by making ourselves the expression of its harmony, the picture
+of its idea.</p>
+
+<p>"Knowing the potency of the word, we say the true words over and over
+again, silently or audibly, we think of them in every possible way, with
+varied expression if we will, as it is the thought, the prime idea that
+we are seeking to manifest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We want the true salvation; 'we want to be filled with the spirit;' we
+want the truth that makes free; we want strength, justice, wisdom. To
+secure these we have only to rid ourselves of the false and be filled
+with the true.</p>
+
+<p>"By the positive denial of a lie we annul the lie; by the positive
+affirmation of truth we establish truth, or rather our consciousness of
+truth is established; thus, as we deny error or affirm truth, are we
+carried forward and upward. These are the 'wonderful words of life' that
+clothe us with righteousness.</p>
+
+<p>"The words that we use first are statements of fundamental Truth,
+acknowledging who and what God is, what we are, and in what relation we
+stand to our Father.</p>
+
+<ul class="none"><li>"1. God is Life, Truth, Love, Substance.</li>
+
+<li>"2. God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.</li>
+
+<li>"3. I am the idea of God, and in Him I have my being.</li>
+
+<li>"4. God is my sufficiency in all work and my will in all ways.</li>
+
+<li>"5. I am subject to God's law and can not sin, suffer or die.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>"Over and over again we speak the words, and by marvelous law new
+meanings flash upon us, new thoughts are born, new interpretations come
+to efface the more obscure ones of the past. It may be easier to follow
+every denial with its corresponding affirmation; if so, study the lesson
+that way.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Hold to each affirmation till it yields its pearl.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> Take the first,
+'God is Life;' say the words over and over, think of them in every
+conceivable way. Make every tiny leaf and slender blade of grass tell
+you something of the infinite Life. Bear in mind that every where life
+is manifested, whether in plant, animal or man, wherever we look there
+is omnipresent Life.</p>
+
+<p>"God is Life. This same Life is our life, which can not be taken away
+from us. This Life is good, and in It we live even as God lives in us.
+Oh, wondrous life that flows on and on, without beginning, without end,
+even as the river sings: 'Men may come and men may go, but I go on
+forever.'</p>
+
+<p>"God is Truth, all truth, wheresoever or by whomsoever recognized, is
+the everlasting Truth that must forever be.</p>
+
+<p>"There is not a community or church, not a society or family, but is
+organized and held together by some phase of the all-embracing and
+perfect Truth. The different sects and parties are only different
+because certain people see the same side of Truth, and preferring to be
+of one mind, they separate or unite and build their respective
+sanctuaries.</p>
+
+<p>"'Truth is always present, and we only need to lift the iron lids of the
+mind's eye to read its oracles,' said Emerson. When the 'iron lids' are
+lifted we shall see as one, we shall belong to the Church of the
+universe and the oracle shall reveal to us its deepest secrets and most
+sacred mysteries.</p>
+
+<p>"Truth <i>is</i>. All that we have, can have, or will have or can conceive
+of, exists in the ever present Here and Now. It only remains for us to
+recognize and acknowledge it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"God is Love. To realize the mighty sea of omnipotent Love that enfolds
+and blesses humanity, would be to plunge into the healing waters of
+Bethesda. Like the sick man, we wait until the majestic Christ commands
+us to arise&mdash;help ourselves, instead of waiting for others to put us
+into the cleansing current. Let us recognize, then, the allness, the
+tenderness, the sacredness of this divine Love by submerging ourselves
+in it, until all thoughts of evil, suffering or hatred are lost in its
+embrace.</p>
+
+<p>"'Lift up the gates that the king of glory may enter in,' sang David,
+and we too cry aloud with earnest aspiration that the gates shall be
+lifted away, that into our consciousness may come the high tide of
+omnipresent Love. 'Love alone is wisdom, love alone is power, and when
+love seems to fail it is where self has stepped in and dulled the
+potency of its rays.'</p>
+
+<p>"God is our substance. True substance alone is reliable. God is our rod
+and our staff. Firmly relying on the Rock of substance which is God, we
+can not be shaken, can not be destroyed. Though all seeming powers
+totter and fall around us, the One is ever the same, indivisible,
+unchangeable I Am. When we are one with the eternal Substance, weakness,
+danger, failure shrink into cowering nothingness.</p>
+
+<p>"Study to know, and know to live, should be our motto. Deny all error
+and affirm all Truth is the way to appropriate whatsoever we desire to
+manifest. Deny weakness and affirm strength, deny discord and affirm
+harmony, deny sickness and affirm health. Why? Because we erase the
+false beliefs of weakness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> discord, sickness, by the denial, and
+appropriate strength, harmony, wholeness by affirmation.</p>
+
+<p>"Can the spiritual self be ignorant, weak, sick or sinful? we argue.
+Impossible, for God is our sufficiency, is all there is. We refuse to
+admit any belief of dullness and ignorance, but gratefully acknowledge
+our likeness to God our Wisdom. We refuse to entertain anything contrary
+to the Good, but fellowship only with God-like qualities. They are ours
+by right of inheritance. We gladly claim them and prove our claim by our
+manifestation.</p>
+
+<p>"Cleansing our consciousness from false conceptions, what wondrous power
+may we not reflect! Our sufficiency is of God, not of ourselves, and to
+Him we ascribe all honor and glory.</p>
+
+<p>"The Master taught the divineness of yielding our will wholly to God,
+'Not my will but thine be done,' He prayed. This is the highest
+conception of the denial of self. The mortal self is to be set aside,
+our immortal consciousness awakened into oneness with the Father.</p>
+
+<p>"MacDonald has beautifully said, 'Oneness with the mighty All is the one
+end of life&mdash;God or chaos is the only alternative.' We say God works
+through man to will and to do, and implicitly trust the divine
+Intelligence that guides every waiting child.</p>
+
+<p>"We choose the Good and reverently await our leadings. In every stormy
+trial, in every doubtful moment, in every hard-pressed circumstance we
+stand aside and let the divine will work through us. There can be no
+mistaking this standing aside. It is not to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> sit down idly with no
+thought of responsibility or effort, but it is to do the best we can so
+far as we know, constantly awaiting more knowledge of God's will and
+more strength to do.</p>
+
+<p>"When the will of man is at one with the will of God, when man realizes
+his mortal nothingness and the allness of God, there is divine and
+perfect healing. The poet was right when he wrote,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Our wills are ours we know not how,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Our wills are ours to make them Thine.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"'I am subject to the law of God and can not sin, suffer nor die.' The
+real <i>I</i> is governed by spirit, as an idea is governed by the mind that
+thinks it. The real creation, being spiritual, can not be subject to
+mortal beliefs or 'carnal mind which is at enmity with God.' With spirit
+there can be no sin, sickness nor death, for these are enemies to be
+overcome by the Son of God, the Christ within. 'Thou wilt keep him in
+perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.' 'The last enemy (belief) to
+be overcome is death.'</p>
+
+<p>"Until we persistently refuse to judge according to appearances, and
+acknowledge the true and invisible, we will continue in our old code of
+beliefs and be at the mercy of the consequences.</p>
+
+<p>"When we recognize the Christ or God principle within, we are then truly
+the sons and daughters of God. Spiritual insight gives a logical and to
+some, a new meaning to the term Christ. Christ means Truth and Truth
+means God. 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and
+the Word was God, and the Word was made manifest in the flesh, or the
+Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.' Jesus said of
+Himself, 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' But He did not speak
+this of His physical body, He referred to the spirit or Christ within,
+which was one with the Father, that was and is, literally the way, the
+truth and the life. If you will substitute Truth for Christ any place in
+the Bible, with this understanding, you will be able to read and
+apprehend as never before. In this line of thought read the thirty-fifth
+chapter of Isaiah, the title of which is 'The joyful flourishing of
+Christ's (Truth's) kingdom.' With this understanding, we so much more
+clearly see what Paul meant when he said such things as 'Your life is
+hid with Christ in God,' 'Christ in you, the hope of glory,' 'Until
+Christ be formed in you,' and many other similar expressions. In the
+eighth chapter of Romans, especially the first verse, it is much clearer
+by reading with this new spiritual signification. 'There is, therefore,
+now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Truth), who walk
+not after the flesh but after the spirit.' Who could ever believe the
+physical Jesus was meant? No: Christ was exactly what the first chapter
+of John says He was, the Word (or Truth) made manifest in the flesh, and
+the name of the flesh was Jesus.</p>
+
+<p>"Jesus Christ means Jesus, the manifestation of Truth, and this explains
+many hitherto obscure passages, which are exceedingly hard to
+understand, when the flesh and spirit are regarded as one.</p>
+
+<p>"What vast possibilities unfold to the human being persistent in his
+search for truth! What a glorious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> realm of knowledge, what wonderful
+power, what blissful peace, for he will have 'put on the new man, which
+is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that creates him.' He
+will have attained the clear vision of liberty, for he will no longer be
+bound to the 'letter that killeth' but be filled with the 'spirit that
+giveth life.'</p>
+
+<p>"The silence at the close seemed like a baptism of peace. To me came the
+realization of the intimate relationship of God's children to their
+Father, whose love ever comes as a benediction to those who will or can,
+recognize and appropriate it.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"With love to you all, I am,<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"<span class="smcap">Your Marion.</span></span></p>
+
+
+<p>"P. S. I take great pains to have the quotations accurate, and
+fortunately I have made the acquaintance of the shorthand reporter in
+the class who sits next to me; she takes notes and as a special favor,
+reads the quotations for me after the class is dismissed.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Once more, good-bye. M."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Got but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A star new-born that drops into its place,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And which, once circling in its placid round,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Not all the tumult of the earth can shake."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Lowell.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>"How are you getting on in your study of Christian Healing?" asked Mr.
+Hayden, meeting Kate as he was going home, and handing her the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"It is getting plainer, but Grace seems to catch the reason of things
+much more readily than I. In fact, I am afraid I should have given up in
+disgust had not she helped me out, for some of the statements seemed so
+unreasonable."</p>
+
+<p>"They are rather inconsistent in some respects, I must admit; but if we
+will only be patient, and not allow prejudice to color our judgment,
+everything will straighten out," replied Mr. Hayden, smiling. "You
+notice Marion is careful to warn me not to judge hastily. She knows how
+I am in religious matters, always insisting on the one interpretation.
+But I am growing some, I hope, so I trust my judgment is broad enough to
+make a fair and impartial investigation."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you follow directions about denying?" Kate asked, as they walked
+along.</p>
+
+<p>"I am trying to, but of course my days are busy, and evenings somewhat
+taken up with the children. Still, I deny matter as being inert, having
+absolutely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> no power of itself, except what is delegated to it by the
+senses. I know it has no life, intelligence or causation of itself, but
+only as man in his ignorance allows it to have. This has been held by
+wise men of all ages. I have an idea this way of thinking will help me
+in business as well as socially and religiously."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear that," said Kate; "though I must confess at first I
+was very much afraid to look into this; but last night I had a very
+clear assurance that there is something in it. Grace and I denied a long
+time, and I had a most peculiar experience. Such a strange, exalted
+feeling, as if there were no weight about me, and it was very clear that
+there is no reality in matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Remarkable!" murmured Mr. Hayden. "Suppose you come down Sunday and
+we'll compare notes," he suggested, as he turned the corner toward home.</p>
+
+<p>"We will," she promised, and went on with a hurried step, anxious to
+read the letter, for she was now as interested as Grace. When she
+arrived at their rooms she found her friend had gone out, so she went
+about the domestic duties, resolving to have everything ready when Grace
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that a beautiful lesson?" exclaimed Grace, when they finally sat
+down to study, later in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly grand; but I want the Bible corroboration, though I am not
+afraid it is not there this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course everything that proves the theory helps to establish the
+consequent facts, and I suspect all things prove it when we understand
+it. Well, here is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> the first statement about God that is about the same
+as in the first lesson," said Grace. "Look up the references to life."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is one in Psalm xxvii: 1. 'The Lord is my life and my salvation,
+whom shall I fear?'" read Kate; "and here is another in Acts xvii: 25:
+'God giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That is good; see if you can find another," said Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is one, but I hardly understand it&mdash;John xi: 25, 26. 'Jesus said
+unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me,
+though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
+believeth in me shall never die.' What can that mean, Grace?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," said Grace, silently pondering. Then she looked again
+at the letter. "Why, of course! How could we forget so easily? I had it
+just a moment ago. Jesus never referred to his flesh and blood when he
+spoke of himself as life, resurrection, truth, bread, but always meant
+the Spirit of God that was manifest in him, and the Spirit of God which
+is the Christ, is Truth, and whosoever believes or apprehends Truth,
+shall be whole and live."</p>
+
+<p>"But it says, 'shall never die,'" interrupted Kate, still unsatisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, then, unless it means 'the Spirit is all.' Find another
+passage."</p>
+
+<p>Kate read John vi: 51-64, and then added, anxiously, "it seems to grow
+more mysterious all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, let us be patient. Read the fifty-first and sixty-third
+verses again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Kate read, "'I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any
+man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will
+give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.... It is
+the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that
+I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That last clause is the key to all," exclaimed Grace, eagerly. "He was
+the Word, idea made manifest in the flesh. Flesh was a symbol of Word,
+and he said they were to eat his flesh, which meant they were to eat his
+word. Now let us look up Word, since so much hinges upon that."</p>
+
+<p>Rapidly turning over the leaves, Kate read again, John xv: 7: "'If ye
+abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it
+shall be done unto you.'"</p>
+
+<p>"There we have it. Christ, we must remember, means Truth. If we abide in
+the Truth and the words of Truth abide in us, that is, in order to eat
+the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, we are to abide in the spirit
+and speak the words of Truth. Oh, how beautiful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is. Here is another passage, Col. iii: 3, 4: 'For ye are dead,
+and your life is hid with Christ in God.... When Christ, who is our
+life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.' Even
+I, can see that," cried the delighted Kate, "and I remember a verse in
+Ephesians, iv: 18, that will make it still plainer. Here it is: 'Having
+the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart'
+(mind). Ignorance is the opposite of truth, and one who is ignorant of
+truth is subject to the carnal mind which leads to death. When we know
+truth, we know the opposite of death, which is life, so when Christ the
+Truth, which is life, shall appear, we shall be glorified with the
+knowledge of eternal life, and just as far as we realize truth we
+manifest it, do we not?" She appealed to Grace, as if the thought were
+too good to be true, and must needs be confirmed before she could
+believe it.</p>
+
+<p>"Manifest it? Why yes; I suppose so; that means in the body," answered
+Grace, thinking deeply; "manifest truth in the body. Of course," she
+continued, "we will show forth a more perfect body in proportion as we
+acknowledge and realize more perfect thought. How strangely we lose our
+premise! If this could not be reasoned out so clearly, I should get all
+tangled up; as it is, I don't keep out of snarls."</p>
+
+<p>"Just think of poor me who seem to have no reasoning faculty at all in
+these matters. What should I have done without you to help me out?"
+queried Kate.</p>
+
+<p>Grace smiled as she replied: "In one sense you will get on faster than
+I, for you can get it spiritually or intuitively, while I get it only
+intellectually, and the intuition flies where reason walks. You had a
+perception of the unreality of matter last night and I had nothing at
+all but stupidity and sleepiness. But let us go on. I am more deeply
+interested than I can tell, and the Bible is a new book to me. I never
+dreamed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> there were such treasures of truth in it. No matter where I
+read in the Bible before, I could not understand, and then I stopped
+trying, but it is very different now."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the next point in the lesson?" asked Kate, taking up the Bible
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am the child of God. Look for child."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in Rom. viii: 16, 17: 'The spirit itself beareth witness with our
+spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs
+of God, and joint heirs of Christ; if so be that we suffer with him.'"</p>
+
+<p>"That means," said Grace, "we prove ourselves heirs if we suffer with
+him, mortify the flesh, lay down the life of appetites and passions and
+talk continually of spiritual things; in short, live the life that Jesus
+did."</p>
+
+<p>"Here in Gal. iv: 1: 'The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
+nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all,'" read Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"While he has a child's ignorance of his inheritance, of course he could
+not enjoy its possession, and the longer he remains ignorant, the longer
+will he have the station of a servant," explained Grace, readily.</p>
+
+<p>"But there is a seeming conflict in the two passages. The first says the
+spirit itself tells us we are children and heirs, and the second says,
+as long as he is a child, even though an heir, he is nothing but a
+servant," said Kate, in perplexity again.</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't there a place in the Testament somewhere about being born
+again?" inquired Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Kate, wondering what that could have to do with it. "Yes,
+that is where Nicodemus went to Jesus by night&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Find it," interrupted Grace, who was determined to be thorough in this
+study at least.</p>
+
+<p>"John, iii: 3-7, reads: 'Except a man be born again, he can not see the
+kingdom of God.... That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which
+is born of spirit is spirit.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said Kate, as she finished.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't we learn that the words are spirit and life, and does it not
+mean we are born into the spiritual knowledge by abiding in the words of
+truth?" reasoned Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is it, I do believe, and one of the last verses of the third
+chapter of Galatians says, 'for ye are all the children of God by faith
+in Christ Jesus.'"</p>
+
+<p>"By faith in the Truth," amended Grace, for the sake of the clearer
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"What a stupid I am!" cried Kate. A moment later she said thoughtfully,
+"there is a text in the first chapter of James which reads: 'Of his own
+will begat he us with the word of truth, that we might be a kind of
+first fruits of his creatures.' My youthful Sunday school training is
+not quite in vain," she added, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"It would not take us so long if we knew the Bible as some people do,
+provided we want to take that as sole authority," remarked Grace,
+referring to the letter again.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about the advantage of knowing the passages unless you can
+interpret them, and that is certainly essential to the understanding,"
+replied Kate, thoughtfully, as she drew her hand slowly over the open
+page.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hayden refers to the liberty brought by the spirit. Suppose you
+look up a reference to liberty," suggested Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Kate, a moment later, "here in verses 17 and 18 of II. Cor.,
+third chapter, it reads, 'Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the
+spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.... But we all, beholding as in
+a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
+glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Grace," exclaimed Kate, shutting the book in her eagerness, "I see
+it all now. By denial we take away falsities that bar us from looking
+into the face of God (Good), and by the affirmation we acknowledge Him,
+which is turning an open face to Him and reflecting His glory. Isn't
+that the way you understand it?"</p>
+
+<p>Kate's face was all aglow with enthusiasm. A new light had come to her,
+and she was lifted to a higher plane, both in conception and feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a beautiful interpretation, but I don't want to stop to think
+about it now," said Grace, with a yawn, betraying fatigue for the first
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Grace, a little while ago you said you were 'so interested.' What
+has come over you?" was Kate's rather discomfited answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing, nothing!" rejoined Grace hastily, "only you know one <i>can</i>
+be surfeited with good things, but never mind. I shall not stop till we
+get through with this looking up, and then I must have a good long
+think." She playfully chucked Kate under her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> chin, and asked her "to go
+on," but the searching was not so spontaneous as before, and in the
+spontaneity of study lies the acquisition of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Grace, it must be confessed, was compelling herself to a thorough
+intellectual investigation which, till now, had been a novel pleasure,
+but was getting a little monotonous, although she was deeply interested
+and more pleased with the Bible readings than she would have thought
+possible, because, as she had said herself, the Bible had been a sealed
+book to her before. She was very careful to conceal this new feeling
+from Kate, for at least, she would not lay one obstacle in <i>her</i> path,
+and after a few moments' desultory conversation, they went on as before.</p>
+
+<p>"The next affirmation is about the will, what can you find for that?"
+asked Grace, as they had resumed their study again.</p>
+
+<p>"I have found it already," replied Kate, with her finger on the passage.
+"In Phil. ii: 13: 'For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to
+do of his good pleasure.' That subordination to the will of God runs all
+through the New Testament."</p>
+
+<p>"Here is the last one," resumed Grace, referring to the letter again. "I
+am subject to God's law and can not sin, suffer or die," she read.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that does not sound right; I do <i>not</i> see how it can be right to
+say such things," interposed Kate, darkening again.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up a reference to sin and turned to the sixth chapter of
+Romans. "I don't see very clearly yet," she faltered, after she had
+finished the chapter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in the 16th verse is the key to it all," said Grace, looking over
+the page with her. "The idea is, if we admit sin or talk about it, we
+are committing sin, for it is wrong to do either."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand a little better now, but it is not an easy matter to be so
+good," sighed Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"But we are given these rules in order to know <i>how</i> to be good. Let us
+sit as we did last night, and say these affirmations," suggested Grace,
+determined to do her duty, for Kate's sake at least.</p>
+
+<p>Diligence and faithfulness never fail to bring forth fruit, and they
+were laboring hard, both with soil and seed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Each of us is a distinct flower or tree in the spiritual garden of
+God,&mdash;precious each for its own sake in the eyes of Him who is even
+now making us,&mdash;each of us watered and shone upon and filled with
+life for the sake of His flower, His completed being, which will
+blossom out of Him at last to the glory and pleasure of the great
+Gardener. For each has within him a secret of Divinity; each is
+growing toward the revelation of that secret to himself, and so to
+the full reception, according to his measure of the
+Divine."&mdash;<i>George MacDonald.</i></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, September &mdash;&mdash;.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>"Dear Husband: Your letter seemed the only bright spot in my yesterday's
+experience, for, strange as it may seem, I awoke with the same old
+headache and pain in my limb, and felt so dull and stupid, that I was
+almost doubtful whether I had ever known anything. In vain I tried to
+treat myself, but the more I tried the more perplexed I became, until
+about noon, when I began to feel better, though the whole day was a
+novel and rather disagreeable experience. When I went into class to-day,
+from nearly every quarter was heard a similar story of how the day of
+rest had been passed.</p>
+
+<p>"It was more and more astonishing. Dr. Bright had hardly recovered from
+her sick headache; Mrs. Dawn was still feeling stupid; two ladies were
+not able to attend class; Dr. Johnson and Dr. Lorimer actually looked
+angry, and the two ministers in the class were gravely discussing the
+knotty points and knitting their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> clerical brows over 'doubtful
+explanations' as they called them, while a perplexed and troubled air
+seemed to settle on everybody. But there are a few old students in the
+class, and they looked at us with a knowing smile, saying: 'This is only
+chemicalization; you will be all the brighter after you get over it.'</p>
+
+<p>"They did not explain further, but I knew something about it from the
+experience we have had, but had never thought of it in that light. 'It
+is a comfort to know there is some prospect of an end to our darkness
+anyway,' said Mrs. Dawn, with a long-drawn breath of relief, voicing the
+sentiments of all.</p>
+
+<p>"The kind and gracious look Mrs. Pearl gave us as she came in, sent a
+wave of peace and satisfaction over me, for I felt that she understood
+the situation and would lift the curtains and let in the light.</p>
+
+<p>"After the usual silence, which seemed longer than before, Mrs. Pearl
+began in a calm clear voice:</p>
+
+<p>"We have come now to a point where it seems necessary to explain the
+process of growth, and the phenomenal changes which take place at
+certain stages of our development, whether known or unknown to the
+individual.</p>
+
+<p>"Hitherto we have recognized material ideas, objects and processes. We
+have looked upon our physical being as the indisputable creation subject
+to all changes, circumstances or conditions. Having experienced a
+material birth, we conceive of no other as being either possible or
+necessary, and like Nicodemus we go in the night of our ignorance to ask
+the divine Teacher, Truth, questions concerning spiritual things, only
+to be told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> we must be born from above if we would know the things of
+the spirit. 'That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is
+born of Spirit is spirit.'</p>
+
+<p>"We are covered with the cold, hard shell of material beliefs, which
+must be broken and cast away before the sweet and tender germ of spirit
+can spring up. We are born like the flowers, and blossom like them.
+'Consider the lilies of the field, <i>how they grow</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"Seed typifies the desire for truth planted in the conscious and
+unconscious being. The more constantly and persistently we hold the
+desire, the more rapid and perfect will be the development that produces
+the fruit. The hard little kernel must first lie in the dark earth,
+while hidden forces make it swell and sprout until the outer shell dies
+and falls away, leaving the pure white germ to push its way up and up
+through the cold dreary earth. At this period it is very delicate and
+tender, and yet it must pass through a trying stage, for when the white
+spire just peeps above the ground it has to encounter elements that at
+first seem bent upon its destruction.</p>
+
+<p>"Will the sun's rays now prove too hot for it? Will the winds be too
+rough and stormy? Will the cold air bite, or the storm beat and bruise
+it unto death? Pointing ever skyward, does it stop to shiver at the
+prospect of dark and cold and heat, or windy violence?</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see. Bravely the young shoot goes its way. As soon as it sees
+the light it displays new beauty, and the reflected glory clothes it in
+a brighter robe&mdash;the fresh, dainty green of spring's supernal dress,
+emblem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> of everlasting youth. But a storm of wind and rain assails it.
+Dense cloud-curtains hide the sun, and the air is cold and chilling.
+Sometimes for days this benumbing coldness lasts. But after the storm
+our little friend is greener and brighter and larger than ever. It has
+withstood the storm and wind, by using them for its own advancement.
+Everything has been turned into good by recognizing only the good.</p>
+
+<p>"When the sunshine comes again the little slip is baptized with dew and
+warmth and light, and joyously springs on toward budding time, and then
+another and different experience befalls. Instead of rolling every new
+leaf outward to be bathed in the light and kissed by the wind, there is
+a rolling inward, a curling up and shutting in of the new and delicate
+leaves. A hard, unlovely roll or lump now displays itself on the green
+stem, and every day the roll becomes larger and harder. The green stalk
+never questions, though for a time her face is veiled. She lives in the
+waiting silence, content with what is. One bright day she looks at her
+ugly bud and finds it a rare blossom of surpassing beauty and sweetest
+fragrance. Thus is born the fair-robed lily, pure emblem of the child of
+God.</p>
+
+<p>"But we have many and various symbols of divine thought in the many and
+various flowers, from which we learn divine lessons. There are the
+violets that come so early in the spring, with their wildwood fragrance
+and dainty blue cloaks, and the lovely roses of summer, the goldenrods
+and asters of autumn, while among the rarer kinds we have the
+night-blooming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> cereus, the beautiful but slow blossoming century plant,
+and many others. These are types and symbols of ourselves and our
+process of birth and unfoldment.</p>
+
+<p>"The new birth is a development from material to spiritual knowledge.
+The individual corresponds to one or another plant, but none may know at
+what particular stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Some blossom early, some late, some manifest a nature like the violet,
+others the rose, the water lily or the century plant. I can not tell,
+you can not tell, none can tell. Even the Master said, 'The wind bloweth
+where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
+whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of
+the spirit.'</p>
+
+<p>"The wonderful seed (desire for truth) we have planted must be moistened
+by the water of right words, warmed by the sunshine of faith, fed by the
+dew of patience.</p>
+
+<p>"Our trials will be similar in character to the flowers, and the outcome
+will be the same in proportion as we follow their example of
+unquestioning faithfulness.</p>
+
+<p>"The very desire to grow is a challenge to the elements that <i>seem</i> to
+oppose growth, but the plant overcomes all obstacles by its
+non-resistance, and herein lies one of our most valuable lessons.</p>
+
+<p>"In our progress we meet with many conditions and circumstances that try
+us, that seem indeed to call in question our earnestness in thus
+starting out, with new assumptions. Sometimes these adverse conditions
+are called trials of faith and they may come to us in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> one way or
+another, sometimes in sickness, sometimes in misunderstandings,
+sometimes in grief, sometimes in disagreeable duties.</p>
+
+<p>"Peculiarities of disposition that we thought overcome, may manifest
+themselves very unexpectedly and cause us great annoyance, not only
+because we may have congratulated ourselves on having risen above them,
+but because it would be a mortification to us to have our friends know
+that we who believe in the possibility of such high moral attainments,
+should be guilty of these old weaknesses and follies. In every way, the
+tempter&mdash;mortal thought&mdash;may show us the fallibility of human nature and
+tempt us to disbelieve in our high ideals.</p>
+
+<p>"The forty days' temptation in the wilderness is the soul history of
+every human being who starts out to lead the life of Jesus. Tempted in
+everything as we are, he was the type of strength, purity and
+faithfulness to principles, which we most earnestly should seek to
+follow. After his baptism, 'He was conducted by the spirit into the
+desert to be tempted by the enemy.'</p>
+
+<p>"We are baptized by the spirit when we have come into the realization of
+our sonship and daughtership, our true relation to the divine Father and
+Mother Love, and have consecrated our lives to the service of Truth. In
+order that we may be fully aware of the magnitude of our desire, we are,
+as it were, led by the spirit to the desert which literally signifies
+forsaken, where every means of comfort and companionship are gone, where
+we must learn to choose between the ever pres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>ent but invisible things
+of God and the transitory but gratifying pleasures of the visible world.
+Having a glimpse of the power and blessedness conferred by the knowledge
+of Truth, we are tempted to keep hold of the power, at the same time
+fellowshipping with the world, which by our recognition and fellowship
+will be greatly pleased through the acquisition of our society and
+talents.</p>
+
+<p>"When tests are required of us similar to the turning of stones into
+bread, healing the lepers, raising the dead, will we realize our
+dependence on the word of God which is the 'bread of life?' Temptations
+to dare the protection of the power, give us an insight to the very same
+trial of Jesus, and when we are led up to the mountain of knowledge from
+which we may view the pomps and vanities of the world, realizing the
+superior insight that gives power, then comes the decisive
+question&mdash;shall God or mammon gain our allegiance? Shall we forego the
+seductive allurements of mortal thought (which is really only the
+negative thought or the false power called the world's beliefs reflected
+upon us), or shall we, in ringing tones cry out, 'Get thee behind me,
+adversary (or opposer). Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only
+shalt thou serve.' Then the enemy leaves us, and behold, angels come and
+minister to us.</p>
+
+<p>"After the long forty days, which with some seem longer than with
+others, after the darkness and desolation of a desert night, we are
+ministered unto by the blessed angels&mdash;good thoughts&mdash;and the glory of
+the Most High shines round about us. The struggle is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> ended, the Good
+which is ever ready to be our guide when we choose, leads us into many
+sweet experiences that bring us nearer and nearer to the 'promised
+land,' the true inheritance of God's children. We begin the ascent of
+the mount of transfiguration, and though we come to many steep places,
+though we sometimes stumble over rocks of ignorance, though we encounter
+clouds of doubt that veil the glorious peak from our longing view for a
+time, though we meet wild beasts, (untamed human nature), though we
+cross shadowy valleys and dark ravines, lighted only by the torch of
+faith, we shall have transcendant glimpses of the fair Beyond, shall
+breathe the perfumed air of Zion's Hills, and be transported with
+delight at the never ceasing revelations made to the true seeker after
+eternal wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"After faith, comes knowledge. If we were overcome by the tidal wave,
+when wading out a little way from shore, and a rope were thrown us, we
+should at least catch hold the rope, hoping to be delivered from the
+danger. After several successful experiences, we should have faith in
+the rope, so when we feel the tidal wave of trial overtaking us, we are
+to catch hold of our denials and affirmations which correspond to the
+saving rope. An invariable rule in Christian Science is to deny the
+undesirable and affirm that which can be predicated of spirit. <i>No
+matter what inharmony</i> assails you, whether it be pain, poverty,
+sickness, loneliness, fear or anxiety, <i>deny</i> it positively and
+repeatedly and <i>affirm</i> the opposite. Like Jesus, we must speak of that
+which is true, but not visible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> Thus when called to raise the daughter
+of Jairus, he said: 'She is not dead but sleepeth.' The appearance of
+death was denied, and its opposite, life, affirmed.</p>
+
+<p>"When talking to the Jews, Jesus said: 'If ye continue in my word, then
+are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth and the truth
+shall make you free.' It is continuance in the word that brings the
+blessing, mark that.</p>
+
+<p>"And now let us enter into the silence with one accord, saying: 'For Thy
+blessed words and example we thank Thee, O, beloved Master, and with Thy
+words we enter now into Thy faith.'</p>
+
+<p>"An impressive ten minutes, and then, with reverent voice and gesture,
+Mrs. Pearl dismissed us with the words: 'It is finished. We have
+received that which we asked, and are filled with the peace that passeth
+all understanding.'</p>
+
+<p>"While we sat thus, just before she spoke, I had one of those peculiar
+experiences they tell about, coming so often in the silence. It seemed
+as though I was in the cool quiet of early morning, watching the signs
+of a summer dawn. All at once the creeping rainbow colors shot up toward
+the zenith, and the most glorious sunrise I ever beheld flooded me with
+a dazzling glow of gold. The moment she spoke it vanished, but oh, how
+lovely it was! What could it mean unless the dawn of the 'Sun of
+Righteousness?' I must wait and see, for surely the understanding of
+these things will come when I am ready for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Several of the class have been having strange signs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> or hints of
+something on which they have been studying deeply. Dr. Bright said that
+everything turned black before her one day when she was denying, and
+when she could see again it seemed as though there were no walls to the
+house and she was gazing into empty space. This is on account of denying
+till material things seem immaterial, and we begin to realize the
+reality of spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"The saying of the affirmation for strength, Mrs. Dawn says, makes her
+body feel almost electrified with vitality, and she can realize that the
+words bring to her what they claim.</p>
+
+<p>"One young man, who sits just back of me, told his experience in denying
+the reality of matter. He was quite rebellious at first about saying
+what seemed such a huge lie, but finally concluded to do the best he
+could, and so said it over and over one day till he fell asleep.
+Suddenly he was awakened by the words sounding in his ears, 'Be not
+afraid, but trust,' and opening his eyes, he saw written on the wall the
+very same words, and immediately a restfulness and satisfaction came
+over him, so that he no longer demurred at the thought of saying the
+words and, though he did not yet understand, he felt willing to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how I wish the great busy world would listen to this beautiful
+doctrine. It seems that we must compel it to come to the feast. I think
+we all feel like a child delightedly showing its new toy to everybody.
+But the little experience I have had before, will teach me to withhold
+where there is antagonism to the truth, beautiful though it is, because
+my work at home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> even with my cure, did not interest or convince some
+who would shut their eyes and ears to all. I remember so well how I felt
+like shouting to everyone in my joy the glad story of my recovered
+health, but the cold, incredulous looks, and the averted faces chilled
+the tidings on my lips, and I learned that only when the world is
+thirsty, will it appreciate the cool and sparkling waters of truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear John, I have not answered your letter at all because I was
+so afraid I would forget the substance of the lesson to-day, but I am so
+glad it seems plain to you as I present it, and it is such a help to
+know you are glad I came here. How we shall grow together when we
+<i>begin</i> together. Continue to write your opinions and ideas of the
+lessons, for you have such a clear way of expressing yourself. Don't let
+Jamie forget to write again when you all write. Bless his dear little
+self! I would so like to see him, but then, I know all is well with you,
+for Good is everywhere.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Good night and good-bye,<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"<span class="smcap">Marion.</span>"</span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"But when every leaf is dropped and the plant stands stripped to
+the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from
+which shall spring a tenderer foliage and a brighter wealth of
+flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly
+joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the
+soul."&mdash;<i>Harriet Beecher Stowe.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>Saturday no letter came. All the forenoon Grace tried to do her duty by
+saying her denials and affirmations while Kate was out giving lessons,
+but she seemed so stupid and felt so cross that in despair she resorted
+to her painting, but only succeeded in spoiling the picture she had
+spent hours and days upon before. When Kate came in at the usual hour,
+feeling so gay and light-hearted that she scarcely knew how to contain
+herself, she was astonished to hear Grace say:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am glad you have come at last! Such a day as I have spent!
+Thought I'd have so much extra time while you were gone to give Millie's
+lesson, and here I've wasted the whole afternoon and spoiled my
+'shipwreck' besides, and I'm in a villainous humor. Now, I'm going to
+pour it all out on your innocent head." She smiled grimly, as she tossed
+her painting apron aside and spitefully turned the picture to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world ails you, Grace?" cried the astonished Kate. "Have
+you lost your senses? I was congratulating myself coming home on the
+good time we would have again to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I anticipated it so vividly this morning I could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> hardly wait, but
+really, Kate, I feel ugly, and perhaps it would be as well not to talk
+to me. I will go out for a little walk, while you get the tea," and she
+went forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>A tumult raged within her that she had not conquered. One moment filled
+with the most exhilarating sense of freedom and joy, the next the direst
+disgust with herself and her failings; one moment clearly understanding
+the many problems that had come up for solution the past week, and the
+next with no ability to reason about anything. This had been going on
+all day. She had even felt unreasonably irritable because Kate had so
+quickly overcome her prejudices. What right had she to give away her own
+for some one else's opinions so easily?</p>
+
+<p>Grace gave her glove an impatient twitch as she thought of it, but the
+next instant she wished she, too, might be as childlike and receptive as
+her companion.</p>
+
+<p>To Kate the Bible was final, unquestioned authority; to Grace it was a
+corroboration, not a foundation. It was more interesting, she must
+confess, than ever before, but then she must have better reasons than
+had yet appeared for taking it as Kate did.</p>
+
+<p>After all, perhaps this religion was but another mirage that had come
+into her moral vision, as many another had come in all the years she had
+been seeking truth and happiness. Happiness! Had she forgotten that for
+two years that word had been dropped from her vocabulary? That she had
+resolved to live on the best intellectual food the world could offer,
+without tasting its heart viands? She walked on with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> unwonted
+energy. No, she would not be deceived; the best and sweetest in life was
+not for her, but she ought at least, to help poor little Kate.</p>
+
+<p>It was a calm, quiet evening. The sun was just disappearing over the
+distant hills. The sky was radiant with delicate pink and blue tints.
+She was walking toward the east, when, glancing at the scene in front of
+her, she saw what seemed to be a brilliant fire, not only in one place
+but in many. Somewhat startled, she looked more closely and discovered
+every window ablaze with the sun's reflected glory. Like a flash it
+came: "I am walking away from the glory of Truth. Oh! how shall I turn
+my face to God?" she cried, with unspeakable yearning.</p>
+
+<p>An agony of suspense seized her. She looked up at the calm, beautiful
+sky, and its rays of radiance seemed to send down upon her a benediction
+of peace. Like a soft whisper the words, "Lo, I am with you always,"
+fell upon her ear. Blessed words that filled her with a new-born awe,
+but they brought a realizing sense of ever-present nearness of Truth,
+such as she had never had before, and she was so filled with peace that
+all the world looked like a new world. The turbulent waves of doubt and
+unrest had been divinely stilled.</p>
+
+<p>She walked on, so filled with her new thoughts that the twilight
+deepened into starlight before she thought of home, and then it seemed
+that every star beam was an angel of love sent to guide her on her way.
+She entered quietly as Kate was playing one of Beethoven's symphonies,
+and never had music seemed so sweet. It was like a welcome into heaven.
+It was the heaven within her that made a heaven without.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To Kate had come such a realization of divine harmony, that her soul
+poured itself out in music she had never dreamed of before. All the
+struggles and pains of the past years, all the disappointments and
+unhappiness found expression through the wailing tones of the piano only
+to be swept away or swelled into sweeter and more joyous strains. More
+and more clearly a conception of joy and peace unspeakable filled her
+heart. She wandered again, a happy child, in country pastures gathering
+violets and buttercups. She could scent the clover and hear the birds.
+The water rippled over the pebbles and the air was filled with leaf
+music. Now, again a child, she "walked in green pastures and beside the
+still waters." The sun of love was shining down upon her, and its rays
+warmed her, clothed her, fed her. "Surely goodness and mercy shall
+follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the
+Lord forever," she sang softly in an awed, hushed voice, as the music
+grew more divinely sweet, and the realization of a nameless Presence
+filled her. It was the presence of impersonal, omnipresent Truth, ever
+flowing into the heart ready for its reception, and though at first it
+may be but a tiny stream, it grows to a swelling tide, and all the words
+in the universe can not name its sweet influence, or describe its
+wondrous allness.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, Katie darling, what wouldst thou have put away from thy life, if
+thou hadst obstinately refused admittance to this heavenly Guest?... At
+last the music ceased. She bowed her head and gave herself up to the
+inexpressible thoughts that welled into her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> mind. For some moments she
+was not aware that Grace was in the room, but as she finally arose and
+turned around, she saw her. Their eyes met, and silently was told the
+story of experiences too sacred to utter. A silent understanding and a
+heartfelt sympathy bound them by closer ties than they had ever known
+before. To be at one with Truth is to understand humanity, and
+understanding is a voiceless language.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday afternoon they called on Mr. Hayden and found the fourth letter
+awaiting them.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not send it up because Kate promised you would come over to-day,
+and now let us have a little experience meeting," he said, as he found
+chairs for them, and seated himself, seemingly awaiting a reply.</p>
+
+<p>"First let us read the letter," suggested Grace, who was more interested
+than ever since her yesterday's experience.</p>
+
+<p>"Read it aloud," said Mr. Hayden, settling himself back to enjoy it.</p>
+
+<p>Grace had scarcely begun reading when Jamie came in, screaming that his
+finger was "boke."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Jamie, it will soon be all right. Shall papa treat it?"
+taking the child in his lap.</p>
+
+<p>"Teat it, papa," and he laid his little head on papa's breast with
+perfect confidence that the pain would soon be gone. A few moments of
+silence and he looked up innocently, saying with the brightest smile:</p>
+
+<p>"It's all gone now. Papa telled the good Jamie to tome home," he
+explained to the girls, "and here he is, papa," he added, holding up his
+sweet mouth for a kiss.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful is a child's faith," exclaimed Kate, after the little
+fellow had gone out to play again.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I have learned more than I can tell you from the children," said
+Mr. Hayden, thoughtfully. "Mabel is old enough to understand a good
+deal, but Fred and Jamie are very quick to apply what they learn. Last
+night Jamie complained of the stomach ache. Neither of the children knew
+that I was near, but I overheard Fred telling his brother that he would
+treat him if he would keep still. Jamie consented and I peeped in a
+moment later, curious to know what they were doing. Fred sat there grave
+as an owl, with his hands over his eyes, and Jamie in a chair opposite,
+his eyes shut tightly and an air of expectancy on his face."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you're all right," said Fred, very positively, after a few minutes.
+They were soon playing and not once did the child complain after that.
+When going to bed, Jamie told me about it, and I asked Fred what he did
+when he treated.</p>
+
+<p>"W'y," he answered, "w'y, I just 'membered what you said to Mabel that
+everybody has two kinds o' thoughts, and one kind <i>thinks</i> you're sick,
+and the other kind <i>knows</i> you're well, so I thinked about Jamie till I
+thinked the <i>know</i> thoughts, and <i>course</i> he got well then."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a lesson to me, and I have tried to emulate their receptiveness
+and childlike trust. I don't know how well I am succeeding, but it is
+pretty hard sometimes to get the problems all worked out."</p>
+
+<p>"We wouldn't have to work them out if we had the faith of a child," said
+Kate, warmly. These little incidents touched her deeply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is nothing better to learn from than living examples, and
+yet we can only take them as guides, they will not do our work for us.
+Every one of us must go through his own experience, and prove his right
+to an inheritance, by claiming it on trust as the child does. Now,
+yesterday," continued Mr. Hayden, leaning back and stroking his chin, "I
+worked hard all the forenoon, and everything seemed to go wrong with
+me,"&mdash;Grace glanced at Kate&mdash;"I was not willing to live a moment at a
+time, as the child does, with no thought or care as to where its next
+day's supplies are to come from, but I was tired and cross all day. The
+consequence was, in the afternoon my old enemy, the headache, began to
+assert itself. Then I got Marion's letter and that helped me, because it
+threw some light on the cause, but when I heard Fred's explanation of a
+treatment I just applied it. I 'thinked,' till the 'know thoughts
+came,'" Mr. Hayden concluded with a grave smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe that is what it means to 'work out our own salvation,'" said
+Grace, "and how beautiful to have the children learn! It will make
+different men and women of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed it will; I have already seen some change in the children. But
+are you not going to read the letter, Miss Grace?" asked Mr. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am anxious to read it, but I have learned a great deal without
+it."</p>
+
+<p>She took it up again and read without interruption to the end.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that <i>is</i> quite an explanation of your experi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>ence of yesterday,
+Mr. Hayden," explained Kate smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"And mine, too," added Grace. "It is comforting to know that there is a
+scientific reason for it though."</p>
+
+<p>"I think my darkness came earlier in the lessons, for yesterday and
+to-day have been very bright to me," replied Kate, soberly; "but," she
+continued, "there is so much about this to admire and so much to prove
+that the system is founded on Christ's teachings, I can not see where
+doubt could enter."</p>
+
+<p>"We might not doubt the principle where we would often doubt ourselves,"
+suggested Mr. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Grace, "I believe that doubts will come as long as we
+consider it a personal power."</p>
+
+<p>"Which it is not, of course," interrupted Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not, but we must grow into a realization of Truth, we can not
+change our old natures in a day, and it is only natural at first to feel
+that it is a personal power because we are given so much personal
+responsibility."</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean," said Mr. Hayden, quietly, leaning back as if
+thinking deeply. "You mean it is hard to forget self, and I agree with
+you. This mind of the flesh claims so much wisdom and power of its own
+that it is hard to attribute everything to a higher power, and let that
+power work through you; but when we can do that, we have the kernel of
+the whole system."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a wonderful thought to me, that we reflect <i>all</i> things
+spiritual, as we divest ourselves of our false beliefs," remarked Grace,
+earnestly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In other words, when we know ourselves as we are, and not as we appear,
+we shall recognize that all things we desire are already ours," added
+Mr. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"How could it be otherwise? The sun is always shining behind the darkest
+clouds. All I ask is that the ignorance may be removed," replied Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I want to understand and believe truth, but it seems strange,
+after we have declared our willingness to believe and acknowledge God to
+be all, that we should be tempted. Why couldn't our acknowledgement be
+sufficient?" queried Kate, in perplexity again.</p>
+
+<p>"Why isn't the simple act of joining the church sufficient to make
+Christians? Although some seem to think it all sufficient, it is not. It
+is the daily life of overcoming, and denial of self that constitutes
+true acknowledgement," said Grace, laying her hand upon that of her
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Not denial of self in the old way, either," said Mr. Hayden, "but
+denial of the mortal thought, or as Paul would say, the 'carnal mind.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and in the temptation of Jesus, we read our own temptations,"
+interrupted Grace, "and it is all important that we should deal with
+them as he did. Over and over he met the opposing thought, represented
+by the tempter or opposer&mdash;error always opposing truth&mdash;and gave it
+either a plain denial or an emphatic command to get out."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very plain and very true," said Kate, with a little sigh, "but
+still I can not see why God should allow us to be tempted after we have
+fought the battle once as Jesus did."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But he fought it more than once," explained Mr. Hayden, earnestly. "He
+was continually overcoming, and at times found it necessary to withdraw
+into the mountains where he fasted and prayed."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a good thought to carry home," suggested Grace, rising, "for we
+need to follow his example."</p>
+
+<p>"I need it more than anyone else," said Kate, feeling a lack of
+spiritual understanding, and wishing she could get on faster.</p>
+
+<p>"You are doing grandly Miss Kate, just think how you opposed it all at
+first," said Mr. Hayden encouragingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know I did," flushing a little, "but even thus far I have seen
+enough, or rather experienced enough to make me anxious to understand
+it, and I only ask so many questions because I am determined to get
+every speck of light I can."</p>
+
+<p>"If everybody would lay aside prejudice as you have, Miss Kate, they
+would have no difficulty in seeing the truth as you do," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>The tears came into her eyes. Neither Mr. Hayden nor Grace knew how much
+it had cost her to 'lay aside prejudice,' but she could thank God that
+she had done so, and indeed believed it was Providence that had led her
+into this study in spite of herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I want the truth," she said simply, and turned away to join Grace, who
+stood at the open door waiting for her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"People imagine that the place which the Bible holds in the world
+it owes to miracles. It owes it simply to the fact that it came out
+of a profounder depth of thought than any other book."&mdash;<i>Emerson.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, September &mdash;&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Dear husband: The first thing I heard when I went into the class to-day
+was Mrs. Dawn telling how she had treated a severe belief of headache
+last evening and how marvelously soon the terrible pain ceased. She was
+quite rejoiced because it was the first time she had tried to
+demonstrate the principles.</p>
+
+<p>"They all have plenty to tell now, and are growing more and more
+interested. Every day somebody has some new experience. Little Mrs.
+Dexter, who has been so long treated by the old method, says she fully
+believes she will be cured, is feeling much better, and has such an
+assurance all the time that she has found the true healing. She has had
+several quite remarkable demonstrations with others.</p>
+
+<p>"The whole line of argument is unfolding so naturally and beautifully
+that it seems like a piece of fine mosaic, with every form and color
+interwoven with the most exquisite exactness. Mrs. Pearl gave us a
+lecture on inspiration and the Bible, which I consider one of the most
+useful and interesting of any she has yet given:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In studying the very fountain springs of Truth, and basing our ideas
+upon a God who is the unexpressed and inexpressible essence of Truth
+itself, with whom is 'no respect of persons,' and to whom we owe <i>all</i>
+knowledge, it becomes us to inquire a little into the manner and means
+of gaining that knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"That all peoples in all climes and ages have developed similar ideas
+and expressed them in like terms, as philology shows, is an indisputable
+fact, strengthened and corroborated by our broader conception and higher
+understanding of God, the omnipresent Good.</p>
+
+<p>"But how have these ideas come to them? Have they come through what is
+known as inspiration or revelation? As the one fountain of Intelligence
+is open to all alike, this must be the case, because Truth comes only in
+this way. Inspiration means an 'inbreathing,' a breathing in of true
+knowledge, and because the omnipresent Good comes into every
+consciousness prepared to receive it, there is an inbreathing in
+accordance with the readiness to receive. Intelligence is like the air,
+to be breathed by every living being. Thus far, humanity has expanded
+its lungs of consciousness only enough to have inhaled fundamental
+truth, or what is recognized as such, but we are constantly receiving
+more, and in proportion as we receive, do we know what we receive.</p>
+
+<p>"All truth is inspired or revealed, because whatever is true is of the
+great Truth. This must be so, yet many people consider inspiration as
+confined to the authors of the Bible and that with them, inspiration
+ceased. The immortal Job said, 'There is a spirit in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> man and the
+inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.' The inbreathing
+of the Almighty, All-powerful Truth, giveth understanding. No truer
+words were ever uttered.</p>
+
+<p>"As inspiration is inhaling or breathing in Truth, we can readily
+understand that 'God, Truth, Principle, is no respecter of persons.'
+That it is a 'miraculous influence which qualifies man to receive and
+communicate divine truth,' is in a sense true, for the works of God are
+always 'wonderful,' but there can be no setting aside of divine law, as
+some erroneously suppose, for the performance of these things that seem
+unaccountable to human reason. It is a lack of understanding as to <i>how</i>
+Truth works, that has caused a belief in supernatural or miraculous
+ways. Could a fish judge according to appearances, he would regard the
+creatures that walk on land as gifted with supernatural power, because
+it would be utterly beyond his conception to know <i>how</i> they could do
+so.</p>
+
+<p>"Revelation and inspiration are frequently used interchangeably, but
+that which is revealed, is the manifested result of inspiration rather
+than inspiration itself. Whenever we are ready to breathe or absorb
+Truth into our consciousness, we get a revealment&mdash;'inspiration giveth
+understanding.' This breathing-in process lifts us above ordinary
+knowledge and gives refreshing glimpses of heavenly Truth, it is like
+breathing in fresh air, after having been in a close suffocating room.
+We say this or that scene, person or object inspires us; we mean that
+some beautiful thought or conception of Truth is revealed to us, through
+or by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> our seeing these objects, because they hint of something better
+and higher, and the moment we get the higher thought, we are conscious
+of knowing higher Truth. This is revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"Revelation and inspiration are the usual terms for expressing spiritual
+processes but are necessarily inadequate to express accurate spiritual
+meanings. How ideas are born is a question of questions. Whether they
+come from without or within, they must establish the oneness of God and
+man in mind and idea. The only 'without' there can be is that which is
+without the consciousness, the only 'within' is that which is within the
+consciousness. Development, growth, unfoldment, better express spiritual
+consciousness. What is consciousness but a recognition of itself? Then
+would not 'recognition' more fully describe the birth of ideas? As we
+grow able to recognize harmony and love, harmony and love are revealed
+to us.</p>
+
+<p>"The more spiritual our thoughts and desires, the more spiritual our
+revelations. To think and talk of God, to desire knowledge of Him,
+creates a receptivity which sooner or later brings the revealment of
+more truth, and that of the highest quality. But it is not always by
+what we see that we are lifted into this consciousness of new knowledge.
+In various ways is the Truth expressed to us, and whether we know how or
+why it should be thus and so, matters not if we receive the message.</p>
+
+<p>"The wisdom of our Father has provided that none of His children should
+be without a knowledge of Him, without a power to recognize and
+appreciate Truth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> and in the way or language best suited to the
+capacity of each to understand, are the revelations made. Sometimes this
+knowledge comes into our consciousness like a direct message from God,
+and so vividly are we impressed, that no other words could express the
+nearness and clearness of it, than the expression 'walking and talking
+with God.' Sometimes wonderful pictures appear before our mind's eye,
+and reading their symbolic meaning, we catch hints of higher wisdom that
+would otherwise have been hidden.</p>
+
+<p>"By persistently ignoring the spiritual and cultivating the intellectual
+faculties, mankind has well nigh lost the highest means of inspiration,
+but now that we again, like the prophets and apostles of old, seek for
+signs of the Infinite, we are gradually recovering the key by which they
+unlocked its mysteries.</p>
+
+<p>"As to the infallibility of what is thus revealed, we must remember that
+while truth is always infallible, there is a possibility of its
+recognition or conception being tinged to a greater or less degree, with
+our erroneous judgements, and as the light, pure in itself, is colored
+by the glass through which it passes, so is the divinest truth colored
+with the quality of mind through which it comes to the world. As Heber
+Newton says, 'Inspiration can not do away with the limitations of the
+human individuality.' Thus, in our discrimination of so-called inspired
+literature, language or thoughts, we must learn that whatever is
+opposite God, the universal idea of goodness, is the chaff that must be
+blown away. In other words it is the assumption of mortal thought
+instead of absolute knowledge of divine mind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It would be an utter impossibility to describe infinite truth in finite
+language. Words are inadequate to express the grandeur of sacred
+revelation.</p>
+
+<p>"With this view of inspiration, we can readily see how far short we have
+come in our conceptions of the Bible, and now that we are to use and
+understand this wonderful book as never before, it is well that we
+consider it a little more closely.</p>
+
+<p>"There are three general views held in regard to the Bible as an
+inspired book. 1. That it is verbally inspired; <i>i. e.</i>, that every word
+is direct from God. 2. That it is partially inspired; and, 3. That it is
+no more inspired than any other good book. The first two of these views
+have been and are accompanied with the idea that everything going under
+the name of inspiration, is infallible, hence the idea that every
+statement made throughout the entire book is absolute truth.</p>
+
+<p>"The Bible itself makes no claim to infallibility, though there are
+frequent references to inspiration and the influence of the Holy Ghost
+in moving men to speak, but the principal text on which is based this
+claim of infallibility is II. Tim. iii: 16. At the time this was
+written, there was only the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, that
+could be referred to as Scripture, so when we read Paul's assertion
+that, 'all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
+for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
+righteousness,' if we take it to be infallible, we have a reasonable
+ground for regarding the Old Testament and the Apocrypha as infallible.
+But a more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> literal rendering of the Greek text would be, 'all scripture
+divinely inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, for
+correction,' etc., and by simply changing the position of the little
+word <i>is</i>, we have a vastly different sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"Regarding the interpretation of scripture, Peter says: 'All prophecy of
+scripture is not of its own solution.' The literal Greek is, 'all
+prophecy of a writing, of its own loosing not it is,' meaning, of
+course, that sacred writings can not always be interpreted literally,
+but must be understood according to their spiritual meaning. Great
+writings are not confined to any private or local meaning, but refer
+more especially to great principles, to universal truth.</p>
+
+<p>"If we consider the origin of the Bible, we shall learn what
+comparatively few of us know, viz., how the Bible grew into a book. In a
+necessarily brief outline it is impossible to give anything but a
+bird's-eye view of this very interesting and important subject.</p>
+
+<p>"As we look back to earlier times, through the various channels, we find
+that much of what is considered history is merely legendary; that long
+before the art of writing was known, these legends and myths were handed
+down from generation to generation, and from age to age. Familiar as we
+are with human nature, we may well imagine the additions and
+subtractions and divergencies introduced by each succeeding narrator,
+copyist or editor in every age. This is a very important feature to be
+considered in interpreting ancient scriptures, but there are also
+others. History reveals the fact that the books of the Old Testament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+were not written nor arranged in the order in which they now appear in
+the Bible. For instance, while it has been generally considered that the
+first five books were written by Moses fifteen hundred years before
+Christ, the best authorities have found at least a portion of them to
+have been written, or compiled rather, in their present form 600 to 700
+B. C.</p>
+
+<p>"Whether Moses or some one else wrote them detracts not the least from
+the value of the truth they contain, for whatever is true, can not lose
+its value or be effected by the authorship. This is only one of the many
+facts that might be produced to show that the Old Testament came in the
+most natural way, and not at all through a miracle or by miraculous
+interposition.</p>
+
+<p>"Referring again to the best records we have, we find the books of the
+New Testament were written from 50 to 175 A. D., thus showing the
+liability to mistakes, and the reason for many of the discrepencies in
+the New Testament. That the time between the writing of the oldest and
+the latest parts of the Bible covered a period of more than a thousand
+years, should have much significance in our judgment of both the writers
+and their writings.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Heber Newton says: 'We are not to read the Biblical writers as
+though they were all cotemporaries. They are separated by vast tracts of
+time. The later writers stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors
+and see farther and clearer. We are not to view the institutions or
+doctrines of the Bible as though no matter in what period of development
+of the Hebrew Nation, or of the Christian Church they were found, they
+were equally authoritative to us.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Though the prophets and apostles were inspired, we must remember that
+they necessarily had to use the language and methods of speech prevalent
+in their time in giving their divinest revelations to the people. The
+language was rich with Oriental imagery, strong figures of speech, and
+allusions to manners and customs of other nations. Unless we understand
+something of the literature and customs, the religious ceremonies and
+laws alluded to, we are very much in the dark as to the original
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"For instance, unless we know the custom that prevailed in ancient times
+of putting the sins of the people, figuratively speaking, into a white
+cloth, dipping the cloth into blood, tying it to the horns of the
+scapegoat, and turning the animal loose in the wilderness till the sun,
+air and rain had bleached it white, we can not appreciate the
+expression, 'though thy sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be washed
+white as snow.' Until we realize that the ideas and language as well as
+the customs and rites of barbarous and ignorant heathendom influence
+every page of the Bible, we shall not know how much allowance to make
+for the revelations of the Divine, and the suppositions and possible
+mistakes of the human. Until we know that the Bible has gone through
+many hands since its words were first spoken or written, we can not
+realize the possible loss of its most spiritual meanings.</p>
+
+<p>"Moses, Isaiah, David, John, Paul had the grandest revelations possible
+to man, experiences not 'lawful to utter,' not possible to clothe in
+words. The unspeakable can not be put into speech. To attempt it is to
+color it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> with finite meanings. To describe the Infinite is but to limit
+or confine God.</p>
+
+<p>"When we consider that no very ancient writings have reached us without
+the marks of many pens; when we consider the impossibility of exact
+translation, the difficulty of perfect copying all the years before the
+art of printing, the method of canonizing the books and formulating
+creeds, we must know that something besides God's message has come down
+to us. And yet a message is there notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the authors of the Bible were inspired. Whatever of Truth they
+revealed is infallible, but as men with finite conceptions and
+abilities, they could not comprehend nor reveal <i>all</i> of God.</p>
+
+<p>"'God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' and talks to man face
+to face to-day even as with the immortal Moses.</p>
+
+<p>"'I know that the Bible is inspired, because it finds me at greater
+depths of my being than any other book,' said Coleridge.</p>
+
+<p>"All candid students of sacred Scriptures agree that there is a
+spiritual meaning back of the literal. The question with us is, how can
+we get at this spiritual or esoteric interpretation.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will let the spirit of Truth guide you, it will bless you with
+keener discernment, and clearer understanding, than has been possible
+for you heretofore. It is when you look for the spirit of religion that
+you find it and understand it, and the fact that so much has been said
+against our Bible as a book, does not and can not detract a particle
+from its value.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'There is a light that lighteth every man!' Every one of God's children
+has the power to distinguish truth from error, and only needs to assert
+that divine privilege of knowing and acknowledging truth in order to to
+find it.</p>
+
+<p>"Humanity is so under the yoke of traditional opinions that it has not
+dared think for itself, but the time has come when 'ye shall of
+yourselves know what is truth,' when each must prove his individual
+liberty by claiming it. Is not the wisdom to know and understand God's
+revelations given to every one who asks, or rather appreciates what he
+already has?</p>
+
+<p>"There is no reason for depending upon any but the wisdom in ourselves,
+for searching the meanings of any Scripture. Whatever is true, we shall
+understand and hold as infallible. That we have a rich storehouse of
+precious gems, even the most adverse thinkers admit, and above all else
+we should search for them, prize them, and use them. Study the Bible for
+the sake of its wonderful and sacred truth, catch the inspiration of its
+writers, and you will soon discriminate the inspired from the
+uninspired. With the statements of the true is necessarily more or less
+error; the Truth we want, the falsity we leave behind. Whatever is good
+and pure and ennobling is of God; whatever is evil, erroneous,
+degrading, is from man's misconception of Him.</p>
+
+<p>"Goethe, who highly valued the Bible, said: 'With reference to things in
+the Bible, the question whether they are genuine or spurious is odd
+enough. What is genuine but that which is truly excellent, which stands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+in harmony with the purest nature and reason, and which even now
+ministers to our higher development? What is spurious but the absurd and
+the hollow which brings no fruit.'</p>
+
+<p>"If you do not understand, wait. Do not judge hastily or allow yourself
+to be biased by the opinions of others. What may seem hard, unreasonable
+dogma, may later prove but a veil over the sweetest, spiritual truth.
+Reverence to read, patience to learn, wisdom to understand&mdash;all these we
+want, and then, more brightly than before shall shine the sacred
+diamonds that stud inspired pages.</p>
+
+<p>"We refer again to what Dr. Newton says in his grand essay on the Right
+Critical use of the Bible: 'Successive generations of men, struggling
+with sin, striving for purity, searching after God, have exhaled their
+spirits into the essence of religion, which is treasured in this costly
+vase.</p>
+
+<p>"'The moral forces of centuries devoted to righteousness are stored in
+this exhaustless reservoir of ethical energy. At such cost, my brothers,
+has Humanity issued this sacred book. From such patience of preparation
+has Providence laid this priceless gift before you. In such labor of
+articulation&mdash;spelling out the syllables of the message from on high,
+through multitudinous lives of men dutifully and devoutly walking with
+their God, does the Spirit speak to you, O, soul of man. Say thou:
+'Speak, Lord; thy servant heareth!'"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Thank God, Marion has at last found the key to the Bible," murmured Mr.
+Hayden, as he finished the letter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Not in Jerusalem alone,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">God hears and answers prayer,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nor on Samaria's mountain lone,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dispenses blessings there.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But in the secrecy of thought,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our silent souls may pray;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Or round the household altar brought,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Begin and close the day."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>James Montgomery.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Grace was busily engaged with "Hypatia." She felt for the first time she
+could bring out the peace and reposeful strength of character Kate had
+thought so sadly lacking, and one afternoon, a few days after the
+memorable walk, she sat down to her work with a pleasurable anticipation
+of bringing out her ideal. As she put the touches here and there that
+changed the expression, now adding to this feature, now taking from
+that, she was thinking of the changes needed in herself, and wondering
+how or by what process they would be wrought by the invisible Artist.</p>
+
+<p>She was mixing some paint on her palette, when a rap was heard at the
+door. Before she had time to say or do anything, in walked Mrs. Dyke
+with a timid little woman who came in like a martyr, but one resolved to
+die at her post if necessary. Grace was too astonished to speak for an
+instant, then rising, she put down her palette, wiped her hands and went
+forward with an invitation to the ladies to be seated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Is this Miss Turner?" began Mrs. Dyke, with a critical glance about the
+apartment, and then at Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam, Miss Turner is not in. She generally returns about five, but
+to-day&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, we can come again, for it is very important business. Are
+you the young woman who lives with her?" asked Mrs. Dyke, as she seated
+herself with deliberate dignity. "This is Mrs. Linberger, and we have
+called as the church committee to look after Miss Turner's soul," she
+continued, waving her hand majestically toward her companion-in-arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed," gasped Grace, bowing slightly toward Mrs. Linberger, and
+coughing a little as she put her handkerchief to her mouth to hide a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"She belongs to our church, and we have heard she is being led astray by
+this blasphemous kind of healing," pursued Mrs. Dyke, looking severely
+at Grace from under her thick grey veil which hung like a lowering cloud
+just above her eyes. "Mr. Narrow requested me and Mrs. Linberger to call
+and examine into the matter. I hope <i>you</i> don't encourage such
+wickedness, young woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly I am at enmity with any kind of wickedness, but I am not
+aware of any particular wickedness in Christian Healing," replied Grace,
+bracing herself for the storm she saw brewing.</p>
+
+<p>"What! you don't see anything wrong in such awful heresy!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Dyke, again pushing her veil up, and looking with horrified eyes,
+first at Grace, then at Mrs. Linberger. "Perhaps you don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> understand
+about it," she added, softening a little as she settled back in her
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>"I must confess I know but very little about it, but what I do know only
+increases my desire to know more," said Grace, flushing, as she sat down
+in the nearest chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me warn you not to read or hear another word about it then, for it
+will simply be the means of worse than death to you," continued Mrs.
+Dyke, raising her finger solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>"It destroys the most important doctrines in the Bible, even taking away
+the belief in the devil and hell," added Mrs. Linberger, speaking for
+the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; they even deny there ever was a devil or that there ever will be
+any future punishment. Just think of it," reiterated Mrs. Dyke. "I guess
+they will see, some time!" she added with a sort of steely satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really believe they lay aside all future punishment?" asked
+Grace, willing to waive the application to herself, and anxious to hear
+Mrs. Dyke's views.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, they say there is no evil and no devil, so of course there is no
+need for punishment."</p>
+
+<p>"But do they not regard the devil as Jesus did, after all?" asked Grace,
+again pursuing her advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"U-m, well, Jesus recognized him and talked to him, telling him to get
+out, and he often referred to the everlasting punishment," added Mrs.
+Dyke again, with a solemn face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, he did not mean a literal fire, did he, when He spoke of
+everlasting punishment?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dyke was the catechized instead of the catechizer, and it was an
+unaccustomed <i>role</i>, but she bore it like a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he did; several places in Matthew he described the lot of the
+wicked, and referred to the danger of hell-fire. Haven't you studied the
+Bible, Miss Hall?" suddenly turning to look straight at Grace with some
+severity.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very much interested in it, Mrs. Dyke, but when I read that 'God's
+mercy endureth forever,' and that 'Jesus came to destroy the works of
+the devil,' I am inclined to think there must be some mistake about the
+dreadful wrath that is to last forever," calmly replied Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"And you don't believe in eternal punishment?" cried Mrs. Dyke, in a
+shrill voice of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't believe in eternal punishment?" echoed Mrs. Linberger.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say that. I <i>do</i> think there is punishment so long as there
+is sin, but when we believe Christ has destroyed or can destroy sin,
+sickness, sorrow or death, which are the devil's works, they <i>will be</i>
+destroyed. It <i>must</i> be so if we trust the words of the gospel."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am thankful to find Miss Turner in such Christian company at
+any rate," said Mrs. Dyke, as she adjusted her veil, preparatory to her
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed; it is a pleasure to see such an earnest young Christian,"
+added Mrs. Linberger, with a sigh of satisfaction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, ladies," began Grace, "I am not such a&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall be pleased to have you accompany Miss Turner to our meetings
+some time, Miss Hall," interrupted Mrs. Dyke, not heeding what Grace was
+saying. "Here is a card announcing the regular weekly services, and here
+are some tracts for you to read." She dealt out a liberal supply, which
+Grace took as she again started to explain, but a sudden haste had
+seized her visitors, and they left, saying they would try and call some
+other time, when Miss Turner was at home.</p>
+
+<p>As Grace turned to go back to her painting, she caught a glance of her
+reflection in the glass. After looking at it a moment with a quizzical
+expression, she suddenly burst into a merry laugh, saying: "I did not
+know you had turned Bible teacher. Well, well, it <i>was</i> funny, but I
+could not help it, that she went away with the wrong impression of me,
+for she would not listen to my explanation."</p>
+
+<p>When Kate came home she brought another letter from Mrs. Hayden, but
+before it was read Grace told her all about the call by the "church
+committee." Kate looked a little grave at first, but finally
+straightening up as she took off her gloves and hat, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Grace, it is not very pleasant to be waited upon in this fashion,
+but I suppose if they take me in hand I can't help myself, and so I will
+be resigned to fate." She smiled and spoke cheerily, but a little tremor
+of the old fear touched her, notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us read the letter now," suggested Grace, thinking that would be
+the best thing to revive Kate's dampened courage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am anxious to read it; Mr. Hayden told me it is on the Bible,
+and very helpful."</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad!" she exclaimed, when it was finished. "Now I can
+interpret more freely myself, as I plainly see we must use our judgment
+about the Bible, as well as anything else. But what does it mean about
+the creeds?" she added suddenly, appealing to Grace with the old anxious
+look in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It means," said Grace, "that the ordinary orthodox interpretation of
+doctrinal points was voted upon by bishops, presbyters and laity
+generally, and because the majority of votes indicated a preference for
+a certain interpretation, it was adopted and became the established
+creed, and thus we have what is called the Apostles' Creed, which is the
+basis of all orthodox churches throughout Christendom. And so with all
+creeds; they are all established by majority vote."</p>
+
+<p>"I should never have known anything about this," she continued, "if I
+had not been searching so eagerly for some religion that would satisfy,
+and in my rambles I came across this information."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure it is reliable?" was Kate's almost feverish question. It
+seemed that she must hold on to something or the last straw that bound
+her to the teachings of childhood, would break.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a matter of history, and you see Mrs. Hayden has touched upon it,
+though very lightly. But it is the grandest historical truth I ever
+read, for it gives personal liberty. I shall never forget how happy I
+was to learn that the creeds were simply man-made or man-expressed
+opinions, for in that case, I too, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> liberty to read and think for
+myself, just as well as those who voted upon these various
+interpretations."</p>
+
+<p>Grace was handsome when filled with enthusiasm, and as Kate looked at
+her at this moment she thought her face perfectly angelic, but one more
+question she must ask of this noble friend, who knew just what she
+needed to know and could tell it when she needed it most. "Do you think
+Christian Healing does away with the creeds of the church?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not necessarily. So far as I can see, it merely seeks truth, and
+whatever of truth is found anywhere is retained. It is only the husks
+that are thrown away. Indeed I can see more in the church than I ever
+could before I knew anything of Christian Healing," replied Grace,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how is that?" asked Kate in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"The fundamental oneness in their search after God. What is back of the
+creed but a desire to reverence Deity? That was the origin, no matter
+into what it has degenerated now, and we must judge according to the
+spirit, not the letter. Oh, when will the world worship in the unity of
+the spirit?" sighed Grace, longing for the time when questionings and
+controversies would be at an end.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is Mrs. Dyke, for instance," she resumed, presently, "what is she
+striving for but to live the true religion as she understands it? I can
+respect any honest people who live up to their belief, and the Christian
+who moans and sighs and looks doleful because he thinks it is his duty
+to do so, is much higher in my estimation than the one who believes it
+to be right, but fails to live accordingly."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The spirit of religion washes away all differences in the letter,"
+concluded Kate, with a lighter heart than she had when they began their
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>The vague terror that had occasionally thrust itself upon her during
+these last few weeks had loosened its hold upon her, and she realized,
+as never before, that fear, more than anything else, had kept her back;
+fear of deviating from the traditional and accepted opinions. The Bible
+lesson was especially valuable, because it touched these very points,
+and after this little conversation with Grace on the subject she was
+like another person.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Dyke called a few evenings later, after a similar interview to
+the one with Grace, she left the battlefield a wiser soldier than when
+she entered it, for Kate had so beautifully proven her religious
+earnestness, and more than all had shown such a Christ-like spirit, that
+the "sword was beaten into a plowshare and the spear into a pruning
+hook."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"More things are wrought by prayer</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Rise like a fountain for me night and day,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">For what are men better than sheep or goats</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That nourish a blind life within the brain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Both for themselves and those who call them friend?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">For so the whole round world is every way</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Tennyson.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, September, &mdash;&mdash;.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Husband:</p>
+
+<p>"Your letter was so full of interest. How glad, oh how rejoiced I am
+that we are privileged to know this beautiful truth. Don't you ever feel
+like stopping in the midst of your work and giving thanks that you were
+born in this age? As my eyes open more and more to God's goodness and
+love and power, I am so full of thanks, there is no room for petitions;
+indeed, I should feel as though I were begging, to ask God for what He
+has already given me, and of course He gives every child alike, being
+'no respecter of persons.' Just think of it: 'Eye hath not seen nor ear
+heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the
+things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' Negative
+thought, carnal mind <i>can not</i> know these things, but as we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+cleansed and purified, the new baptism 'creates in us a new heart,' the
+loving child's heart turned to its father, and love shall teach us more
+and more to read the signs of love.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, divine mystery of childhood, of parenthood, that brings us into
+closer and sweeter knowledge of our Father whose love is infinite. Out
+of the deep silence around us, filled as it is with the all-abiding
+presence of God, may we ask for a manifestation of whatever gift we
+choose to have. These thoughts filled my mind as I went to class this
+afternoon, and what was my surprise and pleasure to find the lesson to
+be on the subject of prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no theme or word so constantly in the mind and on the lips of
+the Christ follower as prayer. The oft-repeated injunction of Jesus was,
+'watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.' 'Pray without ceasing.'
+As we study more closely into the life of the Master, we find him on all
+occasions communing with the Father in prayer. Thus we find that this is
+the most sacred and necessary of all branches of our daily work.</p>
+
+<p>"Prayer is the natural turning of the better self to God, in the
+attitude of thankfulness, praise, supplication or voiceless desire. 'It
+must be the spontaneous and almost irrepressible outpouring of the
+thoughts and feelings of the soul into the listening ear of a present
+God,' said an earnest thinker.</p>
+
+<p>"To what wonderful depths and heights our prayers lead us when they are
+thus spontaneous and irrepressible! How well David has expressed the
+grati<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>tude, the holy trust and majestic praise common to every devout
+child of God. 'The Lord is my shepherd,' is blessed affirmation of
+supreme trust, the naming of God's glorious gifts, the gratitude for
+peace, life, love, protection, friendship, all the heavenly blessings of
+God's presence in God's house. In this wonderful psalm we find, no
+doubt, no thought of waiting for future blessings, but a grand
+outpouring of thankfulness for the present. There are no petitions, no
+supplications, no reserves of praise, but simply the glad recognition
+and appreciation of the omnipresence and omnipotence of Good.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the same feeling, tempered with a deeper solemnity, that
+prompted Jesus to say 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,' as
+he was about to perform the mighty miracle of raising Lazarus.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks signify the accomplishment of the desire. His request of the
+Father was granted before he had even preferred it, for he knew the law
+and realized it&mdash;that God is life and knows not death&mdash;but the form of
+words was observed because that makes the law a visible fact.</p>
+
+<p>"Father is the human naming for this divine Love that ever waits for the
+spoken word in order to be revealed. To Jesus it was the dearest and
+best name of all by which to address or speak to the one great Helper,
+Guide, Friend. 'Father, I thank thee,' was often on his lips, and it was
+to the 'Father who seeth in secret' that he bade his disciples pray.</p>
+
+<p>"In the secret consciousness of oneness with the Father there may be no
+reservations, no concealments,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> no hypocritical bigotry, no thought of
+self, only a glad going out with all our heart and soul to the Father, a
+trustful acknowledgment of the Good. This is the attitude of true
+prayer.</p>
+
+<p>"The devout soul is always praying, because it <i>consciously</i> lives with
+God. There are times of praise, adoration, extolment, when thankfulness
+is more exuberant, runs over into bursting joy, and times when longing
+desire carries us into the very bosom of God. We long for comfort, for
+love, for peace, with an unutterable agony of longing, and are met with
+an unutterable joy of satisfaction, if we but turn to Him and
+acknowledge, but an indispensable preliminary to prayer is fasting. The
+power of accomplishment in fasting and prayer equals a decree.</p>
+
+<p>"The conditions upon which hinge our use of the divine power are,
+first,'putting away iniquity'&mdash;fasting; second, turning to God&mdash;prayer.
+Then comes the power to decree; then we see the truth of Jesus' promise:
+'All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have
+received them, and ye shall have them.' Then we look into the face of
+the Almighty and reflect the same power, are able to do a like work,
+make visible the things of His creation by speaking the word of
+acknowledgment, that they are already established.</p>
+
+<p>"It was this kind of prayer that enabled the disciples to heal the sick,
+cast out demons and do all the wonderful works. Failure was simply a
+sign of unfaithfulness in prayer. 'Oh, ye of little faith!' was the
+Master's explanatory exclamation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here was a most essential requisite&mdash;faith in the Father, who alone is
+the power; faith and trust in the invisible All. Why do we pray so much
+with no answer to even our most devout aspirations? Because, like the
+disciples, we have too little faith.</p>
+
+<p>"The heart-weary mother has prayed for her son, and he still goes the
+'broad way that leadeth to destruction,' as she thinks; but for her
+heart-weariness, which is but lack of faith, he might have been turned
+into 'paths of righteousness.' With her mind continually burdened with
+fear, dire forebodings and anxious doubts, she has asked, begged,
+beseeched the mighty Ruler of destinies to soften the heart of her
+wayward boy. Thankfulness that God has given to her child the common
+inheritance to all possible blessings, a pure spiritual nature, the
+reflection of the All-Good, has never entered her thought to express.
+Her mind is divided between a conception of good and a conception of its
+opposite&mdash;evil. The result is years of hopeless praying, years of
+hopeless waiting. 'A house divided against itself can not stand.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Pray, believing that ye have received.' Thus, 'I thank Thee, Father,
+for the perfect reflection of Thyself in my son. He is whole because he
+lives in and of Thy wholeness. I thank Thee that Thou hast already done
+more than I could ask. 'It is finished.' Into Thy hands I commend my
+all.'</p>
+
+<p>"In this is the simple recognition of the All-Father, His love and His
+omnipotence. And after this, what? Trust&mdash;unwavering, childlike trust.
+So the burden is truly 'cast upon the Lord,' evil is overcome, swallowed
+up in the Good.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"With such mighty faith, what a cleansing there would be! what a
+sincere, glad rejoicing that the true relation between God and man were
+proven, for faith is the bond between the invisible and the visible, a
+'basis of things hoped for, a conviction of things unseen.'</p>
+
+<p>"With what devoutness, then, would we name the needs and aspirations?
+With what certainty would we assert that we have 'already received?' Not
+far off in the intangible somewhere, but here, there, everywhere may we
+find the Good, and 'he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
+High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.'</p>
+
+<p>"To dwell in the secret place, in the pure and righteous thought, is to
+be always under the protection of the Most High. To be able to say, 'He
+is my refuge and my fortress,' is the grand privilege given to the heir
+of the King, the heir that has come to the full knowledge of his
+inheritance and thankfully uses it.</p>
+
+<p>"'The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,' wrote
+the wise and righteous James. There is an infinite promise of the
+fulfillment of righteousness in these words. They contain the key to all
+accomplishment or all failure. The righteous man is one who 'walketh
+righteously, speaketh uprightly, stoppeth his ears from hearing of
+blood, shutteth his eyes from seeing evil' (prayer and fasting). The
+righteous man decrees magnificently and trusts infinitely. He does not
+approach God like a cringing servant, licking the dust at his master's
+feet, but like a Prince who enters his Father's presence with the simple
+statement of his wants, and knowing his Father's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> will takes the
+glorious gift with thanksgiving and praise.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it health he would have manifested for himself or his neighbor? He
+confidently acknowledges the health, even though he can not see it, the
+health with which all humanity is endowed, if it would claim its
+endowment. Is it peace, power, strength he desires, he again goes to the
+royal treasury. With the right word he climbs the stair of heaven; with
+the right faith he enters his Father's house, where all things abound.</p>
+
+<p>"The righteous man is of one mind, the divine Mind that works through
+him. Were all the praying world of one mind, think you a Lincoln would
+have been martyred, a Garfield sacrificed, or tender little children
+lost to our sight?</p>
+
+<p>"God is the same forever. There is no inharmony to come from Harmony. Be
+of one mind; let the divine Mind work through you; acknowledge only the
+divine creation, and then all beliefs in the opposite of God will be
+destroyed. The immaculate Christ (Truth) destroys the works of the evil
+(error) to-day, even as in the far away centuries of the past, 'if so be
+you let the Mind that was in Christ Jesus be in you.'</p>
+
+<p>"The practical naming of daily prayer is denial and affirmation, denying
+evil or undesirable conditions, and acknowledging the Good or absolute.</p>
+
+<p>"'Being is the vast affirmative excluding negation, self-balanced and
+swallowing up all relations, parts and times within itself. Nature,
+truth, virtue, are the influx from thence,' said Emerson, noting the
+absolute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>ness of that which is. To become one with this affirmative
+Allness, is to manifest the affirmative condition of Being.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul says in Titus: 'The grace of God hath appeared to all men,
+teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live
+soberly, righteously and godly in this present world;' and in the next
+chapter, referring to the same subject: 'This is a faithful saying, and
+these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which hath
+believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.'</p>
+
+<p>"There is no ceasing of this most necessary process. It is only by
+denying and affirming constantly that we fast and pray, thus fitting
+ourselves for the cleansing ministry. It is to 'be diligent in season
+and out of season,' if we would gain the true reflection from
+Omnipotence.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What the sun is to the flower,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou to us art every hour;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like the dew on lily's breast</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Fall all blessings from the Best.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Not alone in day would we</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Turn our faces, Lord, to Thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But through lowering clouds of night</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Would reflect Thy radiant light;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thanking Thee for all Thy care,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">May our lives be filled with prayer.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"What an outpouring there was in the silence after this. Such a flood of
+reverence and trustfulness filled my heart, and instantly it flashed
+upon me that God requires no outward forms or ceremonies of His
+children, except they be the spontaneous and involuntary expression of
+an overflowing heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Kneeling in prayer was first prompted by reverence and not the servile
+form into which it has too much degenerated. A form is only a sign at
+best. If there is nothing to prompt the sign, what a mockery it is!
+Truly, 'the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.'</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly how these thoughts came to me I can not tell, but after the
+silence I knew by a great and sudden wave of understanding, things that
+I had never thought of before, and to attempt to tell them would be like
+trying to catch the sunshine. The hint I have tried to give seems very
+far from the reality of my experience&mdash;but what are words compared to
+thoughts, anyway!... My heart is too full. I know now what
+'inexpressible' means.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Good bye, with love to all.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"<span class="smcap">Marion.</span></span>
+</p>
+
+<p>"P. S. I had just finished my letter when Mrs. Dawn and Miss Singleton
+came in. They too, had something wonderful in the silence. It seems too
+sacred to tell, but to you three who are so earnestly seeking the way of
+Truth, I can say what might seem sacrilege to the thoughtless world.
+Miss Singleton had realized in those few moments the inexpressible
+meaning of the Lord's prayer. 'Why,' she said, 'why, if we could realize
+what it means, there would be no more sickness, sin or death. It seemed
+to me the very heavens opened, and I looked upon a broad white shining
+light like a path, only it was broadened and broadened as I looked, till
+it became wide enough to cover the whole earth. This is to be wherever
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> kingdom has come upon earth. Wherever the thoughts are heavenly and
+pure there the Father is, there heaven, wholeness, health are, and I
+could realize that the light is here, but ignorance keeps it veiled, so
+that verily the 'light shineth in darkness but the darkness
+comprehendeth it not.' Talk of sickness, trouble, sorrow, why, they are
+nothing! The <i>light</i> is here, the kingdom of heaven <i>has</i> come, and been
+here all the time. Jesus knew it, but he had to use language they could
+understand. He knew if they prayed faithfully in that spirit, bye and
+bye the spiritual meanings would flash upon them. Oh, how much, how much
+it means! I can never lose this, for it means unutterable things, and I
+<i>know</i> there is no reality in sickness for I am <i>well</i>!'</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Singleton is, or has been troubled for years with heart disease
+and a slight curvature of the spine.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not very light in the room, and I had not noticed her figure
+particularly, but as she spoke, her face fairly shone with a heavenly
+light (I can think of nothing else to describe it), and she was straight
+as any one! She declared over and over that she was well, but more than
+all else she appreciated the spiritual uplifting and knowledge that had
+come.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Dawn had no special revelation to-day, but she seems to be
+unfolding most beautifully. We talked a long time, and then sat in the
+silence. They have just gone. How I wish I could see you, but it is late
+and I must again close. Give my love to Grace and Kate. I am so glad
+Kate is getting into the light. I felt she would be all right after she
+begun. Of course, Kate, you will read this, but you will not care, I am
+sure.</p>
+
+<p class="author">"M. H."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Not till the soul acts with all its strength, strains its every
+faculty, does prayer begin."&mdash;<i>Frances Power Cobbe.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>"I have always thought a great deal on the subject of prayer," said Mr.
+Hayden, drawing his chair up closer and bending over to look at his
+listeners, Grace and Kate, who had called to get the letter which had
+just been read, "and it appears to me," he continued, "that subject has
+been misunderstood."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" interrogated Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we have always been taught to pray to a God who could be informed
+of our wants and needs, and be induced to change His mind about the
+method of dealing with them, or be softened in His judgments concerning
+His children. Now if God is all-wise and all-powerful, why need we so
+carefully instruct Him? If He is all Love why need we ask Him with
+piteous tears to bless our sick and afflicted? If He is everywhere
+present, and no respecter of persons, why need we ask Him to do for one
+more than for another? As God is omniscient, is He not all the knowledge
+there is?"</p>
+
+<p>"The great mistake has been to regard Deity as Person, instead of
+Principle," said Grace, as he paused a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"As God is changeless and eternal, the essence of Love and Life," he
+went on, not heeding the interrup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>tion, "how can it be otherwise than
+that we have an influx of this divine Life into ourselves as we
+acknowledge its eternal and omnipresent existence, realizing the truth
+of what we say?"</p>
+
+<p>"There the trouble has been," said Kate, taking up his thought, "that we
+have not realized the divine Presence which we call Truth, because we
+have not acknowledged it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly the reason, and it needs a constant acknowledgment of
+the Good to keep us from admitting false beliefs that beset us because
+of an acknowledgment of the opposite of the Good."</p>
+
+<p>"What then is your idea of the true method of prayer?" asked Kate, much
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"More of thanksgiving, as Mrs. Pearl teaches. I like her comparison to
+the servant and prince. We can not dwell too much on the thought that
+God is always giving us blessings. They are here, have been from the
+beginning of all knowledge, and our part is to take them. I often think
+of that comparison between the earthly and the heavenly Father, given by
+Jesus, when he said: 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
+gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
+heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?' Here is Mabel, for
+instance. Passionately fond of flowers as she is, suppose some day I
+should bring her a rare bouquet from the florist's, and with a smile
+hold them out to her, saying: 'Here Mabel, are some roses for you!' How
+would I feel if she came with the most pathetic expression of longing
+and misery in her face, and dropping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> down on her knees, should beg me
+to give her one flower? But instead, like a true child that knows the
+father love, she would fly to take the beautiful gift and say, 'Oh,
+thank you, papa!' as she gives me a rapturous kiss, then runs for a vase
+to hold her treasures."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, that is like the true child we all should become, and give
+thanks for the beautiful gifts of God," said Kate, softly, as if to
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of the Lord's prayer as it was revealed to the lady?"
+asked Grace, to whom this part of the letter seemed a little hard to
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I think her revelation far exceeds mine, but I have enough to know that
+it is as she says: 'We must finally get the inner meaning, but I would
+uncover the spiritual ideas by clothing them in more spiritual
+language.'</p>
+
+<p>"It would be a great help if you would interpret it for us," said Kate,
+moving her chair closer in her eagerness to hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a moment," said Mr. Hayden, as he went for the Bible. "I don't
+know very well how to word it, but the thought came to me this morning,
+and became much plainer after I had read the letter."</p>
+
+<p>He read the Lord's Prayer, then gave his conception of the spiritual
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"All-pervading Father-Mother Spirit, which art in all harmony, revered
+and holy is Thy name. Thy peace and love and righteousness is conceived
+and realized amid earthly environments as it is in the highest state of
+harmony.</p>
+
+<p>"Give to us each day the hidden manna, the living word that sustains us,
+and give us the truth for error as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> we in our divine likeness to Thee,
+give truth for error to those who err against us.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave or let us not in temptation, but preserve us from all thoughts
+that would dishonor Thee, for Thine <i>is</i> the kingdom and power and glory
+forever."</p>
+
+<p>"That is wonderful. Oh, how beautiful it all is," exclaimed Kate with
+much feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it?" added Grace, "and quite in accord with the passage quoted by
+Mrs. Hayden,'what things soever ye desire, that&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Same principle, recognizing the omnipresence of all things good, and
+acknowledging the gift as already given," interrupted Mr. Hayden,
+shutting his book and rising to put it away.</p>
+
+<p>"How would you construe the passage where it says, 'with prayer and
+supplication let your requests be made known to God?'" asked Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but you have not quoted it all: 'With prayer and supplication, with
+thanksgiving let your requests be made known,'" replied Mr. Hayden,
+smiling. "It means, continue to ask, and expect to receive and give
+thanks, not only by word, but by proper use of what you already have.
+'If ye continue in my word,' was the condition, so it must be that we
+continue to ask and give thanks, even if our petition is not visibly
+answered at once."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hayden had some advantage in his study over the girls, for these
+things had been more or less considered by himself and Mrs. Hayden ever
+since her recovery, and it was no wonder he could explain so readily.</p>
+
+<p>"After all, how would you apply this way of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> praying to giving
+treatments?" asked Grace. "I am anxious for the practical application."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is all practical, as far as the individual is concerned, but
+the application to others we have yet to learn, though I imagine it is
+the same. It is simply being negative to false conditions, thus putting
+them off, and affirmative to true conditions, absorbing them as the
+flower does the light and heat."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is a beautiful idea of prayer at any rate," remarked Grace.</p>
+
+<p>They soon went home, still discussing and deeply pondering the subject.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Grace, what do you suppose I did to-day?" cried Kate, breathlessly, as
+she rushed in the next evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't imagine, unless you cured little Tim, the newsboy," laughed
+Grace, making her guess extravagant enough.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but really, I treated Fannie for a dreadful headache. Of course I
+said nothing to her, but she was stumbling so over her music, I asked
+her what was the matter, and when she told me I treated her. In just a
+few moments she brightened up and said she felt better, and before we
+got through it was all gone. Wasn't that delightful?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very, and I am so glad. How did you do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can hardly tell, but the talk we had yesterday with Mr. Hayden
+gave me a clearer idea than I had before, and I just denied the headache
+and acknowledged the truth that she was spiritually well; then waited a
+few moments and gave thanks that it was so."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How glad we ought to be for the privilege of reading Mrs. Hayden's
+letters," said Grace, thoughtfully, as she smoothed her hair and washed
+her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and what a goose I was about it," Kate replied. "I would scarcely
+take the chance when it was offered, and if it had been any one but Mrs.
+Hayden, I do believe I should have refused point blank."</p>
+
+<p>"We know so little what is right when we judge in the old way," said
+Grace. "Now, if I actually hadn't seen that woman cured, and known
+positively how she was before, nothing would have induced me to spend my
+time on this, although, from the first, I rather liked the theory."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my gingham apron?" called Kate, looking in the dark closet
+where she had hung it.</p>
+
+<p>"Kate, I'm thoroughly reformed, as you will know when I tell you I am
+perfectly willing to perform the culinary duties to-night, and I will be
+the cook while you discourse some music for my edification," laughed
+Grace, as she emerged from the studio with her sleeves rolled back, and
+the lost apron pinned around her.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Kate, holding up both hands with a mock-tragic air. "Do
+you really mean it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, and I will show you what a talent I have for poaching eggs
+and making toast."</p>
+
+<p>The girls were in the habit of dividing their work according to their
+personal tastes. Kate liked to prepare dainty meals and wash dishes,
+while Grace preferred to sweep and dust, and arrange things to suit her
+artistic eye. Each disliked the other's part of the work, so they were
+well content to have it so divided.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go on, now," ordered Grace, "and play for me. I want some music; but,
+first of all, tell me where the eggs are, and how long should they
+boil?"</p>
+
+<p>"The eggs are in the tin pail on the third shelf in the closet. They
+should boil till they are a pretty blue white."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, now I can dispense with your company."</p>
+
+<p>Kate laughed merrily, and sitting down to the piano, played till Grace
+called her out to dine.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems rather nice to come home and play lady," she remarked, as she
+went out where Grace was.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, Kate, I was thinking this afternoon that there is not so
+much difference in the kinds of work as there is in the thoughts you
+have when you work, and I resolved, that to refrain from certain duties
+because one does not like them is selfish, and makes a person one-sided.
+Then I could see no reason why I should dislike to cook, and concluded
+to try it."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you are right about the one-sidedness," said Kate, soberly.</p>
+
+<p>"I do want to grow into a rounded character, and am just realizing the
+necessity of doing things that lie nearest us, whether it is washing
+dishes, painting or scrubbing. If I get so I can think right about
+things I'm sure I shall like them."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true. I have already noticed a vast difference in my patience
+in giving lessons. You know some days I would be so nervous and get so
+exasperated with Fannie Thornton and Jenny Miles, I didn't know what to
+do with myself, but the last few days I have not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> minded them at all, in
+fact I got along better with Fannie than ever before, and it was just
+because I kept from thinking she was contrary and stupid."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is a practical application of your lesson. I think we ought
+to apply it to everything we do," replied Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the chief beauties of this Christianity is that it goes into
+every thought and action," said Kate, thoughtfully, adjusting her hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she added a moment later, "I forgot to give you the letter that
+came to-day." She pulled it out of her pocket all crumpled and gave it
+to Grace, who glanced at her name on the envelope and then grew white
+about the mouth as she hastily put it into her pocket, remarking in an
+ordinary tone, "It will keep a little longer."</p>
+
+<p>Little was said by either for some time. Grace was preoccupied and Kate
+furtively watched her face, for this was an unaccountable procedure,
+although occasionally Grace had been affected the same way before.</p>
+
+<p>She insisted on washing the dishes, and was glad indeed that she had it
+to do, while Kate poured her thoughts into music, feeling that she could
+best show sympathy for her friend by this, to her, most expressive way.</p>
+
+<p>As for Grace, she waited till she had quite finished her work and then
+sat down to read the letter. She well knew it was from Leon Carrington,
+a suitor, whom she had rejected on the plea that she wished to be wedded
+solely to her art. Pride had forbidden her being frank enough to tell
+him the real reason, caused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> by an impeachment made against his
+character, by one whom she implicitly trusted as a friend. Her bitter
+resolve was the result, and while it was true she loved and desired to
+spend her life in pursuing her art, she had compelled herself to think
+she loved it best, and so told him it was first choice.</p>
+
+<p>Hers was a proud, deep nature, and rather than admit that she had loved
+or could love one whom she considered unworthy, she cut the matter short
+by a decided rejection. It had cost her a mighty effort to come to this
+decision, and when she came out of the trial, she had lost her faith in
+all men.</p>
+
+<p>On all other points but this, Grace was sound and sweet in her general
+disposition, but any talk on marriage she would never tolerate even with
+Kate.</p>
+
+<p>This was the third letter he had written in the two years since he went
+away, and as in the preceding, he fervently begged her to reconsider.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Life hath its Tabor heights,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Its lofty mounts of heavenly recognition,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whose unveiled glories flash to earth munition</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of love, and truth, and clearer intuition:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Hail! mount of all delights!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>I. C. Gilbert.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, September &mdash;&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, dear ones all! I must tell you a little of yesterday
+before I go to the lesson to-day. We were not in class, and I staid in
+my room all day trying to solve the many questions that present
+themselves to us all, and to claim a little more understanding. Many
+points became very much clearer after my long meditation in the silence.
+In the evening I ran down to see Mrs. Dawn, who is several blocks away.
+We were so interested, so completely absorbed in telling our thoughts
+and experiences, that it was after eleven o'clock when I arose to go,
+and then she accompanied me home, only intending to come part way, but
+as we passed a little low house about half way home, the door suddenly
+opened and a little girl of ten or twelve years ran out sobbing, 'The
+baby is dying! the baby is dying!'</p>
+
+<p>"She was going up an outside stairway to inform a neighbor. We rushed
+into the house and found the frantic mother sobbing and wailing over her
+baby apparently in the last agonies of death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'What is it? Can't we do something for you?' we asked, not knowing what
+else to say.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, my baby, my precious baby is dying! Don't you see? she is almost
+gone.'</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, for an instant it seemed the little life had gone out, when,
+like a flash of lightning, the words came to my inner self, 'There is no
+death.' 'He that believeth on me shall not see death;' 'I am the way the
+truth and the life.' 'Treat,' I whispered to Mrs. Dawn, and soon the
+awful lie was denied by us in the peaceful silence of our own souls; for
+all consciousness of appearances had vanished as we denied death and its
+power, till we could <i>command</i> the waves of mortal thought to subside
+and say, 'Peace, be still.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was the Master, the Christ within, who spoke for us, and we were
+filled with the mighty peace and calmness of Truth that worked through
+us and was immediately made manifest. The little face relaxed, the eyes
+lost their glassy stare, the color returned to the pale lips.</p>
+
+<p>"The mother ceased her mourning and gazed at the precious child in
+awesome silence. The neighbor and the little girl who had come in, stood
+by in hushed amazement. For a while all felt the presence of the great
+invisible Power that had wrought so wondrous a work in their midst,
+although no one knew but ourselves what had been done. Presently the
+mother leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief, awaiting the
+doctor, for whom her husband had gone before we entered the house. We
+waited till he came, and then quietly slipped out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Dawn came clear home with me, and we found our thoughts and
+feelings had been almost identical in this remarkable experience,
+showing the oneness of truth. It is something we shall never forget, for
+it was indeed from the very depths of our being we were stirred and
+thrilled with the mighty Principle.</p>
+
+<p>"This morning I went to see the baby, and found it quite bright and
+happy, but still breathing a little heavily. The M. D. had left
+medicine, and of course, they were giving it 'according to directions.'
+I told the mother something of the Healing, and she readily acknowledged
+that something mysterious had saved her child's life, because it
+certainly was dying as much as the child she had lost years ago.</p>
+
+<p>"'After you left last night, the neighbor who was here said like as not
+you were Christian healers or whatever that is, but she did not believe
+a word in it, and that it was all nonsense, but I told her I didn't
+care. I thought you saved my baby, and the doctor said it had grown much
+better since he came. 'Well,' says I, 'ef you had seen her condition
+when the ladies came in, you would say she <i>is</i> better.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, we won't argue about what made her better, whether medicine or
+something else; all we want now is to have the child cured,' said the
+doctor, very kind-like, and I really thought a great deal better of him
+than I had before, for most M. D.'s think they know everything,' she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"I was so glad to find she acknowledged even this much, so I talked a
+little longer, and explained the necessity of perfect trust in God, and
+the consequences<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> of distrust in Him. She seemed very responsive and
+ready to believe, but then, who would not believe after such a
+demonstration? I have felt awed and hushed all the morning, remembering
+the mighty something surging through me. It seems hard to believe that
+at last my desire to have some grand sign shown me is already fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pearl talked beautifully this afternoon on understanding. I wish
+you could hear the lectures as she gives them, with all her grace and
+beauty and impressiveness. Here is the essence of the lesson:</p>
+
+<p>"As we evolve from material to spiritual understanding, we put ourselves
+more and more into the divine current of Life, Health, Goodness, which
+is God. The higher our ideal, the higher our attainment. Believing in
+God as supreme Love, we find it impossible to conceive of wrath,
+jealousy, revenge, as emanating from or existing in Him, Her or It. As
+we are filled with love, it becomes universal. Everybody is judged by
+its tender charity, everything is tinged with its warm radiance.</p>
+
+<p>"As Paul so beautifully wrote: 'Love suffereth long and is kind, love
+envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave
+itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not
+account of evil, rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth in the
+truth.... Love never faileth.' If this be a standard by which to judge
+the love of men, how much more appropriately might it judge God, who is
+love itself.</p>
+
+<p>"In proportion as we are freed from the ignorance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> and narrowness of
+primitive, ancient opinions concerning God, we shall rise to broader and
+tenderer and truer conceptions of Him. To the warm, sympathetic heart,
+that knows the deepest needs of humanity, the 'mercy that endureth
+forever' is an established fact of the universal Love. To understand
+this Love is to be at one with it, to do the works and think the
+thoughts of Love. It is essential, then, first to understand the law of
+effort, then faith, then love, then spiritual understanding, which is
+the goal toward which we all hasten&mdash;understanding of all spiritual
+things, understanding of God, who is all spirit. As we make the effort
+we receive faith, as we use faith we grow in the power and capacity of
+love, and love brings us the fullness of all things, even understanding
+of infinite wisdom. Every glimpse of truth we have ever had, every
+glorious breath of freedom, is but a hint of what will be when we have
+'awakened to righteousness.'</p>
+
+<p>"We gain our knowledge by and through the law of right speaking and
+consequently right acting. In the Bible, the New Testament especially,
+great stress is laid upon the power of words. Solomon wrote, 'How
+forcible are right words.' 'Life and death are in the power of the
+tongue,' and from St. Paul we hear, 'Hold fast the form of sound words;'
+and James' admonition, 'Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only,'
+show that both considered it necessary to speak the word if they would
+manifest its power.</p>
+
+<p>"But there is another and a holier office given to the word and that is
+the office of atonement. The original meaning of atone was to 'make
+at-one, to agree,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> to be in accordance, to accord.' To be at-one with a
+person is to be in such perfect sympathy that the thoughts of both are
+the thoughts and feelings of one.</p>
+
+<p>"Another illustration would be to say of a chip thrown into the river,
+it is at-one with the current. In this sense we should aim to be so
+at-one with the divine Principle that we may say with Jesus, 'I am one
+with the Father,' for did he not say: 'They are not of this world even
+as I am not of this world,' and 'That they may be one even we are one.'</p>
+
+<p>"To speak absolute Truth is to come into the true at-one-ment, to be at
+one with the divine Mind, to realize that Christ the Truth is the
+atoning power. The Christ is the impersonal Word of Truth which we are
+to speak, for 'unto us hath been committed the word of reconciliation'
+or atonement.</p>
+
+<p>"When we think true thoughts and catch true ideas, when we understand
+true meanings and love true knowledge, we are sustained by the living
+word which sustains all who speak and live it, because we are truly at
+one with the divine Word.</p>
+
+<p>"Knowing the meaning of Christ to be Truth, blood to be life or word,
+and sin to be error, we catch the spiritual meaning of the phrase 'sins
+washed away by the blood of Christ,' which is, sins or errors washed
+away by the word of Truth.</p>
+
+<p>"In that wonderful sermon in the sixth chapter of John, Jesus used the
+term blood as a symbol of his words, and emphatically told his
+disciples, when they persisted in taking his sayings literally, 'the
+flesh profiteth nothing, the <i>words</i> that I speak unto you, they are
+spirit and they are life.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That the Bible writers used the figurative language of those times,
+must be taken into account when reading points that have been made
+foundation doctrines. Owing to the ancient custom of sacrificing animals
+to appease the wrath of God, whom they regarded as subject to anger,
+jealousy or any human passion, they used figurative language when
+describing Jesus as the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world.</p>
+
+<p>"In one of the inspired moments of the prophet, when he apprehended God
+as a God of Love, he cried out, 'I have desired mercy and not sacrifice;
+and the knowledge of God more than burnt offering.' It is the knowledge
+of God, the word of truth, that will save, and the only sacrifice is the
+sacrifice of self which makes the atonement possible.</p>
+
+<p>"To fast from all selfishness is to keep the true fast, so beautifully
+described in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. 'Is it not to loose the
+bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go
+free, to break every yoke? Then shall thy light break forth as the
+morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.' Here is the
+fruit of atonement, the result of understanding, for understanding God
+and being at one with God, is in reality the same. As we understand God
+we shall be at one with Him, and to be at one with God is to be whole,
+for He is Holiness, wholeness, health. 'If thine eye be single, then
+shall thy whole body be full of light.' To be single in recognizing the
+one Mind, one Power, one Creation, is to be filled with light, which is
+life, which is health, for as the mind, consciousness, becomes
+illuminated, the body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> responds by recording the history of thought upon
+the visible page or body.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the revealment of God that we seek, and our individual relation
+to Him. What more is there for us to know after we know Him, for is not
+He all there really is? He has given many marvelous signs to His
+children, who must be taught in simple childish ways and the 'still
+small voice' is ever near, speaking to whomsoever will listen. It is the
+inner guide, the 'spirit of truth that guides us into all truth.' Then
+we are 'clothed upon,' we have returned to our Father's house and the
+feast is spread, the rejoicing has begun.</p>
+
+<p>"For awhile our only conception of power, is in visible manifestations
+or feelings, but there comes a time when 'to be alone with silence is to
+be alone with God,' when joy is unutterable, and love the very potency
+of silence, when we wait with bated breath and let the divine Thought
+surge through us, when we put away all material beliefs and stand
+glorified in the 'secret of His Presence.' Then indeed are we baptized
+of the spirit, and in the silent chamber of our new consciousness may we
+hear the blessed words, 'Thou art my beloved son.'</p>
+
+<p>"No longer 'Thou shalt and thou shalt not,' but the sweet affirmation of
+sonship, of daughtership, of the precious benediction of a Father's
+love. Then glad light rushes into every dark crevice of our mind. We see
+as we never saw before, we understand as we never understood before, we
+speak as we never spoke before, we live as we never lived before,
+because we have been lifted out of the depths of ignorance to the
+radiant heights of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> Promised Land, because we hear the angel saying
+as of old, 'Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
+with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
+them and be their God ... and God shall wipe away all tears from their
+eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
+neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
+away.' Finally, oh my husband, because we have been born again, and so
+find ourselves within the royal gates, the palace doors open to receive
+us and the insignia of royalty written upon our faces, for we shall be
+stamped with the signs of understanding, and know, as Jesus did, 'it is
+not I, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then, as the beauteous sunlight bathes and blesses all the world with
+its effulgent glory, so will the light of Truth, known as understanding,
+shine through us and turn pain into peace, sadness into joy, sickness
+into health, error into truth.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Wisdom ripens into silence,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And the lesson she doth teach,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Is, that life is more than language,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And that thought is more than speech.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"How I long for this ultimate experience! How I yearn for the fullness
+of this knowledge now; for the ripened wisdom that shall unlock the
+doors of my own consciousness, but I know, dear, this will come to us if
+we are faithful to the few little steps we know, no matter how we
+stumble and fall in taking them. Oh, that we may reach out to all the
+world in the sweet ministry of 'peace on earth, good will to men.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You say 'there is a rift in the clouds for you, too, and the vague
+something which sometimes loomed up in your horizon is gone.' How glad I
+am, no words can tell. What a change there will be! The old past shall
+be sweetened and sanctified by the new present, and only the good
+memories shall remain.</p>
+
+<p>"What a blessed comfort in this thought, 'the Lord shall be thy rear
+ward.' We have nothing to do with the past, for it shall be utterly
+annulled. The Truth has erased it, and it is swallowed up in the good in
+proportion as we recognize only the Good. This thought is a great
+consolation to me when I recall the hasty words I used to say when my
+temper got the better of me. Oh, that old failing! I hope it is forever
+vanquished&mdash;but there, I must not forget to be scientific, and of course
+it is not scientific to talk of error in any way.</p>
+
+<p>"Jamie is a dear little scamp, if he <i>did</i> try to break the rules and
+get something to eat between meals by playing prairie dog. It must have
+been very funny to see him sitting in the attitude of a begging dog,
+mutely appealing for something, and being obliged at last to suggest
+that there was candy on the top shelf. Even my heart would have softened
+for the innocent little trickster.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, we must try to give the children the liberty we older
+children desire and insist upon having in such a headstrong way. Bless
+my little darlings! They shall realize the absence of fear, the presence
+of love in their home, which we must strive more and more to make
+typical of the great Home in which we are all members.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I feel that they are dearer now than ever. My love is more unselfish,
+and I can really feel that they are truly consecrated to the Good,
+because I know how to hold them in the thought of the Good, how to annul
+the opposite influences and fill their minds with the sweet, pure,
+ennobling realizations of Love. Meekly I say this, because I know not my
+own strength, or rather I know not how much divine strength I may
+recognize and use, but this is the right path, and I earnestly desire to
+walk in it.</p>
+
+<p>"You know some people say (in their ignorance, of course) that this free
+thinking breaks up families. Oh, if they could only know, on the other
+hand, how it strengthens the bonds, how it clears up misunderstandings
+and falsities, how it teaches us the sacredness of family relations, and
+brings us into spiritual oneness, which is the only true marriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Spiritual light has come to me on this subject which can not be put
+into words, but some time you will know what I know, and we shall both
+be blessed by the knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Peace be unto all God's children.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Your loving<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"<span class="smcap">Marion</span>."</span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"If thou art worn and hard beset,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">With troubles that thou would'st forget,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">If thou would'st read a lesson that will keep</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Go to the woods and hills! No tears</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>H. W. Longfellow.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Grace was in deep perplexity. She pondered her problem over and over,
+and though in reality she felt more like flinging pride to the winds
+than ever before, she was not able to formulate or even consciously name
+her thoughts. A strange, unsettled feeling possessed her. She wondered
+at herself that she did not contemptuously throw this letter of Leon
+Carrington's into the fire, as she had the other two, but for some
+reason did not do so. All night she was uneasy and slept but little. The
+next morning she announced to Kate that she would spend the day at
+Rosewood, sketching.</p>
+
+<p>What the trouble was, Kate could only surmise, but wisely held her peace
+feeling instinctively that now was no time for questions. She was
+relieved to hear of the prospective recreation, for Grace always came
+back from these trips with so much fresh inspiration, and renewed
+enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful day, one of those mild, hazy days of October that
+seem made to teach humanity some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> of its most sacred lessons. Nature is
+the best of teachers if we know how to read her mystic pages, her many
+and varied beauties, her wide diversities of expression, her fine
+subtlety of language, for she is the handmaid of Truth, inasmuch as she
+holds before our admiring eyes pictures of Truth and its wondrous laws.
+If we can interpret the pictures, we are wiser and better and happier.</p>
+
+<p>Grace was ever ready to listen to the oracles of nature, but now they
+held a sweeter message than ever before, and she keenly anticipated the
+pleasure in store for her as she seated herself in the car and disposed
+of her sketching materials for the half hour's ride to Rosewood, a
+pretty little woodland station near Hampton.</p>
+
+<p>She generally walked the mile and a half to the farmhouse in the edge of
+the woods, where she had made the acquaintance of a kind hearted old
+lady, who loaned her a great Newfoundland dog belonging to the house,
+for company in her rambles.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Clayland was rejoiced to see her, for it had been several weeks
+since Grace had called, and she was eager to tell her of the great tree
+up in the ravine that had been blasted by the lightning, and about the
+beautiful little waterfall caused by the Cherry Creek freshet.</p>
+
+<p>Grace listened patiently as she rested, and asked questions that she had
+asked many times before, because it pleased the old lady to tell of all
+the beautiful spots and dainty bits of landscape in her vicinity. That
+was next to being the artist.</p>
+
+<p>Prince stood by, looking with intelligent eyes, first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> at the visitor
+and then at his mistress, wagging his tail wistfully as though eager to
+be off, for he seemed to realize that this was his holiday too.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready to go, Prince?" asked Grace, patting the dog on the head
+as she looked into his great brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Prince licked his mouth and pushed his nose close under her hand while
+his tail wagged violently. "Yes, of course he is. I wish my old limbs
+would let me go too, but I can't even hobble to-day for the rheumatism
+has been dreadful the last week," said Mrs. Clayland, as she wiped her
+spectacles.</p>
+
+<p>Grace hardly knew what to say, for here was just the place for a little
+sympathy, and yet she must shut her eyes to false beliefs and
+conditions, so she wisely talked of the beautiful day, the warm air, and
+what not, while secretly resolving that Mrs. Clayland should be her
+first patient if she ever knew how to treat patients according to the
+Christ method. In the mean time, she would give her some thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>While Mrs. Clayland volubly rattled on, talking of all her aches and
+pains, Grace was doing her best to think of the very opposite statement,
+that she was well.</p>
+
+<p>At last, however, with Prince trotting gaily in front of her, she began
+her rambles in earnest. She knew of a beautiful view from one of the
+hills near by, and slowly wended her way thitherward. The hush and quiet
+of the place seemed such a relief after the troubled hours of the past
+night, and as she came to the gentle slope of the grassy hill, she threw
+her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>self into the soft warm grass, in the shade of a stately elm that
+stood there alone, and gave herself up to thinking&mdash;thinking of the
+deepest and most sacred problems in human experience.</p>
+
+<p>Prince came and laid himself at her feet. The soft autumn sunshine
+played here and there upon her form and face through the leaves, while
+the occasional note of a bird or hum of an insect were the only sounds
+that broke the stillness of the lonely place. What an exquisite pleasure
+to lie there and breathe in all this wonderful peace, for it was like a
+taste of heaven. Far away from all perplexities and cares, she could
+have lost herself in sweet forgetfulness but for this one theme that
+would persist in thrusting itself upon her. At last it had resolved
+itself into the form of a question. Should she or should she not write
+to Leon Carrington? Might it not be possible she had been misinformed,
+and that she was mistaken in her hasty conclusions?</p>
+
+<p>Life presented a different aspect now from what it had two years ago.
+She was more lenient in her judgments, more charitable in her opinions,
+more softened in her pride; changed more than she ever realized until
+she began the self examination on this point. To be sure she had desired
+to change in these respects, since she had seen a glimpse of the
+possibilities of Christian life. She had denied all qualities of
+character in herself that seemed undesirable, and had affirmed
+charitableness, patience, wisdom, but that she could ever have changed
+her mind on this subject seemed incredible and utterly inconsistent.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, what could she say to him? She had no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> answer, certainly no
+encouragement. The only thing she could do would be to tell him frankly
+what her thought and judgment had been, without going into details, and
+learn the truth of the matter; but that, she would never do. Whatever
+injury she had inflicted through her silent, erroneous thoughts should
+be as silently redressed by her best and most generous ones.</p>
+
+<p>Over an hour she lay there, no nearer the solution of her problem than
+when she began. It was getting late, and she rose hurriedly, shook the
+leaves and grass from her dress, and opening her sketch book, set to
+work.</p>
+
+<p>An opening to the left in the woods revealed a view of lovely meadows
+and wooded hills, clothed in all the gorgeous robes of autumn, with a
+misty blue haze enshrouding them, and gleams of a silvery river winding
+through meadow and woodland. She rapidly sketched the outlines, studied
+the beauteous blending of tints, and wondered meanwhile, what particular
+lesson she could learn or give by this beautiful picture. Again she
+looked at the scene before her. Suddenly there came into her mind some
+lines she had often admired:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Oh, the light that is not of day!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Why seek it afar forever,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">When it can not be lifted away?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Ah, here was the key. "The peace of Nature," typical of divine peace,
+"The Light not of day," divine Light itself. How sweet the thought, how
+precious the lesson; and the divine Peace and Light <i>are</i> indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+forever here. Could she throw such a divine message into her prospective
+painting? Could she make every form and color, every hint of light and
+shadow, tell the sweet story, as this living picture told it? Surely,
+the heart that overflows with an inbreathing of the divine, must be able
+to teach the common heart of humanity, else what is the use of
+inspiration?</p>
+
+<p>On her way back to the house, Grace passed the blasted tree, described
+by Mrs. Clayland, but she had no desire to study destruction or death.
+It was life, living things, that she would portray. Was there not beauty
+and grandeur everywhere, hinting of Infinity? Even the noisy and
+monotonous waterfall now had a message for her as it rushed forcefully
+on its course, regardless of any and all obstructions.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite late when Grace and Prince returned, much later than she
+supposed, so that she missed the train and had to wait for the next,
+several hours later. Mr. Clayland kindly volunteered to take her to the
+station, an offer she was very glad to accept.</p>
+
+<p>The lamps were already lighted when she entered the car. She slipped
+into the first vacant seat, but caught a glimpse of a face several seats
+in front of her that made her heart beat hurriedly and her breath come
+quick and fast for a few moments.</p>
+
+<p>She resolutely avoided looking anywhere but out of the window, and at
+the end of her journey quietly but quickly disappeared in the surging
+crowd.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Let me not dwell so much within</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">My bounded heart with anxious heed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Where all my searches meet with doubt,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And nothing satisfies my need;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">It shuts me from the sound and sight</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Of that pure world of life and light</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Which has no breadth, or length, or height."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>A. L. Waring.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Kate had long ago become accustomed to these uncertain movements of
+Grace, and was therefore not alarmed at her prolonged absence. She sat
+in a cozy chair, reading the last letter from Mrs. Hayden, when Grace
+entered.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you look so sober, Gracious?" she asked, tenderly, after the
+hat and sketch book were laid aside and they had settled themselves for
+their usual chat.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Kate, I had a lovely time to-day, with all the beautiful sights out
+in the country; I wish you could see how much more there is in nature
+since we have studied Christian Healing," was the evasive reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we see more in everything," said Kate, whose curiosity was
+rather <i>piqued</i> by the evasiveness, though she made no sign, "because
+everything stands for something. It is like the x in algebra, and
+interesting as the unknown quantity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grace smiled a little. She was thinking of a different kind of "unknown
+quantity."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you want to hear Mrs. Hayden's letter?" asked Kate, wondering
+more and more over the <i>distrait</i> manner and dreamy absorption of her
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>"The letter, why, of course; where is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here; shall I read it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>Grace grew more interested as the reading went on. "That is decidedly
+the most reasonable explanation of the atonement I have ever heard," she
+exclaimed at the close.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is reasonable and beautiful I must admit," said Kate, "but when
+I first read the letter my old fear came back for a moment that possibly
+it was all wrong, but I remembered my right to an interpretation. That
+one thought has been more helpful to me than any other, for it has
+brought such a sense of liberty. Then I looked up the quotation about
+the 'word of reconciliation,' and I must say it is so perfectly plain I
+can not see why it has been so overlooked and neglected before."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is it? I did not catch that," said Grace, following Kate's finger
+as she pointed to the passage in the Bible.</p>
+
+<p>"There is something so sacred in these meanings," resumed Kate, "and if
+I may only get the truth, I care not what any one says about it. I see
+now wherein lies the whole misconception or misinterpretation rather. It
+is in the idea of God. If we conceive of Him as limited to human ways
+and capacities, as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> ancient Hebrews did, we naturally ascribe such
+works to Him."</p>
+
+<p>"In other words," added Grace, "we judge God entirely by ourselves. If
+we are broad and loving in our nature and character it is easy for us to
+regard God as love. If we are vindictive and revengeful, we can readily
+see Him as angry and unrelenting."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we are so apt to judge the whole world and God, too, by our
+moods," replied Kate, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"As Emerson says, 'we see in others what we are ourselves,'" quoted
+Grace, removing her jacket which until now she had retained in order to
+get warm after her evening journey.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! what do you think of what Mrs. Hayden says about marriage?" asked
+Kate, putting her pencil in her mouth as she held both hands out to
+assist Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't say enough to give an opinion," replied Grace, "but there
+must be something in her mind or she would not write about it now."</p>
+
+<p>"Her ideas must be very exalted, and I hope to know what they are, for
+it is a very important question," said Kate, with a casual glance toward
+her companion, as she bit the end of the pencil.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hayden decidedly denies the imputation laid to Christian Healing,
+that it is opposed to marriage, or that it tends to separate families,"
+said Grace, with more interest than Kate would have thought possible a
+week ago.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know any such imputation had been laid to it," rejoined Kate,
+opening her eyes in astonishment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I have heard it several times, but people will talk whether
+they know anything or not. I am glad Mrs. Hayden mentions it for that is
+enough to show there is absolutely no foundation for such statements."
+Grace moved her chair and put her elbow on the table so she might shade
+her eyes with her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I don't see how people can say such things; surely the tendency is
+to draw families into closer bonds of sympathy and affection," exclaimed
+Kate, in questioning innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"It ought to be," replied Grace, thoughtfully, "and undoubtedly is," she
+added.</p>
+
+<p>"What do <i>you</i> think of this question, Grace?" Kate ventured to ask. At
+any other time she would not have dared approach the subject, but Grace
+seemed more pliable to-night for some reason.</p>
+
+<p>"What question?" asked Grace, rousing from her reverie. "Oh, marriage.
+Well, sometimes I have thought the query going the rounds of the press,
+'Is marriage a failure?' a very pertinent one, but of course that
+doesn't touch the principle itself. That is right and can never be
+otherwise."</p>
+
+<p>"Most people talk and write as seriously as though it <i>does</i> touch the
+principle."</p>
+
+<p>"That is because they judge the principle by the persons representing
+it, whereas they should stop and consider that humanity is prone to
+weakness and often fails to demonstrate its high ideals."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is because of failure they think there is something wrong. Take
+an individual case, for instance, and there are thousands. If a girl
+marries unhappily,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> she thinks there must be something wrong in the
+whole system, for she judges everybody's misery by her own," said Kate,
+secretly wishing Grace would be more confidential, and not so coldly
+intellectual.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the way to a happy judgment of this question would be a happy
+marriage, you think?" laughed Grace, with a faint blush, looking up
+inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't trifle Grace. You know I said it all earnestly, and really it is
+no matter to trifle over, any way."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is true, Kate," replied Grace more soberly. "I don't believe
+anybody takes the question seriously enough. It is certainly the most
+important of all things to consider."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it right to enter marriage for any other reason than pure
+and devoted affection?" persisted Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not. Why do you ask?" demanded Grace rather sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Because that is the solution of the whole problem. If they would begin
+to talk about love instead of marriage being a failure, they would get
+some light on it," a little impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>Grace looked up in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," continued Kate, "it is because people are mistaken or misled
+in their reasons for marriage, that it even has a semblance of failure."</p>
+
+<p>"That is one reason, certainly, and another is that they do not
+understand each other's motives, or have not the patience to bear with
+each other's faults. We can easily see how misunderstandings can be put
+away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> when there is true love, when we determine to see only the good,
+and learn to 'resist not evil.' That is one of the strong points in
+Jesus the Christ's teachings," said Grace with unwonted earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so sorry people can't see it in the right light," added Kate,
+regretfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You can have much charity for them, for it is just what you would have
+said or thought, if you had not studied the matter yourself. You
+remember how Mr. Narrow influenced you and biased your judgment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I see as never before that the 'Truth makes us free.'</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'He is a freeman whom the truth makes free.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And all are slaves besides,'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>said Grace, as she reached for the sketch book to look over her work of
+the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"It is no use, she never will say anything, even when she might,"
+thought Kate as she reviewed the events of the past few days. She half
+reproached herself for allowing anything to take her mind from the one
+special theme in which at last she had become thoroughly interested. She
+was eager to learn, to search in all directions for the meaning of
+things. Slowly the little grain of faith was growing into the mighty
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>Enchanting Truth so round, so perfect, so beautiful,&mdash;no wonder we must
+reach out in every direction for the knowledge of thy fair signs that we
+may more correctly and more fully realize the perfect revealment of our
+own divinity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"What a great power is the power of thought! And what a grand being
+is man when he uses it aright; because after all, it is the use
+made of it that is the important thing. Character comes out of
+thought. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.'"&mdash;<i>Sir Walter
+Raleigh.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, October &mdash;&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Dear Husband: I was just thinking of you all when the letter carrier
+came this morning and gave me a welcome surprise, for your letters
+usually come in the afternoon. It seems too wonderful to believe about
+the children, and yet I can see it is their implicit faith that makes
+their words so potent.</p>
+
+<p>"They are doing their part to help too, for every one in the world,
+large or small helps in greater or lesser measure to carry out the plans
+of the invisible Good.</p>
+
+<p>"I dreamed of being at home last night, and it seemed as though you were
+all so happy and busy. You did not see me. Even little Jem was busily
+engaged in some kind of work. I could scarcely see what it was, but a
+vague white something like an invisible net was spread between you, and
+the thought came that you and Anna were weaving something, and even the
+children had a part to fulfill for they flitted to and fro, bringing
+something to you with faces so full of light and happiness, I almost
+cried out with joy.</p>
+
+<p>"When I awoke I was deeply impressed that this was a symbol of united
+effort in making the seamless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> robe of Truth, and the family group
+represented the members of one body, each with a work to do to perfect
+the whole.</p>
+
+<p>"No matter how humble our part may be, no matter how childish and
+incompetent we feel, by doing the best we know, with the ability we
+have, in all joy and earnestness, we shall be serving the Master and
+weaving the marvelous robe.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pearl talked of the mighty power of thought in her lecture to-day.</p>
+
+<p>"Every individual in the universe is inseparably connected with every
+other individual, and we are, as it were, 'touching elbows' with the
+whole world.</p>
+
+<p>"How is it done? Simply by thinking and being susceptible to thought.
+Every thought of the individual helps to make or mar the happiness and
+health of the world. Every negative thought (and by that I mean opposite
+the good, which is positive) sent forth, goes into the miasmatic fog of
+error, and whoever believes in error or the reality of these thoughts,
+attracts to himself this quality of thought, which sooner or later,
+makes itself manifest in physical inharmony.</p>
+
+<p>"For instance, one who believes in the reality of sickness and the
+reality of evil is constantly attracting thoughts that make sickness
+manifest, but if a knowledge of how to throw off or counteract those
+thoughts were used, the cloud would be dispelled before it turned into
+inharmony or sickness.</p>
+
+<p>"This is why we are taught to deny every thought or feeling that is not
+harmonious or desirable, everything which can not be predicated of
+spirit. If this is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> what makes sickness and sin, truly it is not to be
+wondered at, for how many are perfectly happy, perfectly unselfish and
+kind, one single day at a time?</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose one gets up in the morning with a feeling of crossness and
+impatience; he goes to breakfast, impresses the whole family with his
+discomfort, and so through the entire day leaves the imprint of his dark
+forebodings on every person who sees him, besides the untold influence
+that goes forth to the unprotected world, inasmuch as thoughts go
+everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"He retires at night, disgusted with himself and displeased with the
+whole world. People were unkind and unjust. Even inanimate objects were
+unusually aggravating. He wasted half an hour trying to untie a knot,
+hunted for a package of papers which were finally found in their proper
+place, had a vexing ten minutes with his office key, etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Every impatient thought, word or action was an expenditure, not only of
+physical force, but a loss of moral strength, and just as surely as the
+world moves, these thoughts, in their revolving circuit, constantly
+return to the thinker, 'Whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap.'</p>
+
+<p>"Who knows what dark trains of thought his lowering face suggested? Who
+knows what headaches and heartaches were brought on by the unconscious
+absorption of his impatience or bitterness? Who can measure the extent
+of that mysterious burden of depression, so often called 'the blues,'
+that crept into the consciousness of somebody under the influence of the
+dark thoughts sent out by this one, of whom perchance they know
+nothing?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is this negative quality of thought that holds the world in bondage.
+To destroy it is to destroy all inharmony. On the other hand, note the
+influence of the happy-voiced individual, who comes to us so running
+over with the joy and beauty of life that we catch the thrilling
+inspiration of his mood and begin to enjoy the same sunshine, see the
+same beauty and feel the same happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"One look or one word may often send us off into the most delightful
+reveries, may inspire us to write a cheery letter, vibrating with love
+and hope, or prompt us to spend half an hour with one who needs the bath
+of joy our words may bring. Consciously and unconsciously we lighten the
+pathway, lift the burdens, sanctify the sorrows of the world by sending
+out and receiving this subtle thread of thought, so fine in its essence
+and quality, that any one and every one may feel its strengthening
+presence.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the negative or mortal thought that produces disease. See how
+grief bends and breaks the strongest constitutions, furrows the cheek,
+dims the eye, takes the appetite, impairs the mind. See how anger
+cankers everything it touches, how jealousy corrodes the thoughts with
+poisoned arrows, until the body is written over with letters of
+unmistakable meaning.</p>
+
+<p>"The body is what we may call the thermometer of the mind and registers
+the quality of thought. Universal beliefs in error find their common
+expression on the body. Every thought of sickness, sin or discouragement
+is recorded or bodied forth.</p>
+
+<p>"With all our belief in and fear of evil, sickness and death, we are
+continually subjecting ourselves to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> false and undesirable conditions,
+until, as Job said, 'Lo, the thing that I feared has come upon me.'</p>
+
+<p>"Fear is more quickly productive of disease pictures than any other kind
+of thought. Some one has aptly said, 'if the human race were freed from
+fear, it would be free from sickness,' which is verily true. Even the
+most learned doctors of medicine admit that an epidemic takes hold of
+those first who are most afraid, and frequently leaves the absolutely
+fearless unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>"Why is this so? Because fear weakens the power of mental control, and
+consequently weakens the body. To leave the doors unlocked, and then
+watch for the thief, is almost equal to having the thief in the house.</p>
+
+<p>"The material scientist says an epidemic has a material cause; the
+Christian healer says it has a mental cause. Before there is an object
+to fear there must be the sentiment of fear. Let scarlet fever appear in
+a community, and every parent will immediately send out the most
+agonizing thoughts of fear. Where will they go? Everywhere, because
+thoughts can not be restrained. Their influence goes out in every
+direction. To the tender children especially, because particularly
+directed to them. All who have left the door open to fear, though they
+may be sleeping in their unconsciousness of danger, will be liable to
+receive these uncontrolled thoughts, and some day when they least expect
+or fear sickness, it may be upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"So the children, to whom have been directed such thoughts, only prove
+their susceptibility to them, by picturing forth fear in the form of
+scarlet fever, or whatever may have been the naming of the error.
+Anybody manifesting sickness without consciousness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> fear proves
+passive or unconscious fear, while those suffering sickness through a
+conscious recognition and fear of sickness are manifesting active or
+conscious fear.</p>
+
+<p>"There are two departments of mind sometimes spoken of as the conscious
+and unconscious. The conscious mind is the conscious thought, which is
+easily swayed or changed. It has an immediate or direct influence on the
+body as is shown by the blood that rushes to or recedes from the face at
+some sudden change of thought. The unconscious mind is the aggregation
+of past individual and universal conscious thought, and is the character
+formed, the second nature or instinct.</p>
+
+<p>"As the flesh and bones are more fixed than the ever moving blood, so
+the unconscious mind is slower to receive impressions, and slower to
+show them forth. Our bodies to-day are showing a harvest of the thoughts
+of generations or ages of the past. The person manifesting consumptive
+tendencies is not only expressing his own conscious thoughts, but is
+veritably the picture of the thoughts of his parents, ancestors and the
+entire race, concerning a belief in consumption. Year by year the
+thoughts of this error have been writing themselves in his face, his
+eyes, his chest, his very walk and talk and breath. Unless he offsets
+them with thoughts of absolute Truth, they press him out of our sight.
+He yields to the belief of death, because he never said no to sin or
+sickness, because he was at one with the world in its false beliefs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'The last enemy to be overcome is death!' reads the inspired statement
+of Paul, confirmed and strengthened by the Master's never-dying promise,
+'If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.'</p>
+
+<p>"There are certain fixed beliefs inherent in every mind which we call
+universal beliefs. They are often referred to as belonging to the
+unconscious mind; as, for example, the fear of pain or suffering under
+certain circumstances will come to the surface of consciousness, proving
+that despite every feeling of confidence and fearlessness it has not
+been destroyed, but sleeps in the unconscious mind.</p>
+
+<p>"These unconscious beliefs and fears of sickness are ultimately
+expressed on the body in different forms of disease, sometimes given one
+name and sometimes another. The material scientist calls a certain
+outshowing on the body cancer, the Christian healer calls it the picture
+of a belief of cancer. In this way disease is always the manifestation
+of both conscious and unconscious thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Special forms of disease are born by constant attention to the thought
+of disease and their symptoms. It has been stated on good authority that
+physicians who make a specialty of certain diseases are apt to be
+afflicted with what they have especially fitted themselves to cure. In a
+medical journal a case was cited not long since of an eminent physician
+who read before a great convention of doctors, what was considered to be
+the ablest treatise on insanity ever written. 'On going home from the
+convention he killed his wife, four children, and then himself, in a fit
+of dementia.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This reveals a startling fact, which might be corroborated by many
+others, that the body ultimately pictures forth the idea. But the
+thought is not confined to the individual. It not infrequently finds the
+most striking expression in some member of the family or in any one
+under his influence.</p>
+
+<p>"If one man's thoughts so influence himself, family or friend, think of
+the influence of such thoughts on those who go to him for advice or
+treatment, those who deliberately place themselves under his inspection
+and allow themselves to be guided both directly and indirectly by his
+erroneous opinions. Think of the vast stream of such thoughts going out
+from all medical colleges, students and practitioners. No wonder
+diseases increase as physicians increase, as some of the best thinkers
+of the age declare.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that one class of people is more to be reflected upon than another,
+for some kind or degree of erroneous thought is held by all classes.
+Physicians talk sickness and death, ministers preach evil and
+punishment, the entire race believe in and suffer for sins.</p>
+
+<p>"It is centuries since it was first discovered that ideas were
+transmitted without the ordinarily accepted means of communication, but,
+to-day it is positively and repeatedly, yes, continually proven that
+thought transference is not only possible or probable, but an every-day
+occurrence. To realize that</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">'Thoughts are things.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Endowed with being, breath and wings,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And that we send them forth to fill</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The world with good results or ill,'</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>is to be mightily responsible for what we think. To know that we are
+verily our brother's keeper, and that every thought makes misery or
+happiness for the whole world as well as for the individual, is
+something that should engage our deepest and most earnest consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"All thinking is for the weal or woe of the world that is yet in its
+infancy of knowledge. As consciousness of truth takes the place of
+consciousness of error, thoughts become light and beautiful and true
+with corresponding conditions.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us no longer slumber in the arms of indifference and ignorance, but
+awake to truth and righteousness. 'Better be unborn than untaught; for
+ignorance is the root of misfortune.'"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Blessed influence of one true, loving soul on another. Not
+calculable by algebra, not deductible by logic, but mysterious,
+effectual, mighty as the hidden process by which the tiny seed is
+quickened, and bursts forth into tall stem and broad leaf, and
+glowing tasseled flower."&mdash;<i>George Eliot.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>"Oh dear!" exclaimed Kate as she laid down the letter containing the
+lesson on Thought. "I didn't know we were so responsible for every
+little thing that comes into our mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Or goes out of it," said Grace, smiling, as she finished tinting a
+dainty plaque. "Now we can understand that 'where ignorance is bliss,
+'tis folly to be wise,'" she added rather absent-mindedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but I think I prefer the wisdom to the bliss. Do you understand
+this lecture as well as the rest?" asked Kate, again glancing at the
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Why shouldn't we? It is plainly told, and is a natural sequence to the
+others. I should think it very helpful, and if there really is so much
+power in thought, it is time people knew it."</p>
+
+<p>"But what of the people who do not know it? Are they utterly
+defenseless?"</p>
+
+<p>"As long as they believe in the reality of sin, sickness and death, they
+must suffer from them," replied Grace, picking a loose hair from her
+blender.</p>
+
+<p>"Then they ought to know how to learn and understand these things, but I
+could not tell anybody."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We can solve any problem by going back and reasoning from the premise.
+If any shock of sin or sickness come over us, we have simply to remember
+the spiritual, which is the only real creation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so easily done though. To-day I met the most miserable
+looking cripple sliding along without any limbs. I held my skirts aside
+as he passed, and forgot to even think of him as God's child," confessed
+Kate, in a regretful tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything takes time, and we can't expect to leap into perfection at
+once, but what did you do after he had passed?" asked Grace, with some
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I pitied the poor creature and wondered what made him so."</p>
+
+<p>"That was the very way to keep him in the same condition," said Grace,
+rapidly mixing some paint. "This last lesson very clearly explains that
+<i>every</i> thought has an influence, and that you help to make the body
+manifest whatever you think of it. If you think the real and true, you
+help to make that show forth, if you only think of the external or
+apparent trouble or defect, and regard it as the real, you are harming
+instead of helping."</p>
+
+<p>"I can readily see that we may affect ourselves, but it seems hard to
+believe that we affect <i>everybody</i>," protested Kate, incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"It is because we cannot realize the law of thought transference. I was
+reading just last week about that. An instance of Stuart C. Cumberland's
+mind-reading was cited. It was wonderful. And then long ago I read an
+old book written by Cornelius Agrippa about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> it, but I was not very much
+interested, and did not understand nor believe it at the time, so my
+memory is not worth much concerning it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you really think I added another weight to that unhappy creature's
+burden of trouble?" cried Kate, in sharp surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be best for you to deny his apparent conditions and affirm his
+real ones, and instead of thoughts of pity, which are only weakening,
+you could think of happiness and contentment. I truly believe we can
+learn to think of people this way, if we only catch ourselves for
+correction every time we think wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"How shall I ever learn to bridle my thoughts?" was Kate's despairing
+wail.</p>
+
+<p>"By learning to bridle your tongue; I found a splendid text to-day on
+that very theme. It is in James iii: 2. 'If any man offend not in word,
+the same is a perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body.'</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it tells in those few words the substance of all we have learned
+in these lessons," exclaimed Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Only we would never have had sense enough to understand without the
+lessons," added Grace, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"They may be likened to a golden key that opens royal gates," said Kate,
+going to the piano to play while Grace was putting away her paints and
+brushes.</p>
+
+<p>A little later Grace went out to mail a letter. As she turned from the
+post-box, she found herself face to face with&mdash;whom but Leon
+Carrington?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, an unexpected pleasure, Miss Hall!" he said, extending his hand and
+warmly grasping the one she slowly held out to him. He looked
+searchingly into her face, with clear, questioning eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She dropped her lashes and drew back with a touch of the old
+haughtiness, murmuring something he could not hear.</p>
+
+<p>"May I have the pleasure of a little walk with you?" he asked, suiting
+his step to hers and ignoring her apparent coldness.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. How long since you returned to Hampton, Mr. Carrington?"
+recovering herself as they walked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only a few days ago. I was called here on business for my uncle, and
+will probably be detained several weeks." He glanced at her as he spoke,
+but she gave no sign, only remarking it was a lovely season of the year
+for a visit. They walked along, talking only commonplaces, until they
+neared her home.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you receive my letter, Miss Gra&mdash;Miss Hall?" he asked, with some
+unsteadiness in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied, shortly. She did not understand herself any more
+than he did, and was vexed to find it so impossible to throw off her old
+proud ways, for she really intended to relent enough, at least, to have
+an explanation, and possibly&mdash;her thoughts could never go farther than
+this, and here she was, in the same imperious way, shutting her better
+self away from even a fair consideration of duty. These thoughts flashed
+through her mind while she walked on, apparently with the greatest
+indifference to either his words or his pres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>ence. But with a great
+effort she compelled herself to say again, with more warmth, "I received
+it, and intended to answer before this, but&mdash;" She stopped abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>He gratefully caught the morsel she had given, and asked if he might not
+call the next day.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you may come at three," she said, careful to set a time when Kate
+would surely be out.</p>
+
+<p>At the door they parted, and as she went up the stairs, she wondered
+more than ever at her hardness, for almost unconsciously she had given
+up all doubts of his honor as a gentleman. What was it all about
+anyway? Nothing but a report that he was engaged to a young lady at the
+time he proposed to her, and on the testimony of a single friend, she
+had allowed herself to be miserable, and make another miserable, through
+this foolish pride that she <i>would</i> conquer by to-morrow afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>What! would she compel herself to so utterly ignore her own nature? She
+leaned against the wall half way up the stairway, startled at this
+revelation of herself. She did not know she was capable of such changes,
+and yet the last two weeks had greatly modified her opinions in many
+things.... Why should it not be so? If it were right she could be glad,
+and she reverently felt that it was right to let the Truth erase all
+errors and right all wrongs. To-night she would deny away every fault in
+her character, especially pride, deny every obstacle to understanding,
+and then earnestly ask for guidance, and wait till it came, for this was
+truly a crisis in her life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next day she received her guest with a perceptibly softened manner.
+The hour was spent in mutual explanations, and the renewal of a more
+friendly relation on her part, much to the satisfaction of Mr.
+Carrington, whose perseverance was surely worthy this much reward, but
+Grace would go no further, although she gave him permission to call
+again. She must know herself fully before another word on the subject
+were said. Marriage was a vague and solemn theme, something to be
+pondered over days and nights and months perhaps, she thought, and said
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carrington was a man of earnest aim and high purpose, thoughtful,
+intellectual and cultured, in every way congenial to her, and she was
+glad to accept his friendship. That he had loved her through all her
+coldness and neglect, she no longer doubted, which fact was of no small
+import in his chances for her favor. Finding how absolutely false had
+been the report that had caused her misjudgment, she was anxious to
+prove herself at least, a friend.</p>
+
+<p>After he was gone she reviewed the situation. Had she gone too far? No.
+All was well. She was content. Even if it should end in marriage, for
+marriage was the highest symbol of perfection and&mdash;. What the symbol
+meant was yet to be revealed, but she already knew that it had a
+profound and sacred meaning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"The study of Heredity, <i>spiritual</i> anatomy and physiology is
+highest of all. The key to this study is your own soul. Study
+yourself; gain possession and mastery of your own spirit and you
+hold the key not only to the heights of liberty, but the key that
+unlocks imprisoned souls."&mdash;<i>Mary Weeks Burnett M. D.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, October &mdash;&mdash;.</span></p>
+
+<p>"My dear husband: Gradually the vision broadens and we become more
+accustomed to the light. It is as though we were put into a beautiful
+room filled with all manner of lovely forms and dainty colors, flowers
+and perfumes, where we have groped blindfolded from one thing to
+another, trying to form some conception of the surpassing loveliness,
+when gradually the bandage is removed, layer by layer until the whole
+enchanting scene, radiant with light is revealed to our wondering gaze,
+showing the vast difference between supposition and reality.</p>
+
+<p>"The light grew clearer than ever to-day, for we had our first practical
+hint on healing, inasmuch as we were told how to take up a case for
+treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"We must never forget that we are, and wish to remain as little
+children, in our desire to apprehend and understand Truth. The natural
+attitude of the child-mind is one of receptivity and eager interest.
+Under the guidance of wise parents he will always be willing and anxious
+to learn more and more, continually growing in wisdom and love.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Back to the zeal and innocence of childhood we go then, to learn the
+ever mysterious but ever charming alphabet of Truth, which leads us into
+the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>"As we present ourselves in the great school room of life, and take or
+recognize our appointed place beside the ever present School-master, we
+learn the letters of the grand knowledge that shall teach us how to read
+the most learned books, understand the deepest philosophy, the
+profoundest science, the divinest religion. We would learn the ministry
+of healing, that will set free the 'spirits in prison;' we would be glad
+messengers of the gospel of peace. The door to great attainments is
+faithfulness in small ones.</p>
+
+<p>"There are three kinds or modes of healing. The first or lowest, is the
+intellectual; the second or next higher, the intuitional; the third and
+highest, the spiritual. The first only can be taught, the other two are
+attained by individual development. The first comes by reason, the
+second by faith, the third by understanding. The first is by argument or
+a system of reasoning, the second by implicit trust or confidence in the
+Principle, the third by the realization of Truth and the speaking of the
+word or perchance, by one's very presence.</p>
+
+<p>"But there is nothing arbitrary about this. The person who never heard
+of Christ's teaching till yesterday may have so caught the fire of Truth
+that to-day he stands at the altar a priest instead of communicant, a
+teacher instead of pupil.</p>
+
+<p>"Many just beginning their study of this method of healing require
+explicit directions and explanations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> of details, in order to apply the
+principle, feeling that they have no intuitional leadings and can not
+depend upon the invisible power because they know so little about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait; be patient; trust. Remember that 'he who is faithful in little,
+shall be made ruler over much.' You need not learn the rule if you learn
+the principle, and only so long as you are ignorant of the principle
+will you need the rule. To use the rule, as the child uses the chair in
+learning to walk, is to grow strong, and able to dispense with it; to
+use it as spectacles are used, is to make it indispensable.</p>
+
+<p>"If we can not yet learn through divine ways, let us learn through human
+ways. The human is inadequate to express the divine, but many nameless
+hints and light-gleams and sudden illuminations will flash upon the
+faithful worker all along the way. Words are signs of ideas and ideas
+are signs of God. When we think or speak true words, we have begun our
+mission of healing or helpfulness, and from words we go on to the
+inexpressible thrill of realization.</p>
+
+<p>"We can not tell when we may thus change from the letter to the spirit,
+can not tell when we come into the exalted condition of a spiritual
+understanding, and having received the illumination, we are not to feel
+that we have grown above the use of argument, for it may be necessary to
+go back to the rule with the very next treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"Above all else must the student of this Truth guard against what may be
+called spiritual pride. No thought of supremacy or greater advancement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+should be harbored for a moment. All such things are clouds that obscure
+the light as much as other material beliefs.</p>
+
+<p>"To gauge ourselves by that inimitable thirteenth chapter of I.
+Corinthians is to maintain the perfect equilibrium of a loving,
+charitable heart, that can heal and bless all human-kind, for 'love
+never faileth.'</p>
+
+<p>"We become, as it were, the cleansed window pane, through which shines
+the divine light of Truth. Could we always be the cleansed pane, Truth
+would melt away all error, just as the sun melts the frostwork, but
+being still in the current of human thought we must wait patiently for
+further power to reveal the God-likeness.</p>
+
+<p>"Wrong thought as the real cause of disease, opens new avenues of
+information; but we continue to explore and discover. Any kind of
+thought opposite the good is sure to break forth into some form of
+disease-pictures, and the question is, what kind of thought is it which
+thus reflects itself upon the patient's body? All error will produce
+pictures of error. The world's naming of the belief in heredity is the
+naming of its greatest error, or belief in sin, because that implies all
+sins of the flesh as manifested in the body.</p>
+
+<p>"Back of all effect is a cause; the disease is the effect, the wrong
+thought is the cause. One of the great causes of disease is sensual
+beliefs, the appetites and passions of the carnal man.</p>
+
+<p>"It is error to suppose he is subject to conditions unlike God, the
+Source. 'He that is born of God, can not sin, because his seed remaineth
+in him.' Being in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> and controlled by the universal thought current, the
+error of supposition, he manifests it in his condition. Supposing
+consumption hereditary, he suffers from the supposition; supposing
+impurities of the blood transmitted through the flesh, he finds it even
+so. Supposition, false thinking, being at the bottom of all erroneous
+conditions, we proceed to deal with them as we do with any other errors
+or lies.</p>
+
+<p>"When we seek for anything with a desire to gain happiness, it is
+because we hope to gain what our previous efforts have failed to bring
+us, so the one who comes to be healed by Christian Truth, comes with a
+hope at least that this will bring the health he has sought in vain from
+other sources. He has turned in all directions in response to the advice
+received from this or that one of the friendly advisers, so ready to
+constitute themselves the body guard of the world. He has tried doctors
+of every school; he has traveled east, west, north and south; he has
+plunged into healing waters of all kinds and had all kinds of healing
+waters plunged into him; he has been burned and steamed and pounded and
+starved, till he is finally disgusted enough to want something that will
+not harm if it will not cure, so he drags himself before us with
+possibly a gleam of hope, possibly the faithlessness of despair, and
+asks for a treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"And now you wish to know in what a treatment consists; simply in
+silently telling the patient the truth about himself as God's child, in
+giving him the principles we have learned concerning God and man, and
+with earnest gladness assuring him of his freedom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> For the benefit of
+the young practitioner, we will give a few directions or suggestive
+treatments.</p>
+
+<p>"We ask the patient for a statement of his belief, which he is only too
+glad to give with elaborate and vivid details. We meet every statement
+with an emphatic mental denial.</p>
+
+<p>"The faithful student who has fasted and prayed (denied and affirmed),
+is now the embodiment of one vast negative that should wipe out the
+positive belief of any inharmony. The patient, being in the belief of
+false conditions, is of one mind with the world, and so reflects the
+beliefs of mankind. That we may be sure of meeting all classes of false
+beliefs, we deny for him the reflection of any false conceptions of
+himself from the race, his parents and ancestors, his friends and
+associates, himself and ourself, for we are still one with humanity.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody has a conscious or unconscious belief in heredity, and since
+it is one of, if not <i>the</i> most formidable of human beliefs, we deal
+with it first as the possible cause of our patient's belief in
+suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"After he has finished the statement of his condition, we say to him
+mentally: 'James Martin! Hear what I say, for I tell you absolute truth.
+Not one word of all this you have told me about dyspepsia is true,
+because the carnal mind, to which you have been listening, is not
+subject to the law of God, and <i>you</i>, the spiritual, immortal you, are
+subject to the mind of the spirit which recognizes the spiritual
+creation, therefore your spiritual self can not be sick or suffer from
+any inharmony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'This carnal mind belief named dyspepsia is not a condition of your
+real self. The belief of the race, ancestors, daily associates, yourself
+or myself in heredity and the sensual appetites can not be pictured
+forth by your body in the form of dyspepsia, because the real you is
+spiritual and not subject to material beliefs. It is utterly impossible
+for you, who are spiritual, to be influenced by any thought that is
+opposite the spiritual, as it is impossible for the light to coalesce
+with darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>You</i> are God's child, made in His image and likeness, and must be
+perfect like Him, for His conditions are changeless and eternal. Listen
+to this glad message that tells you absolute Truth. Realize that as
+God's child you can not suffer, for spirit knows no suffering. You can
+not be weak, for God is your strength; you can not fear anything, for
+God is your refuge and fortress. 'God hath not given us the spirit of
+fear, but of love and of power and of sound mind.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Listen to me!&mdash;The 'Truth sets free.'&mdash;<i>Now, you are free</i>. You gladly
+acknowledge the truth, and prove it in every thought, word and deed.
+Like the Master, I say unto you, 'Lazarus, come forth!' Come out of the
+errors in which you have been so long entombed, throw off the grave
+clothes of mortal thought, and rise to new thoughts, new conditions, a
+new life! Rejoice that you are whole, and let the world rejoice with
+you.... It is finished. In the hands of omnipresent Good, in the name of
+immaculate Truth, I leave you.</p>
+
+<p>"'So may this be established, yea, it <i>is already</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> established. I thank
+Thee, Father, that thou hast heard me.'</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+
+<p>"This lesson, John, is very hard to report. I find so many questions
+suggested to my mind, and so many if's and but's.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pearl desired us each to take up a case for absent treatment, some
+one we would like to help, and from whom we could hear every day or so,
+or who would be under our personal notice. I am going to treat a little
+boy in the house where I board. It is quite a severe case of catarrh.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would take a case, too. Just try this form of treatment that
+I have given. It may not seem clear to you at first, but it is not the
+words you are to remember so much as the ideas. Get the thought firmly
+fixed in your mind, and the words will come of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"You readily see it is using the same principle with the patient that
+has been applied in self training. First, the denial of all error, and
+then the affirmation of truth. This treatment is for any chronic
+condition, and is given twice a day, in the morning and at night.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I must say good-night. It is nearly eleven, and I really ought to
+say my denials and affirmations some more, besides giving my patient the
+treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"With many kisses to the dear ones,</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"I am your loving <span class="smcap">Marion</span>."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Once let friendship be given that is born of God, nor time nor
+circumstance can change it to a lessening; it must be mutual
+growth, increasing trust, widening faith, enduring patience,
+forgiving love, unselfish ambition and an affection built before
+the Throne, which will bear the test of time and trial."</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 22em;">&mdash;<i>Allen Throckmorton.</i></span></p></div>
+
+
+<p>"It seems to me, Grace, you have been touching up your complexion with
+some of the same paint as that in your roses," exclaimed Kate,
+playfully, as she inspected Grace rather critically.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Kate, you must be more careful, or I shall add the sin of
+vanity to my other faults," answered Grace, looking out of the window
+and smiling pleasantly, with the least touch of absent mindedness in her
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>"No danger of that, you dear old Gracious, but if you should say
+secretiveness, I might be willing to stop," said Kate, boldly, yet
+hardly daring to look toward the window.</p>
+
+<p>Grace did not answer, but continued looking out of the window for
+several minutes. "What makes you say that, Kate?" she asked at last,
+turning around soberly, while the rosy flush crept up to her temples and
+back of her ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know, Gracious, only it seems to me you are like a pure
+white lily bell, and I want to creep into your heart and live in its
+fragrance, but&mdash;" She stopped abruptly. It seemed as though the almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>
+imperceptible veil of reserve was falling lower than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, why could she not gain Grace's confidence? These thoughts passed
+rapidly through her mind while she stood as if transfixed, waiting for
+Grace to break the interminable silence. If she had only known it, Grace
+was nearer to her at that moment than ever before, but with her eyes
+cast down, she saw not the yearning look on the face of her friend.</p>
+
+<p>Grace spoke at last:</p>
+
+<p>"But what, Kate?" she asked, taking up Kate's words where they had
+dropped.</p>
+
+<p>"But the petals will not open, and I am left out," finished Kate,
+determined to be frank.</p>
+
+<p>Grace looked out of the window again, and was about to reply, when a rap
+at the door startled them both. It was a boy with a note. "Miss Grace
+Hall?" he said, handing it to her.</p>
+
+<p>Grace looked at the letter and then at the boy inquiringly. "I am to
+wait for an answer," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she murmured, in a dazed way, and hastened to find pen and paper
+for reply.</p>
+
+<p>"More mystery! I declare, it is getting interesting," thought Kate,
+recovering herself, as she furtively watched the rosy face of Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Any answer?" asked the boy as he took the note.</p>
+
+<p>"No." The door was shut and Grace sat down beside the picture she had
+been working upon, but presently arose and began pacing the room. Kate
+looked up at her as she passed, but said nothing. She could see that
+some deep thought was struggling for utterance, and wondered much.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After a few moments Grace stopped beside her. "I wish I might speak
+freely to you, Kathie, but&mdash;" she hesitated, "but it has never been
+natural for me to be confidential, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She began her promenade again, but presently came back, and drawing her
+chair close up to Kate, told her the whole story, with long pauses and
+much hesitating speech.</p>
+
+<p>"And now he is in the city; he&mdash;wants an answer. He has invited me
+to&mdash;ride with him&mdash;to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, you will not refuse him that privilege?" cried the impetuous
+Kate, with visions of a romance unfolding in thrilling chapters before
+her very eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course not," in a low tone, "but how shall I answer him?" The
+last was scarcely audible. It seemed almost as though she spoke to
+herself. With her forefinger she idly traced some hieroglyphics on her
+lap.</p>
+
+<p>"What says your heart, my Lilybell?" asked Kate, softly, as she caressed
+the hand that was at liberty.</p>
+
+<p>"'The prisoned bird doth ofttimes sing, but never at the bidding of its
+jailer,'" was the low reply, with a faint smile, but tearful eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Lilybell; she can not bloom before her time. I can wait for her to
+open now, for I am close to her throbbing heart. Wait, dear Grace. Let
+us sit silently and ask the Father for guidance."</p>
+
+<p>Sweet and solemn moment, when with one accord, they waited for the
+Spirit to pour out the full vials of love and wisdom. It was a precious
+time of sweet communion, of giving and receiving the best, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+consecration of self to better efforts, higher aims, holier living; a
+baptism of strength and peace and lovely thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Grace had entered upon a new epoch. The past, with its longings and
+struggles, its loneliness and bitterness, was already fading into the
+background of memory like some dark, ill-favored picture, and in its
+place came the present, with its balmy atmosphere and dainty colorings,
+promising joy and peace. The morning looked fair. How would be the noon
+and eventide?</p>
+
+<p>Ah, no questioning when you ask the Father's guidance! Have you not
+asked, dear heart?</p>
+
+<p>Wait till the answer comes. Wait till the soundless message is delivered
+into your heart's safe keeping....</p>
+
+<p>The last beams of the setting sun came through the window and bathed
+them in its red-gold glory. In her exalted mood, it seemed to Kate like
+a heavenly vision. She saw Grace glorified with a divine radiance,
+baptized with a new peace. White-winged angels hovered near, like pure
+thoughts personified. Every glinting sunbeam seemed a golden shaft of
+love.</p>
+
+<p>The glory paled into a mellow twilight. The enchanting picture faded,
+but the essence of its beauty changed into a heart-melody of softened
+sacred joy. What but music could speak in this hallowed moment?</p>
+
+<p>Kate's very soul would utter itself. She went to the piano as in a
+dream. Soft, low notes, faint and sweet, breathed of tender questionings
+and tremulous doubts; then a higher, more triumphant strain of victory
+swelled the notes that lingered but a moment, ere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> a tone of sadness and
+regret struck the keys, whispering of sacred duty and solemn
+responsibility.... Again the music changed. Now peace and joy thrilled
+and rippled through the melodious chords....</p>
+
+<p>Dearer than ever was the friendship thus cemented. They had been caught
+up to heaven, as it were, and that which had been bound on earth was now
+bound in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"Mystical more than magical, is the communing of soul with soul, both
+looking heavenward. Here, properly, soul first speaks with soul; for
+only in looking heavenward, take it in what sense you may, not looking
+earthward, does what we can call union, mutual love, society, begin to
+be possible."</p>
+
+<p>They sat till late into the night, discussing and considering all phases
+of life and its problems.</p>
+
+<p>Kate read Mrs. Hayden's letter, which in the agitation and excitement of
+the first part of the evening she had quite forgotten. Because of their
+deep earnestness they were well prepared to catch the healing mood. This
+experience seemed indeed the shower that most opened the blossom of
+understanding, and ere they slept, each had taken some poor suffering
+mortal into her care as a patient. The blessings they had received were
+already being passed to the waiting neighbor.</p>
+
+<p>It is the deep, unselfish God-love that takes the world in its embrace.
+To perceive, feel, live the divine Love, is to have broken the old shell
+of selfishness, when we may begin to send the tender rootlets of being
+into the ready soil of the universe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"The power to bind and loose to Truth is given!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of Heaven.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The power, which in a sense belongs to none,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thus understood belongs to every one."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Abraham Coles.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Thro' envy, thro' malice, thro' hating,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Against the world, early and late,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">No jot of our courage abating&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Our part is to work and to wait."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Anon.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, October &mdash;&mdash;.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Dear ones at home: Your letters were all received this afternoon. Am
+pleased to know that Mabel is so interested, for it will help her so
+much in her studies and work. I must begin my daily report at once, as
+there is not much time before class.</p>
+
+<p>"There was no lesson yesterday, and about noon Mrs. Dawn came after me
+to go with her and Mrs. Browning, her hostess, to the dentist's, as Mrs.
+Browning had to have a tooth extracted. We started, treating her all the
+way with the quieting, reassuring thoughts that allay fear. Before she
+went in we agreed to hold that thought.</p>
+
+<p>"When Mrs. Browning went into the office, we remained in the waiting
+room thinking as intently as possible:</p>
+
+<p>"'There is not a thing to fear, Lida Browning, there is no tooth-ache
+with your real self, there is no sensation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> in matter. You can entertain
+nothing but the One Life. The One Mind thinks, and you are His idea,
+perfect as your Creator. Good is all, Love is all, Peace is already with
+you, for you are one with the Father.'</p>
+
+<p>... "It was done. The dentist was so amazed that he hardly remembered to
+give his patient a glass of water.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, I never knew a cuspidate to come so hard. Didn't it hurt
+terribly?' he asked sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"'Not a bit except when you first put on the forceps,' was her prompt
+reply as she rinsed out her mouth....</p>
+
+<p>"I need say no more. You can imagine our pleasure at this victory. We
+never know how little our faith till we see how astonished we are at the
+demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>"You ask if Mrs. Pearl has explained your queries. A few questions were
+handed in yesterday, but I had not time to put them in my letter. One
+that always puzzled us, was: What is the origin of evil? The questions
+are written on slips of paper and laid on the table. She answers them
+before giving the regular lesson. When she read this slip there was not
+a little stir among the fifty eager questioners. 'What is the origin of
+evil?' she repeated. 'It has no origin,' was the unsatisfactory answer,
+after a momentary silence. Oh! the blankness of those faces! 'But,' she
+resumed presently, 'if you ask how <i>seeming</i> evil originated, I may give
+you the ideas that came to me as a solution of that mortal mind
+question.'</p>
+
+<p>"You know we might ask questions of each other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> forever, but unless our
+thoughts are tinged with same quality, or run in the same direction, the
+satisfactory answer to one may not be at all satisfactory to another. In
+other words, we will not recognize the same phase of truth, unless we
+are in the same stage of development, so if you are not willing to take
+my explanation as true, it may be that you are not yet where you can
+perceive it, or it may be, you require a different illustration to
+convey the same thought, or, there may be innumerable reasons, but of
+this one blessed fact be assured: if you hold yourself in the receptive
+attitude, and sincerely expect to be guided by the spirit of truth, some
+day the answer will come to you with such irresistible force and
+plainness that you can not forget it, or ever be in doubt upon that
+point again.</p>
+
+<p>"It was in this way the light came to me. That question had puzzled me
+more than all else, and I asked every healer whom I met as to the
+correct solution. For several months I pondered and fretted over it. At
+last, in despair, I let it alone, resolving I would not be further
+troubled. But one day it unfolded itself so clearly and beautifully I
+was completely satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is: Taking the first account of creation, we find man made in
+the image and likeness of God, given dominion over all things. If we
+believe man to be spiritual and not material, if we know that spirit
+<i>can not</i> change its character or quality, we must know that spiritually
+man never fell, but that he <i>seemed</i> to fall through our misconception
+and misunderstanding of appearances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Man now manifests what he believes in; his consciousness of truth is
+not fully developed and he mistakes appearances for realities. Having
+all possibilities of recognizing only the good, he is perfect. For every
+mistake that is made he manifests error, the fallen, or rather the
+undeveloped state. The Truth and Love that he manifests in his life, is
+the revealment of his God-like nature. In the glimpses of his true self
+he recognizes his inheritance of power, and in his mistaken conceptions
+forgets to acknowledge God. He then judges according to appearances, and
+says things are true because they appear true to the senses.</p>
+
+<p>"The creating principle of life is perfect, but man neglects to
+acknowledge this divine power in proportion to his selfishness. It is
+therefore his selfishness that prevents him from recognizing the Good,
+and causes him to see, name and believe in matter and its consequences;
+and he thus becomes materially minded, and is known as the 'Adam' in
+'whom all die.'</p>
+
+<p>"Adam signifies error, clay, unreality. Christ signifies Truth, Spirit,
+Reality. If we believe in things that appear to be the creation, we are
+believing in nothingness, which so proves itself by death and
+disintegration. If we believe appearances to be the <i>sign</i> of the real,
+we are acknowledging the spiritual to be the all, hence it proves itself
+by making even the body its sign, manifest life, health, perfection.</p>
+
+<p>"If we cast out all selfishness, pure love takes its place. We must be
+purified from the beliefs of the world in selfishness and its
+consequences by recognizing that our 'sufficiency is of God.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This was very plain to me, John, and I hope you will find it so too,
+but if you do not, wait, and as soon as you are ready for it, the answer
+will come to you.</p>
+
+<p>"The lesson to-day was on deception and personal influences. The whole
+world has been deceived into believing man is fleshly instead of
+spiritual, so many false thoughts and beliefs have arisen, which are the
+cause of all disease and trouble. Universally we are deceived,
+individually we are deceived, and it is not only because we are making
+our beliefs visible on the body, but because we suffer from them
+mentally and physically that it is necessary to discover what they are
+and cast them out.</p>
+
+<p>"The term deception will cover the mistakes believed and made in
+ignorance, and deceitfulness will include the beliefs in and expression
+of deceitfulness. On the second day the patient is treated for the
+world's next greatest beliefs, which are deception and deceitfulness,
+and as before, we set him free from this belief, as possibly reflected
+or absorbed through one or more or all of these five avenues we
+mentioned in the first treatment.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the world has admitted the first great lie, that the material
+creation is the true one, or synonymous with the true, we have 'yielded
+ourselves servants to sin,' hence will see the consequences of such
+false conclusion, until we deny the lie and affirm the truth.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Oh what a tangled web we weave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When first we practice to deceive,'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>is a couplet I remember learning long ago, when I was a child, and how
+applicable it is to this problem of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> deception. Truly, it is a tangled
+web, and the only way to get it untangled is to break off the thread and
+go back to the beginning where we can truly say, I am created free and
+perfect and whole in His image, and can not be influenced by anything
+different from Him.</p>
+
+<p>"This is <i>always</i> spiritually true, but if we deal with the worldly
+beliefs, we find that according to appearances, we are under the
+influence of our own and every other person's wrong thought. We say of
+some people, 'how happy I am in their company, how it uplifts me to be
+in their presence.' With others we feel a nameless depression, a
+fearful, unhappy feeling, and shun their company. As Emerson so aptly
+says: 'With some I walk among the stars, whilst others pin me to the
+wall.'</p>
+
+<p>"Now, in reality, no good ever comes from personal influence, although
+in the first instance it might seem so. Personal, from the word
+<i>persona</i>, a mask, is only applied to the physical self or carnal mind;
+therefore we can receive no benefit from the <i>personal</i> quality of our
+friend, but we are benefited and uplifted by his freedom from
+personality, or in other words by the divine individuality flowing
+through him and expressed by his benevolence, his love, his
+cheerfulness, his wisdom. Inasmuch as he is free from personal or
+selfish thoughts, he is filled and permeated with gifts from the divine
+Fountain of <i>all</i> benevolence, <i>all</i> love, <i>all</i> cheerfulness, <i>all</i>
+wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a difference between personality and individuality which most
+people do not recognize.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> Personality only pertains to the physical,
+while individuality is the term properly applied to the spiritual self.
+'There is but one Mind, the Universal Mind, which, if we can lay hold
+on, will give us all knowledge, wisdom and power,' said Emerson.</p>
+
+<p>"When we can throw aside a belief in personality, or personal influence,
+we will be free. The negative thoughts sent out by the world have no
+power over one who has become filled with positive thoughts of
+righteousness. When we trust wholly to the Good, and become wholly at
+one with the Good, recognizing the supremacy of the Good, we are free
+from all belief in miseries or burdens. We breathe purer air, which is
+invisible but life-giving; we feed on heavenly manna, the true word that
+is divinely nourishing; we escape the awful bondage of fear, knowing the
+perfect love that casts out fear. We can not fear any false beliefs or
+wrong thoughts, for we are so filled with true thoughts, no such
+falsities can enter our mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Some people talk as though we have great cause to tremble at this awful
+counterfeit power of mortal mind, but if they would not talk of it, nor
+fear it as having power, it would vanish as mist before the morning sun.</p>
+
+<p>"The great sin is in admitting a lie. Admit the belief of sickness as a
+reality and you will see many witnesses to prove it. 'Agree with thine
+adversary quickly, lest he turn and rend thee,' means make haste to
+dispose of the lie that will throttle you, if you fellowship with it
+ever so little. Let us not be deceived, but let us 'awake to
+righteousness and sin not.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Another question, and a very important one, was: 'What is the
+difference between the different teachers of Christian Healing?' I can
+best give the substance of Mrs. Pearl's reply by reference to Mrs.
+Fuller, the healer from Trenton.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember when she gave her parlor lecture at Mrs. Haight's, she
+said: 'Everything that did not come from her teacher was mesmerism, that
+it was altogether false, and it was so much of a power that it was
+indeed to be feared, for there was no telling what its subtlety and
+cunning would suggest and execute; that no cure effected by it was
+permanent, but that the patients would sooner or later be worse than
+before.'</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, I must not rehearse it, for of course you remember how my old
+headache overtook me when I got home, and how wrought up I was all
+night. Now I know what caused it, and <i>now</i> I know the difference.</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, these people are taught the pure and beautiful
+foundation of pure Christian Healing, but instead of holding to their
+premise that all is good, they begin to talk about people and things
+that are <i>not</i> good, imputing false motives, and giving false power to
+those who, as they say, are not in the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"If they would only remember that counterfeits can have no power except
+as it is delegated to them, that unreal thoughts must disappear in the
+presence of true thoughts, they would not be troubled and puzzled.
+Adhering to the law, they would recognize and talk about the Good only.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, John, here is the secret of Jesus' words, 'Resist not evil.' If we
+resist anything, we recognize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> it as something. If we regard evil as an
+entity, we can not help fearing or fighting it, but if we know it is
+nothingness claiming to be something, we deal with it accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever resists evil or calls evil a power, has not denied the reality
+of evil faithfully enough. To talk of anything as having power, is to
+believe in the power and become entangled in its meshes. That explains
+Mrs. Fuller's remark that she was 'actually afraid to meet one of those
+false teachers on the street, and always took pains to warn people
+against them.' I speak of Mrs. Fuller because you know so well what she
+did and said, that you will understand this explanation better.</p>
+
+<p>"Another remark she made was, that 'this power of mortal mind is wholly
+ignored by these false teachers, although they secretly use it so
+effectually and disastrously.' Because they do not talk so much of evil,
+she thinks they ignore it, while really they silently but earnestly and
+vigorously deny it, thereby getting a sure control over it. She was
+taught to call this seeming power of mortal thought Mesmerism, and
+Animal Magnetism, and after giving it such formidable names, and so
+mighty a place, it is most natural for her to say that it affects
+herself and family or her patients, causing them to be slow in yielding
+to treatment. Thus you can readily see how she accounts for her
+failures.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pearl teaches that we can deal with this influence of carnal or
+mortal mind, by denying for the patient the conscious or unconscious
+reflection of it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> from these five different sources. To the patient who
+is ignorant of truth, mortal thought has a power, because he has
+acknowledged it as having power, but in our silent conviction of its
+powerlessness, we speak the true word that sets him free. The whole
+secret lies in our own freedom from belief in this false power.</p>
+
+<p>"The name Mesmerism or Magnetism makes it seem like some awful monster,
+lurking in every corner, ready to devour us, while, as Mrs. Pearl says,
+we go our way, quietly denying all appearance of evil, proving the law
+of Good by recognizing only the Good in thought and speech.</p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful this teaching is! and how wonderfully the spirit leads us
+into all truth. But it can not teach us if we talk error, or
+deliberately judge others. Never till we are faithful in acknowledging
+the one Principle of Life will it prove itself the only power over us.</p>
+
+<p>"After the questions, Mrs. Pearl spoke of the third treatment. We treat
+for everything we might have missed in the first two treatments.
+Sometimes this is called the sin treatment, for it takes up so many
+things that belong more or less to everybody, according to the world's
+belief. A more explicit naming is selfishness.</p>
+
+<p>"Selfishness is the beginning, the mother of all the rest. It reminds
+one of the seven devils from which poor Mary Magdalen was freed. It is
+not unlikely these were their names: Selfishness, pride, envy, avarice,
+jealousy, malice and cruelty. This we deny for the patient through the
+five different sources, and you can see how apt it will be to touch him,
+for who is there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> of all earth's children that is perfectly free from
+any of these qualities. With our strong faith in the law and power of
+the word, we sturdily deny everything that might be the shadow
+obstructing his light.</p>
+
+<p>"As we go on in this study, we learn the meaning of these outshowings of
+disease. Every visible thing is the expression of a thought, whether
+God-given or man-supposed. We look into a patient's face and read or
+interpret the signs of his thought. Is he selfish, unkind or severe in
+his disposition, there are the lines and expressions that betray him. Is
+he lovely, gentle and kind, a nameless feeling of peace and trust steals
+over us.</p>
+
+<p>"In the moments or times of silence that every healer should seek, there
+may come something to hint of the truth, some word or text or
+mind-picture that will teach what no book or teacher could tell, for
+'the spirit of truth leads us into all truth,' and the ways and means
+are varied according to our capacity to receive.</p>
+
+<p>"A mind-picture is a symbol representing some thought. For instance:
+Suppose while I sit in the silence, there comes to my consciousness a
+fragment of landscape, a child's face, a storm, a sun. These are ideas
+symbolized. If it be a pleasant scene, it may be to me a glimpse of the
+'green pastures and still waters' that David sang about when depicting
+the life of the righteous. It would mean peace for my patient. If the
+symbol be a child's face, it may mean that I must become as a little
+child in order to be led into the kingdom. A storm may signify that my
+patient is passing through a crisis of mental commotion, in which case I
+must use the invariable rule, deny the false and affirm the true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"On the other hand I may never see a symbol, but some suggestive text
+may come into my mind. If I were depressed or discouraged, these words
+might give me new courage and hope: 'Fear not, for I am with thee;'
+'wait patiently on the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine
+heart.'</p>
+
+<p>"Or I might not be conscious of anything while I am sitting thus in the
+silence. The answer to my silent question may come to me in the most
+commonplace way days or weeks after it is asked. Some person may say
+something that will be the very clue I am seeking. We are not to be
+anxious or troubled if many questions perplex us, or many problems seem
+insoluble, but wait, trusting that 'he is faithful who promised.' We
+must not be wishing for the same signs or powers that others have, but
+appreciate what is given to us, for faithfulness shall receive its full
+reward in due time 'if we faint not.'</p>
+
+<p>"No more to-day. Love to the babies. How glad I am to know they are so
+well and happy.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Faithfully, <span class="smcap">Marion</span>."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Comfort our souls with love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Love of all human kind;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Love special, close in which, like sheltered dove,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Each weary heart its own safe nest may find;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And love that turns above</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Adoringly; contented to resign</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">All loves, if need be, for the love divine."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>D. M. Mulock Craik.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Grace looked very lovely, as she stepped into the carriage, when Mr.
+Carrington called for her. A suggestion of reserved feeling gave an
+added lustre to her beautiful eyes, and the faintest wild-rose tint in
+her cheeks made her a fit study for any artist.</p>
+
+<p>She looks like Psyche just awakened. Can it be possible, that with all
+her charms, she was sleeping, before to-day? he thought as he took his
+seat beside her, thrilled with new hope.</p>
+
+<p>He drove into one of the broad, quiet avenues that led out of the city
+and into a country road. "I thought you would like to visit 'The Glen,'
+and see its autumn dress," he said, as they came in view of the river
+over which lay the "Glen" road.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been wishing I might go there, before the leaves fell, and this
+is exactly what I enjoy," replied Grace, looking out over the scene
+before her with a keen pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps this is an answer to your wish. Sometimes I think our wishes
+are answered because of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> intensity," said Mr. Carrington, looking
+meaningly into her face.</p>
+
+<p>"George Eliot says: 'The very intensity keeps them from being
+answered.'" What gave him the sudden, triumphant certainty that he could
+bide his time? She had lost all her haughtiness, apparently. He had
+never seen her in the mood of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Apropos</i> of wishes," he resumed, "which are properly thoughts, I have
+two friends in Boston, who can communicate with each other, no matter
+how far apart they may be. They call it the power of thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thought transference. I am quite interested and fully believe it,"
+said Grace, glad to have the opportunity of sounding him on this and
+kindred themes.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at her in polite surprise. "Indeed," he said, "are you
+acquainted with the subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhat; I have seen enough to know it is founded on law," she
+replied, briefly.</p>
+
+<p>"What law?" he asked, wonderingly, with a slight smile of incredulity
+lighting his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Mental law, of course."</p>
+
+<p>She then went on to explain to him something of her study of mental
+healing. At first he was rather skeptical, but on seeing her
+seriousness, he very soon grew sober and gave the most respectful and
+apparently absorbed attention. By the time she finished, he was really
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"I have often thought that some day there would be more light upon the
+philosophy of thought, but I was not aware it was so close upon us," he
+finally said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly much needed now," she replied, looking dreamily at the
+white clouds floating in the bits of blue above the trees. She was
+thinking how much it had been worth to her in her trial last night. He
+noticed the far-away look and wished he might know her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>What would have been his surprise, could he have been told at this
+moment how much he was already indebted to Christian Science? for had it
+not softened the cruel pride that had so encrusted her before? He knew
+nothing of this. He perceived a change in her manner and even character
+since he last saw her two years before, although even then his great
+love had been able to condone all weaknesses, or what others would call
+weaknesses. To him they were part of her lovableness.</p>
+
+<p>When she so coldly rejected him, unlike most men, he had determined to
+wait patiently for her indifference to turn into reciprocation. He had
+recognized but one thing, the simple, supreme fact that he loved Grace
+Hall. In regard to her, there was and never could be any other thought.
+Inspired with such love as this, such sublime patience, such infinite
+hope, is it any wonder he looked into her eyes and read a hint of
+victory?</p>
+
+<p>The time was drawing near. His two years of waiting surely gave him
+liberty to ask, and the right to receive.... As for that, love, such
+love as his, had royal rights and it would win its own way when the
+moment came. He would approach the subject gradually, talking about his
+coming departure, although he had mentioned that in his note, had even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+dared to tell her this must be his excuse for requesting an answer
+sooner than she wished to give it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a lovely group of colors!" exclaimed Grace, involuntarily,
+pointing to a tree decked in the most gorgeous foliage.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I get some leaves for you?" he asked, anticipating her desire,
+and descended from the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he returned, with his hands full of small branches. "They are
+lovely hues. Is there not something else you would like? I saw some
+beautiful ferns over yonder," he said, pointing to the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"Will we have time? I <i>would</i> like to get out," she exclaimed eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Time! 'There's time for all things,' Shakespeare says," laughed Mr.
+Carrington, as he assisted her to alight.</p>
+
+<p>Grace was in her element amid the speaking grandeur of Nature's hills.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a sharp pencil, Mr. Carrington? I seem to have lost the one I
+always carry with me, and that grand oak tree I must have as a model."</p>
+
+<p>He quickly sharpened one and gave it to her.</p>
+
+<p>How beautiful she looked! He delighted to watch every movement of the
+deft fingers, to study every expression of the beautiful eyes and mobile
+mouth. He revelled in her beauty, because to him she was the
+personification of all that was lovely and noble and great. Her
+character he would have loved just as much had she been plain instead of
+beautiful, for his ideal was the inward, not the outward beauty, except
+as the two blended into one, as they did with her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You seem to be partial to the oak, Miss Hall. Is there any reason for
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am. It is a grand symbol of strength and firmness of character,"
+she replied, still sketching rapidly. "I like to paint trees, for they
+express so much. Some show such kindly benevolence, with their broad,
+spreading branches and friendly shade, some are so graceful, with their
+tall trunks and delicately veined leaves, as though showing a fine,
+tender nature; while others are stunted and rough, with coarse, thick
+foliage. I place each one as to character and station, and they teach me
+many beautiful lessons."</p>
+
+<p>"And they will teach me many after this, Miss Grace."</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to say something more, but she was so innocently unconscious
+of anything but her work that he must wait for a better opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>Having finished her sketch, Grace looked up. The self-consciousness that
+had scarcely left her, save these past few moments, now returned with
+painful suddenness. Her eyes met his, and a vivid flush overspread her
+face, but she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go?" he asked, holding out his hand to assist her. His eyes
+expressed the question his lips could not frame, but she did not see
+them. They went to the carriage in silence.</p>
+
+<p>The road presently left the woods and turned into a broad country lane.
+Both had forgotten the proposed trip to "The Glen," but it made no
+difference. At last the undercurrent of feeling had burst through all
+reserves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carrington awaited the final answer, and what did she say?</p>
+
+<p>It was the sacred page in a maiden's life that is read but once.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Grace had found in her lover a man who was broadminded and liberal
+enough to fairly consider these matters from a woman's standpoint. They
+freely discussed a married woman's rights and privileges, and both
+agreed that a wife should have an individuality after marriage as well
+as before. "I desired to express myself on this point before, my dear
+Grace," said Mr. Carrington, "because to my mind it is a mutual life,
+and should be a mutual development."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, indeed. I have never looked at it in the right way, till the
+last few weeks. I used to feel that marriage was degrading rather than
+elevating, because it seemed as though a woman had to give up so much
+that really belonged to her, her name, her property, her freedom as an
+individual. But now I see that true marriage should bring freedom in the
+fullest sense of the word."</p>
+
+<p>"In love there is no bondage," he replied, admiring her independent
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but the world has a faint conception of love, the love that saves
+to the uttermost, and endures forever," said Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"With such love there would be no danger of marriage degrading the
+individual, no need of divorce."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke strongly for he felt strongly. Any one speaking from the depths
+of a heart-conviction, speaks with authority.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The world needs to be lifted to a higher standard on these matters. The
+subject of marriage is too sacred to jest about, and people in general
+think it no harm to toy with the word and all that pertains to it with
+the utmost carelessness."</p>
+
+<p>Grace was more like herself now. She was very happy in the thought that
+Mr. Carrington understood this as she did, but she was not a little
+surprised to find herself giving such free expression to her opinions.</p>
+
+<p>"Indifference and laxity is the result of the trifling. My theory is
+that these things should be sacredly spoken of in the family, when boys
+and girls are growing up. That is the way my mother did," said Mr.
+Carrington reverently.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the family is more responsible than society, for it makes
+society," she replied, secretly touched by the allusion to his mother.</p>
+
+<p>She felt more and more confidence in Mr. Carrington. It seemed
+surprising to find how rapidly her love for him had increased since she
+gave it permission to grow. She did not realize that it had been a
+smothered plant before, trying to live without sunshine. Now it could
+grow in the warmth and brightness of beautiful day.</p>
+
+<p>It was early twilight when they returned. Kate was waiting for her. The
+joyous light in Grace's eyes, though she tried to veil it, told the
+story. Kate put her arms about her, saying, as she caressed the rosy
+cheek:</p>
+
+<p>"Lilybell is bloomed at last."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Be cheerful: wipe thine eyes:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Some falls are means the happier to arise.</span><br />
+</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%; Margin-left: 4em; Margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;" />
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Before the curing of a strong disease,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Even in the instant of repair and health</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The fit is strongest; evils that take leave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">On their departure most of all show evil."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Shakespeare.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>For two days no letter came, and then Mr. Hayden received two, which he
+handed to the girls as he met them on the street the same evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you spare them both?" said Kate, holding out her hand eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I am especially engaged to-night, and besides they are better
+together. I am rather glad for the delay. I was afraid the first one had
+miscarried," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>The waiting had only increased their interest, and on reaching home they
+at once sat down to read the the two letters handed them by Mr. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, October &mdash;&mdash;.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Dear John: I suppose you, like the rest of us, are anxious to know how
+the patient feels after such a vigorous denial of the seven evils. It is
+quite necessary to know what to do at this stage.</p>
+
+<p>"After the treatment for special sins, James Martin comes with bitter
+complaints that he is worse instead of better. He tells a doleful story
+of how he suffered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> all night; had chills and fever exactly as when he
+had the ague long ago; how he coughed and choked and broke out with
+something like measles, and was all the while so vilely sick it seemed
+as though he was about to die.</p>
+
+<p>"As he is telling his pitiful tale, with perhaps a gleam of hatred,
+disgust or helpless anguish in his eyes, we are to sit calmly by and
+very soothingly give him the mental information that 'there is nothing
+to fear.'</p>
+
+<p>"When he concludes his mournful story, we assure him in quiet tones that
+there is no occasion for alarm, as we know how to deal with these
+symptoms. Then, very gently and slowly, with a most self-possessed
+attitude of mind, we talk to him mentally something after this fashion:</p>
+
+<p>"'There! James Martin, it is all right. Oh, no; nothing has hurt you,
+nor can hurt you. You are not afraid of anything; you know there is no
+reality in sickness; you are not suffering any inharmony because of fear
+or remorse for sin. It can not be possible for you to reflect fear or
+remorse from your parents, or the race or your daily associates. Neither
+is it possible for you to suffer from your own fear or remorse, nor
+mine. Remember, you are spiritual and not material, and can fear
+nothing. God is your intelligence, and you know that truth is
+all-powerful. Now, listen! You are happy, you are content, you are
+filled with blessed peace, 'the peace that passeth all understanding.'
+You know the Lord is your shepherd. He leadeth you beside the still
+waters. He maketh you to lie down in green pastures <i>now, this moment</i>.
+There is no future to God's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> promises; they are in the eternal present.
+There! James Martin, a sweet ease comes to you, the burden is taken
+away; you are in the gentle care of Truth, which ever whispers, 'Come
+unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest.' Sh&mdash;h! Gently the arms enfold you, sweetly peace and love embrace
+you, and you are at rest; sleep if you like. Softly come sweet words of
+divine love to your waiting ear, 'fear not, fear not, for I am with
+thee.' Peace ... peace be with you, Amen.'</p>
+
+<p>"This stage is called chemicalization, because our words of truth,
+dropped into the mind filled with error, produce a fermentation similar
+to the effect produced by the union of different chemicals. Sometimes
+the patient chemicalizes after the first treatment, in which case the
+second and third treatments are omitted.</p>
+
+<p>"When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to a
+last year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of the
+beliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rooted
+in the mental soil.</p>
+
+<p>"Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnished
+plowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in its
+path. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettled
+and his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gently
+soothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure him
+there is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peace
+and assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverized
+and prepared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fair
+truth-flowers.</p>
+
+<p>"To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to dig
+down into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that are
+imbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs he
+may have had.</p>
+
+<p>"Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously or
+unconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization only
+marks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of which
+the bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law for
+chemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without even
+noticing it.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires the
+soothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhaps
+unconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous,
+rousing thoughts should be given&mdash;sharp, decisive and emphatic, as when
+awaking a heavy sleeper.</p>
+
+<p>"When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acute
+condition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimes
+called. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting every
+thought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make the
+law&mdash;and the true word is always law&mdash;that they do not or can not
+reflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives,
+taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear for
+the little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, according
+to mortal thought, besides the near ones in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> the family, deny that any
+thought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon the
+child or manifested in this belief of sickness.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes children are treated entirely through the parents, that is,
+the parents are quieted and assured of the truth concerning their little
+one&mdash;that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fear
+can touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.</p>
+
+<p>"Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or rather
+long-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very little
+denial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to be
+applied more to the parents&mdash;the denial of fear.</p>
+
+<p>"If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are not
+at one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treat
+the patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will prove
+itself through you. <i>Know</i> truth and do not tamely believe it, then you
+may have marvelous proof of the difference between knowledge and belief,
+God-like understanding and blind faith.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pearl very clearly answered the question which was asked
+concerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.</p>
+
+<p>"There is always punishment so long as we are in mortal belief, but it
+is only in mortal belief we can suffer, for the spirit made in the image
+and likeness of God can not suffer, neither know suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"The word everlasting should be translated age-lasting, to give the
+original meaning. Fire is a symbol of purification, and in the language
+of ancient times it was customary to use strong figures of speech.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In the fifteenth chapter of John, wherein Jesus explains about the vine
+and branches, what could be plainer than his illustration of the dead
+branches? 'Every branch that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and
+every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth
+more fruit.'</p>
+
+<p>"Every false belief is a branch that beareth not fruit, hence must be
+taken away and destroyed even as dead limbs are burned. Falsity or evil,
+being nothingness, can not exist because it is not of the real creation
+and is necessarily cast into the fire of purification, an illustration
+well understood at the time, since all the city refuse was taken to
+Gehenna, a place outside Jerusalem, where fire was always kept for the
+purpose of burning this waste matter.</p>
+
+<p>"'Every branch that beareth fruit is purged'&mdash;that is, if you are a
+mixture of good and evil beliefs, you will have to be cleansed of the
+evil, before you can do much with the good. This cleansing process is
+quite properly named purging. This is what we undergo in suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"'He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' means the good in us chastens
+us, cleanses us for the further working of the Good. Punishment, then,
+there must be, just as long as we believe in, and fellowship with error.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. McClaren, a staunch Presbyterian, did not seem satisfied with this
+explanation, but Mrs. Pearl told her not to let the question trouble
+her, for if she would do the best she could with what she knew, in due
+time the solution would come to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"In the night it came. After she retired, the question kept pressing
+upon her so that she could not sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"About two o'clock it seemed as though a great flood of light came, and
+with it the clearance of the whole problem. The texts on that theme
+became illumined as it were, and she could see how impossible it is for
+the spirit to suffer or be punished when it is like God who can not
+'behold evil.' She came over this morning and told me about it. I will
+give you her explanation of Matt. xxv: 31, 32. 'When the Son of man
+shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
+sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all
+nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
+divideth his sheep from the goats.'</p>
+
+<p>"The Son of man, consciousness of Truth, shall come (be developed) with
+all glorious thoughts (angels) and judge us in all our ways (nations)
+and shall discriminate between the false and the true, the evil and the
+good, then the good motives or good thoughts (sheep) shall coalesce or
+be set on the right hand with Truth, and the evil or erroneous beliefs
+(goats) shall be relegated to the left, the negative or no-side, and
+swallowed up in their native darkness which is nothingness.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same line
+with Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that it
+came to <i>her</i>. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted from
+her heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would make
+her disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was an
+incontrovertible doctrine. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> she realizes that nothing but Truth
+itself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burst
+for joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, and
+after all, you are used to enthusiasm since your wife is an enthusiast.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not wonderful? I ask myself over and over, and echo answers
+'wonderful'! But oh, how ignorant we ever will be, unless we stop and
+wait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance and
+foolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, for
+it is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we have
+learned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplessly
+bound to error's ways.</p>
+
+<p>"Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have been
+baptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough to
+answer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not know
+just how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weak
+to do the things that come to us to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us&mdash;'why doubt
+your knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence,
+when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is your
+strength?'</p>
+
+<p>"As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent,
+omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts will
+fade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whose
+thoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we are
+unsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no founda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>tion, no sense of
+security, to the one who is continually listening to other than the
+Good.</p>
+
+<p>"Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws his
+knowledge by inspiration from this source shall become as one with you,
+and we all shall be as one with the supreme Mind.</p>
+
+<p>"There is an indelible but invisible stamp of truth marking the
+utterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and the
+invisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,'
+sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
+world,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgment
+faculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teach
+us how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read the
+thoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growth
+of his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to another
+while we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well to
+take a music lesson from a different teacher every week.</p>
+
+<p>"We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of the
+doctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we do
+when we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow in
+knowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth that
+sets us free.</p>
+
+<p>"Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many times
+the discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Work
+with an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you serve
+the only Power, are governed by the one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> Principle, Infinite Justice,
+that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Best
+rewards you.</p>
+
+<p>"Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we ask
+of the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do is
+always with us.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the fifth stage in the patient's progress, and we treat him for
+ignorance and foolishness as possibly reflected from the five different
+sources. Deny that he can be ignorant of the truth, or foolish in
+believing error. Affirm all strength and courage and steadfastness. He
+comes to-day with an uncertain ring in his voice. He is undecided as to
+what to do; is weak and nerveless; can not tell whether he is better or
+worse. The treatment for strength and courage will bring him back to
+Truth, and he will brighten and revive under the warm influence of your
+sunny faith.</p>
+
+<p>"One more lesson! I shall be glad, yet sorry, when it is over. Oh, what
+an experience this has been! Surely, I shall never be such a weak,
+impatient woman again. Thank God! Now I know what there is for me in
+this beautiful world.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Good bye,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"<span class="smcap">Marion</span>."</span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"Build on resolve, and not upon regret,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The structure of thy future. Do not grope</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Among the shadows of old sins, but let</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thine own soul's light shine on the path of hope,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And dissipate the darkness. Waste no tears</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Upon the blotted record of lost years,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But turn the leaf, and smile, oh smile to see</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The fair, white pages that remain for thee."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>Ella Wheeler Wilcox.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Marlow</span>, October &mdash;&mdash;.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose this is the last letter I will write on the lessons in
+Christian Healing, but I will be faithful as ever, even though I tell it
+all over again when I see you.</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody looked regretful enough when they went into the class room
+to-day, but a hundred fold more so when we went out and the good-byes
+were said. It means so much to us all. We have passed through twelve
+lessons which may symbolize twelve epochs or stages through which we
+proceed from ignorance to understanding, and understanding to complete
+demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been together scarcely three weeks, and yet so much has been
+uncovered that we stand face to face with our real selves. All that was
+conventional has been laid aside in our intercourse, and the best and
+sweetest and most sacred phases of our lives laid bare, so that we have
+had a clear glimpse of God's children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> as they are, not as they usually
+appear; and indeed it gives us better courage and stronger faith to go
+forth into the world again, knowing that the possibilities of one are
+the possibilities of all, for 'God is no respecter of persons.'</p>
+
+<p>"I know, perhaps better than some of the rest, that we shall be walking
+in the valleys many times when our eyes are on the sun-crowned heights,
+but if we can be patient and earnest, our feet shall reach the fertile
+slopes and sunny grass lands of well attained effort. My experience of
+the past shall be only a stronger incentive to perseverance in the
+future, and while it seems human to fall, it is divine to rise, and
+knowing the divine privilege of proving divinity, I trust God to work
+through me in my daily effort. So said we all when we left the class
+room to-day, and with a holy consecration to our new-born faith, we
+trust we shall ever grow in grace and wisdom as God's children,
+according to the promise.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Pearl spoke of our method as the science of silence, and told us
+not to be zealous without judgment, not to speak when silence would be
+golden, not to act so as to bring reproach upon our cause or ourselves,
+but remember to 'avoid even the appearance of evil.' She said many in
+their first joyous enthusiasm and overwhelming conviction would
+indiscreetly tell people 'there is no matter,' for instance, so eager
+were they to bring everybody into the sweet liberty of the spirit; but
+the world not being ready to properly consider the subject, would of
+course ridicule and argue hotly against such a statement, so that false
+opinions would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> spring up and most absurd practices and claims be
+attributed to Christian Healing.</p>
+
+<p>"Our system should have a dignified place in the world's opinion, and if
+we want to help give it that place, we should aim to be living
+representatives of the principles, maintain a dignified attitude
+regarding it, and if we can answer any questions pertaining to it, let
+our answer and manners be ennobling and Christ-like.</p>
+
+<p>"We never argue audibly with unbelievers. Argument kills the spirit of
+any religion, and the person who desires to prove his position by
+argument is not ready to be convinced by the spirit. If you are obliged
+to carry on a conversation with an argumentative person, silently deny
+all his statements of error, and with calm positiveness affirm for him
+intelligence, wisdom, and a desire to know truth. In other words,
+recognize his spiritual self, which is in perfect peace and harmony, and
+the outward disturbance or inharmony, which is simply nothingness
+expressed by him, is annulled. Possibly you may seem obliged to submit
+and listen to him. Never mind. Carry on your silent thoughts
+scientifically, and constantly think truth. Thus you will plant a seed
+that shall bring forth beauteous blossoms, excellent fruit.</p>
+
+<p>"Whenever you hear error talked, deny it. This is 'shutting your ears
+from hearing of blood, and your eyes from seeing evil.' <i>Any</i> error must
+be denied in order to see the proof of its opposite truth.</p>
+
+<p>"If everybody would learn to deny all the slander or gossip they hear,
+we should soon have a new social<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> world. Cruel tongues would cease their
+wagging, timid hearts could breathe again, and fair names bloom in every
+home.</p>
+
+<p>"This would be the beginning of a much needed reform in the daily press.
+Poor editors, they are obliged to fill orders, like the cooks and
+waiters serving the gentlemen and ladies in the elegant dining-room,
+ladies' <i>ordinary</i> and ground-floor <i>caf&eacute;</i>. Alas! that the discovery
+should not be made by everybody, so they could send in different orders.
+How gladly would the bill of fare be changed!</p>
+
+<p>"But there is nothing more certain to change it, than the little leaven
+of truth dropped in the highways and byways of daily life. We must 'be
+diligent in season and out of season,' silently as a rule, but at times
+audibly, perchance forcibly, for some minds seem so dull and sluggish as
+to need a startling thunder-clap to awaken them from their slumber of
+ignorance. Thus some patients that come to be healed must be told
+sharply and definitely how to think or what to say, for sometimes it is
+necessary to make them say their own word of healing, they are so
+completely absorbed in material beliefs.</p>
+
+<p>"We grow more in wisdom and spiritual judgment as we proceed faithfully
+along our way of scientific thought and living, and thus have an
+unerring insight into what we shall do and say in order to give to each
+the healing gospel.</p>
+
+<p>"When we go to church we ought to acknowledge and emphasize every true
+statement made by the clergyman with our silent affirmation, and as
+emphatically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> deny every erroneous statement, that we may turn the tide
+of Truth into a broad stream of spiritual uplifting for the whole
+congregation.</p>
+
+<p>"Should the minister be inclined to speak about the awfulness and power
+of God's wrath and punishment, we can silently assure him that God is a
+God of love, not wrath, and tell him he desires to present only the
+<i>true</i> side of religion. Some people might say this would be wrong, to
+dictate to any one how they should talk, but you will notice that it is
+not dictation of action, but rather recognition of motive&mdash;the true
+motive of the true self. We have a right to recognize the highest and
+best of every person. Indeed, we are going directly opposite God's
+commands if we acknowledge any but the good creation, which is the
+spiritual.</p>
+
+<p>"What can the spirit, which is perfect, made in God's image and
+likeness, have to say of God's anger or punishment, when it knows
+neither, inasmuch as it is pure as the Father in heaven? 'Shall not the
+judge of all the earth do right?'</p>
+
+<p>"Not only in the social circle and in the church, but in all kinds of
+work, in all affairs of business, and above all, in the home, must we
+thus live up to our principles which soon prove our sublimest theory by
+our sublimest practice. And, blessed privilege, we do not need to
+understand all, before we can begin to demonstrate our precious
+religion.</p>
+
+<p>"We need not worry about the burden of to-morrow and thus drop that of
+to-day, but only carry that of to-day with the strength that is given
+for the day. 'Consider the lilies of the field, <i>how they grow</i>;' daily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+appropriating their portion of sunshine and air and dew, they unfold and
+blossom, exhale their fragrance, display their matchless beauty, thus
+fulfilling their appointed mission; so we may unfold and blossom into
+rare excellence and strength of character. Refreshed by the dew of a
+pure purpose, nourished by the sunlight of true thoughts, fed by the
+all-abounding manna&mdash;the living word, we soon grow strong enough to
+withstand driving tempest or boisterous gale.</p>
+
+<p>"Mentally we are quickened, learning to discern the opposing force in
+ourselves, and meeting it with the sharp sword of truth, lay it low at
+once. But it requires practice to wield this spiritual weapon; it takes
+judgment faculty to discover whence comes selfishness that exhausts and
+weakens; whence comes the material or sensual thought that sickens and
+wearies, or the jealousy that poisons and embitters the life-forces.</p>
+
+<p>"Faithfully and diligently do we use the word of denial, that sets us
+and our patients free from these subtle enemies; faithfully and
+earnestly we affirm all truth and purity and goodness as our portion, as
+our strength, our refuge, and our defense.</p>
+
+<p>"By the blessed law, when we have thus cleansed ourselves, we become at
+one with the one Life. We intuitively draw to ourselves the best quality
+of friendship and give forth the best; we seek the most uplifting and
+spiritual literature, because it gives us a fresh baptism of spiritual
+light, which in turn we give to others, so there is a continual
+receiving and giving, a continual blessing and being blessed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends,' said the Master
+before his departure. Now 'the servant abideth not in the house forever,
+but the son abideth forever.' We came as servants to be taught. While in
+our ignorance, we were the servants or inferiors; knowing the Truth we
+became free, and henceforth are brothers, sisters, 'heirs of God and
+joint heirs with Christ.' We now claim our inheritance, the privilege to
+enter into the kingdom and possess the land, our royal birthright. In
+this kingdom are 'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'</p>
+
+<p>"The patient who comes to us must on this day be told of the royal gift
+of health, and we may say: 'Now are ye clean through the word I have
+spoken unto you.' He, too, must now become the friend, and need no
+longer be the servant. When he first came to us he was like a little
+child that had lost his way. We could not show him the way to the velvet
+slopes of health without taking hold of his hand and leading him through
+the thickets and underbrush in which he was lost. So we graciously
+reached down to him, by talking of things with which he was familiar, of
+animal passions, of selfishness, of sin. We gently and kindly showed him
+they were not the true, proved to him that his belief in them had led
+him off the right path, and talked to him of brighter, better, truer
+thoughts that led to smiling skies of hope, to balmy airs of peace.</p>
+
+<p>"Each day we assured him of his true inheritance, and now we confidently
+assert that he is in full possession of it. Now he is ready to believe
+the affirmation without the denial, because he is convinced that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>
+affirmations are true, and he comes to us this day with clear, clean
+eyes, and a child-like joy in his recovered health. We give him the
+final word, the benediction, the binding assurance of his birthright.</p>
+
+<p>"Realizing as we must ourselves the wondrous truth concerning his real
+self and all which that implies, we impressively and with the most
+thrilling conviction affirm for him that only health, strength, joy,
+courage, peace, satisfaction, can come to him as the child of God, the
+idea of Mind <i>in</i> the power of the Thought that thinks him into being.
+We assure him that he can recognize and reflect nothing but Good, that
+he can manifest only the Father whose son he knows himself to be.
+Nothing but Mind can affect him. He is like a column of light against
+which no darkness can be thrown; like a true answer to a problem which
+any number of wrong answers can not change. Spiritual like God, he can
+only recognize and appropriate what is God-like. Henceforth he knows
+himself and his Father, knows that whatever he may ask (realize) will be
+granted unto him. Knows that he must acknowledge the Truth, and he will
+abide in the kingdom of Good.</p>
+
+<p>"We send him forth with all the blessings he can desire, because we have
+realized for him the possession of those blessings. Knowing that God is
+all there is, and that our patient lives, is moved and has his being in
+God, we point with unerring finger to the sunny uplands of health. He
+can never more relapse as he will ever walk in the open fields of Truth.
+We bid him God speed on his journey, and thank God that he has come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
+into the consciousness of life everlasting, into health and joy without
+measure. So be it forever more.</p>
+
+<p>"The thought of perfection should be held steadfastly, even though the
+patient do not manifest health at once. No matter if the cure is not
+effected in one, two, three weeks, or even as many months, hold fast,
+with unwavering faith (even if you do not give regular treatments all
+the time, and it may be well to skip a week or so occasionally),
+<i>knowing</i> that good seed <i>must</i> bring forth good fruit; when, where or
+how, you nor no other may know. Time is unthinkable with God. We are
+dealing with Principle, not time. We plant the seed, 'God giveth the
+increase.'</p>
+
+<p>"Do the best you know, and work out your own problems. No one else can
+do that for you. Jesus gave us the key, showed us the way; more than
+that he could not do. We must live our lives and maintain our place by
+our own efforts. It is 'he that overcometh' who receives the supreme
+gift of eternal life."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"May I reach</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That purest heaven,&mdash;be to other souls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The cup of strength in some great agony,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And in diffusion ever more intense&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">So shall I join the choir invisible,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whose music is the gladness of the world."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12em;">&mdash;<i>George Eliot.</i></span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hayden's was a joyous home-coming. No sooner was the first
+rapturous welcome from children and husband received, than in came Grace
+and Kate, who, in their eagerness to see her, had scarcely been able to
+let her have the first half hour to her family.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will have to include us in your family, Mrs. Hayden, for we
+could not resist the family welcome, said Grace, smiling with happiness,
+as she grasped Mrs. Hayden's hand and drew Kate close beside her with
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>are</i> included my dears. There is but one family you know," was the
+cordial reply grasping the hand of each.</p>
+
+<p>"What a change in you, Grace&mdash;Kate&mdash;why, I should hardly know you,"
+exclaimed Mrs. Hayden, after the first excitement was over.</p>
+
+<p>"Grace has lost the cloud of perplexity and doubt,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> and Kate the
+expression of fear," she added, turning to Mr. Hayden with a pleased
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you they were both growing beautiful?" was his laughing
+answer. "But girls," he added, "don't you notice something different in
+Mrs. Hayden? That is quite wonderful, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Mrs. Hayden," exclaimed Grace, with wonder, "you are not nearly
+so fleshy are you? I can hardly define the change, if that is not it,
+but I noticed something the moment I saw you."</p>
+
+<p>"I have lost something in weight since I left home," she replied,
+somewhat amused at their looks of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Your figure is so much better proportioned, too," continued Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"And your complexion clearer," added Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell us what it all means. You certainly look better than I ever saw
+you," said Grace again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite thankful she came home before all resemblance to my wife was
+lost," said Mr. Hayden, with a hearty laugh, as he looked at each in
+turn.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, be serious now, and I will tell you something after I have put
+the children to bed," said Mrs. Hayden, cuddling the sleepy Jem in her
+arms. Fred and Mabel stood beside her, frequently interrupting the
+conversation, for they, too, wanted to share the good time with mamma.
+When Mrs. Hayden returned, she resumed.</p>
+
+<p>"It may seem strange to you as it did to me at first, but I see it
+clearly now, that desiring, searching and living for right, brings the
+body into harmonious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> expression. If we think truth, we see it expressed
+in harmony, beauty, symmetry, because the external is the expression of
+the internal."</p>
+
+<p>"It was particularly by the denial of matter that I lost the superfluous
+flesh, for since I was too fleshy to be of symmetrical form, it was
+superfluous and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know the denial of matter would have such an effect?"
+interrupted Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not till I heard some of the rest of the class speaking of it, and
+then I could hardly believe it, but after I understood the theory
+better, of course it seemed more reasonable."</p>
+
+<p>"It is both wonderful and reasonable too, I think. Why didn't you write
+something about it?" asked Kate again.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are many things that can be told better than written."</p>
+
+<p>"And many things that can be thought better than told," added Grace,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Another lady in the class had about the same experience," said Mrs.
+Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"But tell us the scientific reason for such an effect?" continued Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"I will, as well as I can. Have you noticed that it is people who are
+materially minded in their tastes and habits that are apt to be fleshy?"</p>
+
+<p>"That depends upon what you would call materially minded," was Grace's
+smiling reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean those who like what the world calls the good things of
+life&mdash;those who think a great deal of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> material pleasures or
+environments, and find it comparatively difficult to think or realize
+spiritual things."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!&mdash;--yes, I believe that is true, although I have never thought of
+it," said Grace, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the denial of matter makes all these things secondary, the
+effect of the new thought is to make the body more spiritual."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! Why could we not see it before?" was Kate's conclusive
+query.</p>
+
+<p>"What effect then, has this denial on lean people?" asked Mr. Hayden,
+more seriously, for until now he had been inclined to regard this as a
+little 'far fetched,' as he would have expressed it.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not effect them like the denial of evil, because material
+things are not so important to them, while they are apt to be pining and
+fretting about the evils and ills in the world, either as touching
+themselves or humanity in general. Denying evil and evil conditions
+would then have the opposite effect, and cause them to gain flesh, or
+grow into the expression of physical harmony to correspond with the
+spiritual."</p>
+
+<p>"This is only a higher reading of what we have already learned, and it
+is lovely to know we may go on indefinitely, ever reading something
+new," said Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Now tell me something of what <i>you</i> have all been doing?" said Mrs.
+Hayden, as she looked at Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Kate has been doing some wonderful treating among her pupils, and
+the patients we took up, are all doing nicely."</p>
+
+<p>"Grace is very modest. She doesn't say a word of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> how quickly she cured
+me of neuralgia, or a horrible fit of the blues," supplemented Kate,
+looking fondly at Grace, who had become dearer than ever since their
+confidential talks.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hayden has a good report for himself and the children, too, though
+I suppose you have heard from him," Grace remarked with a smile. He
+looked rather pleased at her thoughtfulness, but said: "I would rather
+hear more from Marion. Were there many cures in the class?"</p>
+
+<p>"Several. Mrs. Dexter, the lady I mentioned in my letters as having been
+a long while under the doctor's care, went home perfectly well, and Miss
+Singleton also, of whom I wrote. A gentleman who had been in a previous
+class told his experience. His right arm had been fractured in the army.
+Orders were given that it should be amputated, but by the intervention
+of a physician with whom he was acquainted, the arm was saved, though he
+had never been able to use it much. At times it was very painful. It was
+so weak he could scarcely lift a plate of bread to pass it at the table.
+After a few lessons, that arm was just as well as the other. In his joy
+he told everybody. When the doctors got hold of it, they laughed at him
+saying if that arm was as large as the other in six months, they would
+believe there was something in Christian Healing. In six weeks it was as
+large and strong and sound as the other."</p>
+
+<p>"That was remarkable," said Mr. Hayden, speaking for all. "Did you hear
+anything about treating animals?" he added after a momentary silence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. We may think of an animal as the perfect expression of God's
+thought, as manifesting the true Life, the same as human beings."</p>
+
+<p>"After all," said Kate, "that is something we ought to expect, for are
+we not promised dominion over all things?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, and we are not proving our right, till we prove the
+dominion," answered Mrs. Hayden. "It is a beautiful thought to me, and
+several of the class told of successful work in this line. One lady had
+treated a frightened horse, and made him so gentle any one could drive
+him. It is mostly fear that is reflected upon animals. They manifest
+thought, even as humanity does."</p>
+
+<p>"I have often noticed horses. They are apt to show the same disposition
+as their masters. This explains it," said Mr. Hayden thoughtfully. "Why
+didn't you write about all this?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid it would be too strong meat for you, for I could scarcely
+realize it myself."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems as though we have had so many wonderful suggestions it will
+take a life time to understand them," remarked Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no end to the study of Infinity," was Mrs. Hayden's reply.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you account for the <i>quick</i> cures?" interposed Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"It all depends upon how quickly one receives the consciousness of
+Truth. That is the healing process. But there are not very many quick
+cures, comparatively, though it is the quick cures we should aim for
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> expect, for the cure is always in the degree of our realization of
+the allness of God.</p>
+
+<p>"Another of the older students told of some wonderful absent healing. A
+lady that had been four years an invalid, and given up to die by five
+physicians in the place, was healed in three weeks by absent treatment."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that considered as effectual as present treatment?"</p>
+
+<p>"There should be no difference, because we ought to realize that with
+Truth there is no space nor time. All is the eternal <i>now</i> and <i>here</i>.
+Some prefer to give present treatment, especially in acute cases; with
+others absent treatment seems more effectual."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear that, for I feel that I can do better absently," said
+Grace, with a look of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"But tell me," questioned Kate, eagerly, "have all persons the same
+gifts?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the germ, yes; but all are not equally developed. We enter this
+study in different stages of unfoldment. Some heal quickly, others
+slowly; some teach naturally, while others find it more difficult,
+especially at first. We develop the gift we desire to use by continually
+claiming it and using it, and bye and bye we shall marvelously prove
+that we have it. In Love we recognize no partiality, no time and no
+place, and thus we can truly say all we desire is truly ours."</p>
+
+<p>Grace laid her hand on that of Mrs. Hayden, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Words can never express our gratitude to you both for your extreme
+kindness in allowing us to read your beautiful letters, Mrs. Hayden.
+They have made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> life seem entirely different to us." She was deeply in
+earnest, and her quivering lip spoke more than a volume of words.</p>
+
+<p>"Grace speaks for us both," added Kate, huskily.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear friends," replied Mrs. Hayden, much touched herself, "I am glad,
+yes, more than glad, that you can speak so of my letters, of which the
+greatest merit lies in their simple earnestness&mdash;." She ceased abruptly,
+and for a few moments all were silent....</p>
+
+<p>It was a silence too full for words. A door had opened&mdash;a morning dawned
+for each of them. The mysterious future verged into the mighty present.
+All that was grand and noble and tender filled the measure of their
+aspirations. The world surely might enter into their joy, for their joy
+surely entered into the world.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hayden broke the silence, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"'Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it
+shall be opened unto you.' Many years have I asked and sought for the
+kingdom of heaven, but never till now have I found the right knock."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Love is the high consummation and fulfillment of all Law. It casts
+out fear, discord and imperfection. To minister is God-like,
+Christ-like. * * * * The law of love reaches down, rules, and
+overcomes adverse laws which are below itself.&mdash;<i>Henry Wood.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>Outside, deepening twilight of a midwinter's day: inside, a bright grate
+fire, soft curtains, beautiful rugs and simple but elegant adornings for
+mantel and wall in this lovely room of a lovely home.</p>
+
+<p>The only occupant is a young woman&mdash;young because of the real life of
+which she so vividly and strongly expresses a consciousness, the only
+life after all to be expressed, and which, rightly appropriated will and
+must forever be clothed with the freshness and vigor of youth. The young
+woman is Grace Hall Carrington.</p>
+
+<p>She sits before the glowing embers in an expectant attitude. She is
+evidently waiting for some one, and as she waits, her mind seems full of
+pleasant musing. The three years that have passed since we saw her have
+ripened her character. We can see that. The unrest and longing which
+pervaded her whole being in the old days are gone. A poise and calmness
+of spirit have taken their place. Even her attitude as she sits there
+with the shadows flickering over her, is full of a suggestive alertness
+that expresses an awakened life. The forces that had slumbered so long
+in her being are fully alive to their duty and their privilege. Yes,
+Grace Carrington is awake, and happy as a wife and woman should be. She
+is thinking even now of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> richness of effort and opportunity that
+have been hers in these last years. She had been particularly fortunate
+in her marriage. Few women have as much to be thankful for as she has in
+this respect, but then, she waited to find her true womanhood before she
+found a husband. Perhaps that had something to do with it. At any rate
+she is satisfied that she waited.</p>
+
+<p>The door bell rings. A moment later she is greeting two visitors. Who
+but the friends we knew in the old days&mdash;Kate Turner and Mrs. Hayden?</p>
+
+<p>"I really expected you sooner, Mrs. Hayden; Kate is more uncertain. One
+never knows when to look for her; but never mind, we are together again,
+so come up to the fire and let us get settled for the evening." And
+Grace hastened to make her friends comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh but it is nice to get home occasionally," cried Kate with a shrug of
+pleasure as she looked around the beautiful room and then at the smiling
+hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish you would come oftener Kathie. It seems like the old days
+to have you here," replied Grace with a loving pat.</p>
+
+<p>"I suspect Kate has a bit of news for us," remarked Mrs. Hayden, as she
+sat down near the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed," exclaimed Grace, lifting her eyebrows, and tightening her hold
+of her friend's hand. "And is the momentous question decided, dearie?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I am to report for duty next week," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Good for you, Kathie. I always knew the Truth would make your music
+heard, and as Professor Beal's assistant it will be heard a long way and
+to good advantage."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She is reaping the reward of her trust in the Law," said Mrs. Hayden.
+"That is the only thing that will make the working sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Well Kate, you have trusted surely, and to think what a proof this is!"</p>
+
+<p>"How you talk Grace! One might think you had never proven it at all, or
+that your work didn't bear witness to your own trust," reproved Mrs.
+Hayden, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh well, girls, my work has been of the silent order altogether, or
+rather it has consisted more of silence than work. There's no telling
+how it will show up," was the blushing response.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a standing joke with the three as to how Grace managed her
+"liege lord," inasmuch as he had never been quite won over to the
+Healing, protesting that he had no time for such things, persisting in a
+good-natured skepticism, although strangely enough he believed a great
+many things when they were presented without the name of "Healing"
+attached to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps that very silence is the secret of its showing, for I assure
+you it shows," resumed the elder friend, who still seemed to the other
+two, the incarnation of all that was noble and wise.</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell us the way you manage anyway, Grace," begged Kate, with special
+reasons for inquiring.</p>
+
+<p>"Why my dear, there's nothing to tell unless it be that a bland silence
+is a good thing to cultivate. There's no use in making so much of a
+bugbear of these people who seem to oppose, and the best way to lead
+them into the green pastures is to let them nibble along the outside
+until they want to jump the fence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> and get over in spite of you. Now
+Leon is really quite hungry to know some things, especially about the
+practical application of thought to business, but he knows just where
+and how to find what he wants, so I let him take his own time and his
+own way."</p>
+
+<p>"Which will end, of course, in his wanting to know all, providing you
+have the patience to wait", laughed Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a foregone conclusion. I <i>can</i> wait, and I will," said Grace.
+"Besides," she continued more soberly, "I must consider Leon's rights.
+He should not be forced to a conclusion simply because I hold it. A
+hot-bed growth, produced by whatever means, will not bear the hardy,
+healthy bloom of a natural development. He may be slow but he must be
+true."</p>
+
+<p>"There Grace, you have touched the keynote," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden
+warmly. "It is freedom people need, freedom to think and act the
+highest, for everybody has a highest."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if they can only keep the channels open for the inspiration of the
+highest to come to them or work through them," remarked Kate with a
+gesture of doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"What better way is there to give freedom or open the channel, than to
+destroy prejudice, put away antagonism and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Either in yourself or others," interposed Grace, "for to hold prejudice
+or to believe in evil is always an obstruction."</p>
+
+<p>"After all, it all hinges upon the non-resistance of evil," said Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, one of the first laws of the beautiful Christ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>life, and yet one of
+the very last to be practiced in my experience. I tell you girls, it is
+the lesson of non-resistance we most need." Mrs. Hayden spoke earnestly
+as she always did, and her words carried weight.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Mrs. Hayden. If I'm asleep anywhere, I wish you would wake me
+up," cried Kate, drawing the hassock upon which she sat, close up to the
+elder lady, and putting one hand in her friend's lap, as she waited
+expectantly for the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Well dear, I'm only talking on general principles, and what I have
+discovered in myself&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please tell us what you have found Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "We need
+all the light we can get, and no matter how it may cut, we won't shrink
+will we, Kathie?" with a loving glance at the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"No, we'll only know and be glad that the hot blaze of truth is melting
+some more of the dark spots in our range of vision," returned Kate.</p>
+
+<p>"It is only this," began Mrs. Hayden, modestly. "I have been looking my
+theory and practice squarely in the face lately, and I find them in many
+things quite widely separated. For instance, I have been saying for
+three years that there is no evil, while in many cases my actions have
+carried the very opposite idea, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what do you mean, Mrs. Hayden?" cried Kate in astonishment, "who
+has been more faithful, who more loving, and who more successful in
+proving the unreality of sickness and evil?"</p>
+
+<p>"For one thing then, I have never put away the tendency to pronounce
+judgments on people or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> things, and I must get beyond that before I
+prove that I mean what I say, when I say there is no reality in evil."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely we can't help seeing the negative side of things," was
+Kate's remonstrance.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but we <i>can</i> help making it positive, and we can avoid fighting
+against it if we only stick to our first statement that there is but one
+Law."</p>
+
+<p>"I see what you mean," said Grace quietly. "You mean that we must hold
+so perfectly to the allness of Good, that no shadow of ignorance can
+ever darken our vision or our consciousness."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, we all see that that is the ultimate," interposed Kate
+with some warmth, "but when and how are we to reach it?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place we must know that the ultimate is always in the Now,
+and that by holding to our highest statements with that thought, we can
+rest in the consciousness of the allness of Good as Grace has expressed
+it. With that consciousness there is no judgment and no resistance."</p>
+
+<p>Kate still looked mystified, "Please make it a little plainer," she
+begged.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, last summer when I was called to treat Mrs. Hart's child, as you
+know, the father knew little or nothing of the Science, and when he
+insisted on having a physician what did I do? Instead of calmly
+realizing that all the medicine in the world could not hurt Truth, and
+dealing with his ignorance as I would with his fear, I felt that it
+would be a terrible thing to countenance such disloyalty, and so
+withdrew from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> treating the case, forgetting that the father's ignorance
+could not be called disloyalty; forgetting that my faithfulness to
+principle would be the same regardless of any and all ignorance. In fact
+my action belied my words that there is no reality in evil."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;why, what else could you do?" asked Kate with a puzzled frown.</p>
+
+<p>"I could, or at least I ought to be able to maintain my faith and my
+consciousness of Good just the same under those, as other circumstances,
+and so make no resistance."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, I see what you mean," exclaimed Grace suddenly. "You mean that
+we make <i>something</i> of what we declare as nothing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly, Grace. We resist it by thinking it something antagonistic to
+Truth, whereas we should remember our first statement that there is but
+one Power. It is the One that heals in every instance. We know that. Why
+should we stop to combat what other people think or do not think?"</p>
+
+<p>"There! Now I understand you," ejaculated Kate with a brightening face.
+"It is the One only which acts under all disguises, and&mdash;but what would
+you have us do?" suddenly falling into doubt again. As of old Kate was
+ever the questioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, I am not talking of persons or laying down rules of action for
+anybody, but I am giving you my idea of the non-resistance of evil. The
+question with me is, am I 'about my Father's business.' If I accuse
+someone of being unfaithful, or if I criticise any methods, means or
+persons, I still believe in something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> besides the Good. Even if I
+accuse myself in any way no matter how slight the fault, I am
+recognizing that which I have declared does not and never did exist. You
+see what I mean. There is no use to multiply examples."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, I see, but can I live up to it? That is the all important
+question," was the dreamily earnest reply.</p>
+
+<p>"As for that I might say the same, but we are not to look at that side
+of the question. A safe and I think the very best guide to right living,
+is to measure every act by the standard of love. Would love prompt this
+or that thought, or decision or action? It is very easy to decide."</p>
+
+<p>A thoughtful silence fell upon the group. The evening shadows grew
+deeper outside. The firelight cast long crimson shafts of light into the
+corners, and flickered fitfully over the faces and forms before the
+grate.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been learning a lesson too." It was Kate who broke the silence.
+Her voice was reverential. Her eyes were bright with an inner light. "I
+have been holding strongly to the name&mdash;the name of Jesus Christ&mdash;and
+realizing what it means, and it has helped me more than anything."</p>
+
+<p>"What does it mean, Kate? That is something which is still a little
+tainted with the old superstitious worship of a personality," said
+Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Beware, Grace; that is criticism. Put it away until you know," warned
+Mrs. Hayden.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. Tell me every time," returned Grace humbly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, this contemplation of the name takes one farther from
+personality or the recognition of mere person than anything else," Kate
+went on earnestly. "Jesus Christ means God or Truth manifest. Holding
+the words with that thought, all sense of person, limitation, or time,
+disappears. Wisdom and power come to fill your consciousness, until the
+Christ life seems not only a possibility but a real demonstration." Kate
+paused. Perhaps she had said too much!</p>
+
+<p>But there was no mistaking the vibration of a sympathetic thought, even
+if the pressure of friendly hands had not reassured her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is wonderful how many ways there are of attaining the same end,"
+mused Grace. "Now I can gain the same state of mind Kate speaks of, by
+holding to the idea of Law. To me everything is embodied in that,
+although of course, any great word understood as to its real meaning is
+an all-inclusive term. But we cannot always live in an ecstasy."</p>
+
+<p>"We should not if we could," said Mrs. Hayden. "We must get beyond that
+if we ever attain the mental poise that will carry us through
+everything."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am so weak," murmured Kate. "How shall I ever&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There, child, you are doing the very thing that will keep you from
+growing strong. What right have you to pass judgment on Katherine Turner
+anymore than on anyone else?" said Mrs. Hayden almost sternly; then
+suddenly softening her tone she added, "Dear heart, we must not let self
+judgment or self condemnation creep in upon us to leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> their blight of
+discouragement or failure. No, the only way is to keep our eyes fixed on
+the mark of the high calling, resisting nothing, carrying on our lips,
+success, in our hearts love, in our lives truth. By the outer we judge
+nothing: by the inner we know all. Personally, that is, physically we
+are only a part of all external limitation. Individually, that is,
+spiritually, we are the potentiality of Infinity itself."</p>
+
+<p>"And that means the possibility of true living, which is positively
+necessary to perfect demonstration," added Grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, perfect demonstration in oneself or in others," said Mrs. Hayden
+emphatically. "In fact the first, last, and only consideration is or
+should be true living, or the ability <i>to be lived</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what it amounts to, after all," accorded Grace, "for what is
+true living but the setting aside of self, so that the great, infinite
+Life may be established in our action, as a manifest reality?"</p>
+
+<p>Kate rose softly, and went to the piano. Then spoke the mighty Voice
+through Music, and through that wondrous harmony a consciousness of the
+perfect Life, with all its power and presence, burst upon these three
+who were no longer three but One. For that moment they knew and lived
+only as the One, and in that moment the world received a baptism of
+blessed, healing tenderness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3><b>THE MYSTIC SUCCESS CLUB</b></h3>
+
+<blockquote><p>was founded to carry on and extend the Teachings and Ministry of <i>Our
+Magazine</i>. One supplements the other. Both are doing an <i>unparalleled
+work</i> in the redemption of humanity from Disease, Sorrow and Poverty.</p>
+
+<p>To spread the glad gospel of <i>Health, Happiness and Prosperity</i> is the
+<i>special object</i> of the</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>NEW YORK MAGAZINE of Mysteries</b>.</p>
+
+<p>To show how to attain and keep these God-given blessings, is the
+<i>wonderful mission</i> of the <i>Mystic Success Club</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Not by theory alone, but by <i>daily, hourly practice</i>, can an individual
+demonstrate any law. The Law of Success is no exception. The Mysteries
+of Life can be known <i>only</i> when man understands the mystery of his
+relations to God and the universe, as well as his relations to Man.</p>
+
+<p>Through wise Counsel, Sympathy and the Mystic tie that binds all
+aspiring souls, the <i>Mystic Success Club</i> is giving and will <i>continue</i>
+to give to its members, such <i>vital help</i> as only brotherly and God
+inspired love <i>can</i> give.</p>
+
+<p><i>The Mystic Success Club</i> has a correspondence that reaches into the
+thousands, to what good purpose and magnificent results, a glance at the
+Testimonials in <i>Our Magazine</i> will freely reveal.</p>
+
+<p><i>You</i> who desire to have <i>Health</i>, to have <i>Happiness</i> and to be
+<i>Prosperous</i> are invited to join the <i>Mystic Success Club</i>. If you will
+drop us a postal card, we will send you at once, absolutely free, our
+booklet entitled, "<i>From Disease, Poverty and Drudgery to Health,
+Wealth, Power and Success</i>." After reading this booklet your faith will
+be great, because you will be confronted with facts. When you feel an
+inner feeling to become one of us, write immediately an application for
+membership in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> <i>Mystic Success Club</i>. Every member must be a yearly
+subscriber to the</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>NEW YORK MAGAZINE of Mysteries</b></p>
+
+<p>at $1.00 a year and get three friends to subscribe. Upon the receipt of
+the three subscriptions for $3.00 you will be entered on our membership
+books as a full life member with no further payments or dues of any kind
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+thirty days more the Third Degree (for attractiveness), and in thirty
+days more the Fourth or Final Degree which prepares you for
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+will bring out in you all the resources of your soul, mind and heart. It
+will fit you for the highest and noblest service&mdash;the highest and
+noblest success. It will help you to make your life now and here larger,
+broader and grander in every way. You are invited to write and ask
+advice, <i>whenever</i>, and as soon as you feel moved to do so.</p>
+
+<p>With Holy Love, Peace and Good Will to all beings in the Universe, we
+wish you Success, Health and Happiness.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+The MYSTIC SUCCESS CLUB<br />
+c/o NEW YORK MAGAZINE of Mysteries<br />
+22 North William St.<br />
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+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Carols_Conversion" id="Carols_Conversion"></a>Carol's Conversion</h2>
+
+<blockquote><h4>JUST PUBLISHED</h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Another Great Book from the Pen of</span></h4>
+
+<h3><i>HELEN VAN-ANDERSON</i></h3>
+
+<h4>PRICE, $2.00, (beautifully bound with cloth)</h4>
+
+<p>&para;This book is a wonderful delineation of the spiritual life, and how it
+comes to him who is "<span class="smcap">as a little child</span>."</p>
+
+<p>&para;No earnest seeker after God and the higher life can afford to be without
+this story of life and living.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+PUBLISHED BY<br />
+The New York Magazine<br />
+OF MYSTERIES<br />
+22 North William Street<br />
+New York City<br />
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT KNOCK***</p>
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+</html>
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--- /dev/null
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Right Knock, by Helen Van-Anderson
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Right Knock
+       A Story
+
+
+Author: Helen Van-Anderson
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 5, 2008  [eBook #24177]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT KNOCK***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+_Price, $2.00._
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK
+
+A Story
+
+by
+
+HELEN VAN-ANDERSON
+
+Author of "It Is Possible," "The Story of Teddy," "The Journal of a Live
+Woman," etc., etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      "Go to your bosom;
+    Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know"
+
+    --SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+_THIRTEENTH EDITION_
+
+Published by
+_The New York Magazine of Mysteries_
+22 North William Street, New York City
+
+Copyright, 1889, by Helen Van-Anderson
+All rights reserved
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK
+
+Copyright, 1903, by
+The New York Magazine
+of Mysteries
+All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+  CHAPTER.                                              PAGE.
+
+       I. MRS. HAYDEN,                                      9
+
+      II. THE GIRLS AT HOME,                               17
+
+     III. A FIRE AND A RETROSPECT,                         25
+
+      IV. BEGINNINGS,                                      30
+
+       V. THE OLD DOUBTS AGAIN,                            36
+
+      VI. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE,                             44
+
+     VII. A NEW HOPE,                                      59
+
+    VIII. WHAT THE WORLD SAID,                             63
+
+      IX. A STRUGGLE WITH SELF,                            70
+
+       X. HINTS OF HELP,                                   79
+
+      XI. LEAVING HOME,                                    83
+
+     XII. MRS. PEARL'S LECTURE,                            90
+
+    XIII. THE TRUE FOUNDATION,                             95
+
+     XIV. QUESTIONINGS,                                   104
+
+      XV. WHAT IS NOT TRUE,                               112
+
+     XVI. STUDYING AND PROVING,                           125
+
+    XVII. WHAT IS TRUE,                                   131
+
+   XVIII. IT MUST BE SO,                                  141
+
+     XIX. THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH,                            151
+
+      XX. TANGLES AND TALKS,                              162
+
+     XXI. INSPIRATION AND THE BIBLE,                      172
+
+    XXII. A CHURCH COMMITTEE,                             184
+
+   XXIII. PRAYER,                                         192
+
+    XXIV. EVERY-DAY PRACTICE,                             202
+
+     XXV. UNDERSTANDING,                                  211
+
+    XXVI. A NEW PROBLEM,                                  222
+
+   XXVII. UNDERCURRENTS,                                  228
+
+  XXVIII. THE POWER OF THOUGHT,                           234
+
+    XXIX. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING,                          243
+
+     XXX. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          249
+
+    XXXI. CONFIDENCES,                                    257
+
+   XXXII. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          262
+
+  XXXIII. GRACE,                                          274
+
+   XXXIV. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          281
+
+    XXXV. PRACTICAL APPLICATION,                          291
+
+   XXXVI. FOUND AT LAST,                                  300
+
+  XXXVII. AFTER THREE YEARS,                              308
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Although most excellent food is to be found on the table of metaphysical
+thought, there has never yet been a metaphysical story setting forth a
+picture of every-day life, in its search for, and attainment of
+satisfaction through the knowledge of Christ Philosophy.
+
+Knowing the pressing need of such a book among the many inquirers and
+students on this theme, and with the hope of helping to fill that need,
+this story is told.
+
+It is a book of facts, not fiction, although wearing the dress of
+fiction. Every case of healing, every seemingly marvelous experience has
+come under the observation of the writer and can be authenticated as a
+veritable fact.
+
+That there are hundreds, yea, thousands to-day, who leave their homes
+and go to distant cities for the sake of pursuing the study of Christ
+Philosophy, or receiving the benefit of its healing ministry, is proof
+enough that the story of one woman's experience will be interesting and
+helpful to all.
+
+While the lessons contained in Mrs. Hayden's letters are not exhaustive,
+they are valuable for their very simplicity, and are thoroughly
+practical, complete instructions for the beginning and continuance of
+the study of this wonderful truth.
+
+With every lesson supplemented by personal experiences, the reader sees
+not only the theory but the practice demonstrated, and in this simple
+story he may find the mirror of his own inner hopes and aspirations,
+with a broader view of their possible attainment than he has yet seen.
+
+Carlyle says: "If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach
+other hearts." "The Right Knock" is presented with no other apology than
+this: it has come from the heart.
+
+  HELEN VAN-ANDERSON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
+
+
+To a new and awakened public the author gives greetings and begs to say
+a few more words about THE RIGHT KNOCK.
+
+After all these years of work along the lines laid out in the book and
+with a wide knowledge of prevailing systems of mental training, the
+author is happy to be able to say with unbounded confidence that there
+is nothing to excel this system for beginners, for those desiring to lay
+a lasting foundation. The emphasis laid upon the necessity for
+persistent, regular and systematic practice of word speaking by audible
+repetition, is great, but none too great. For the faithful student this
+never fails to bring results, never fails to put him in the way of
+understanding and demonstration. With regular practice and constant
+application in the daily life, with good judgment as to the details of
+practice, length of time at one exercise, etc., the pupil is assured in
+one way or another certain convincing experiences which develop
+individuality and, with that, his God-like gifts. Thousands have proven
+this.
+
+The unnumbered letters of gratitude, the kind words, the warm
+hand-clasps, the many testimonials of sick beds forsaken, depressed
+spirits revived, vices discontinued, of physical and moral strength
+regained, prove that the work of the Spirit is not to be measured by
+puny human standards of judgment, prove that simple things--the things
+from which we expect the least, in which we put the least ambition or
+worldly desire may be those which will yield the "hundred fold" of real
+blessing.
+
+The test of any spiritual truth lies in its demonstration and in the
+inspiration and faithfulness with which it can be lived. Be true to the
+truth and you will demonstrate it. Live the Christ life and the works
+will follow; yet seek truth for its own sake, not for its power.
+
+A word about Christian Science. Sometimes persons aver of THE RIGHT
+KNOCK that it teaches Christian Science pure and simple. With all due
+respect and a recognition of the grand and marvelous work done by Mrs.
+Eddy, the author feels called upon to say, in justice to Mrs. Eddy as
+well as herself, that this is not true.
+
+There are undoubtedly many similar statements, yet there are many
+differences which the careful reader will discover. Please note, for
+example, that not matter itself, but matter as the real substance or
+power, is denied. Not sickness of the body, but sickness of the Spirit,
+is a falsity, etc., etc.
+
+In brief, the author of THE RIGHT KNOCK believes there is a name, place
+and condition for _everything_, and that the discrimination of the plane
+on which a thing or condition exists, is the key to placing it in the
+right relation to the whole.
+
+In conclusion, the author would say most earnestly, study one writer or
+teacher at one time, just as you would study music of one instructor at
+one time. It is not the many books but _the Book within_ which is to
+reveal all things.
+
+  God speed you.
+
+  HELEN VAN-ANDERSON.
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK is now in its THIRTEENTH edition, a fact which speaks
+for the _great helpfulness_ of the book, and proclaims without further
+comment its _world wide Scope_.
+
+
+
+
+THE RIGHT KNOCK.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+     "When you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not
+     weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world."--_Emerson._
+
+
+There was a brilliant light in all the windows at Terrace Hill. Even the
+verandahs were gorgeous with the gayest Chinese lanterns, and every bush
+and tree in the lawn did duty as chandelier. Flowers, too, festooned
+every arch and embowered every corner, while rare vases fulfilled their
+esteemed privilege of holding and showing fragrant blossoms.
+
+Everybody declared the decorations superb, and agreed that no one but
+Mrs. Hayden could display such exquisite taste and such perfect judgment
+in selection and arrangement. Animated groups of gayly attired guests
+sauntered up and down the rose-bowered walks, or promenaded the
+verandahs, while sounds of music and merriment from the house proclaimed
+the joy that reigned throughout.
+
+"Oh, how beautifully Mrs. Hayden entertains!" remarked Kate Turner to
+her friend Grace Hall, as they stopped beside a marble fountain to
+survey the scene. "I wonder what place such a woman would take in
+society without her wealth," she continued.
+
+"Probably wouldn't have _any_ place, I am sorry to say, because there
+are thousands of women just as capable and bright as Mrs. Hayden, yet
+because they have no social position, or rather no money to buy
+themselves one, they are unrecognized and alone," said Grace, with a
+tinge of bitterness in her tone.
+
+"I could never fancy Mrs. Hayden alone or unrecognized, although I only
+know her as a society lady, and that mostly through Mrs. Nottingham."
+
+"There is no telling what a person really is till they have gone through
+a trial of some kind, or had something disagreeable to bear. _Then_ one
+of two things happens: you will see either a saint or a sinner, and I am
+not sure which Mrs. Hayden would be. She hasn't yet seen a flame from
+the fire of adversity, I'm sure. See how wonderfully she is blessed with
+this beautiful home, a good husband and three nice children."
+
+"Oh! it must be lovely to have everything you want," sighed Kate, under
+her breath.
+
+Poor Kate! She was alone in the world, making the best of life with her
+talent for music and through a mutual friend had been introduced to Mrs.
+Hayden, who, after hearing her play, immediately engaged her for Mabel,
+and always invited her to the parties, more as a musical attraction,
+than out of any real regard, for Mrs. Hayden had an abundance of friends
+without troubling herself to cultivate in any warm fashion, the
+friendship of a poor little music teacher, thought Kate, somewhat
+bitterly.
+
+"But after all, Kate, life would need more than luxuries to make it _my_
+ideal of happiness. I should want every human being to be agreeably
+employed; every woman, no matter how much or how little she might have,
+should be occupied with something that she could put her heart into and
+speak to the world through her work, whether it be painting pictures or
+darning stockings."
+
+"Now Gracious, you are riding your hobby and you ought to see you can't
+ride with all these fine people in your path. Come down at once or I'll
+desert you! Let's go in and hear that waltz," and Kate laughingly pulled
+the hobby-rider into the path that led to the conservatory where they
+could listen to the music.
+
+"What a beautiful home Mrs. Hayden has!" said Mrs. Ferris to her
+neighbor with the severe collar and plain hair, as they examined the
+exquisite frescoing on the parlor ceiling.
+
+"Yes, but she ought to look into poor homes once in a while. She don't
+use her money in the right way. Just think of the good she might do for
+our church, if she would contribute to the charity fund, or take some
+poor families to look after."
+
+The fat neck folded itself over the severe collar and the face settled
+into rigid lines of judgment. Mrs. Dyke was a practical woman and talked
+in a practical way. Being a wonderful church worker she naturally
+considered it everybody's duty to give when they did not work for the
+cause of religion. She belonged to the First Methodist Church on High
+St., and talked about "our church" as though there were no other.
+
+Mrs. Ferris was at a loss. She had said something that had not brought
+forth a pleasant result. She merely wished to be sociable, and what more
+convenient topic than these beautiful surroundings? She was a meek
+little woman, who always wanted to say something agreeable or soothing,
+and she felt quite frightened at the mistake she had made. She wished
+somebody would come to the rescue, but there was no immediate prospect,
+and she scarcely knew how to proceed again, but ventured to ask if there
+were many poor people who needed attention now.
+
+"Yes, indeed there are no less than fifteen families in the mission
+quarter nearest Mrs. Hayden who would consider it a privilege to pick up
+the crumbs from her table, and I am afraid she'll have to give an
+account _some_ time when the reckoning day comes, for those who have not
+'given cups of cold water, or visited the sick languishing in prison.'"
+
+The air almost trembled with a suggestion of something. Little Mrs.
+Ferris looked longingly towards the door and just then spied her husband
+who was seeking her. After she was gone, Mrs. Dyke looked grimly about,
+and not finding any one to listen, she relapsed into a meditative
+silence. People always wondered what made Mrs. Dyke so popular that she
+received an invitation to every aristocratic party, but it was according
+to the old adage, "Where there is a will there is a way."
+
+This was a _gala_ night for Hampton. Such large social parties were
+always an event, and no one refused an invitation to Mrs. Hayden's, for
+it always meant beautiful rooms, carpets, pictures and _bric-a-brac_,
+superb refreshments, and a splendid time generally. Mrs. Hayden was a
+favorite with the world because she fed the world with sugar plums, and
+after smacking its lips it was always ready for more. And she usually
+had one to drop in. To-night it was a remarkably sweet one. This was a
+general affair, and every big body and big body's cousins and friends
+were there. To be sure they discussed their hostess as freely as though
+they were not big bodies, but with rare exceptions the discussion was
+complimentary in the extreme. Mrs. Hayden, what she said, what she did,
+what she wore, what she served as refreshments the last time, what were
+the probabilities next, her children, her husband, what they all did and
+said and how they acted, etc., were always interesting themes.
+Sometimes, to be sure, there were adverse remarks like Mrs. Dyke's, but
+few made them.
+
+Yes, Mrs. Hayden was decidedly popular, and although no one was ever
+heard to tell of any particularly grand or noble deed she had done, she
+was supposed to be doing good all the time. There were those who, in
+earlier years, would have pointed her out as an enthusiastic
+philanthropist, eagerly helping whatever project needed her most, but
+gradually she had dropped it all, no one knew why, and now her principal
+work was to shine in society, at least this was the general verdict of
+the adverse few who judged from the superficial standpoint of the world.
+Of her inner life they knew nothing as the world knows nothing of any
+one's inner life. There may be depths or shallows in any character never
+dreamed of by the most intimate friend, much less by the babbling world.
+
+Mrs. Hayden moved about among her guests with a stately grace. She had
+always a pleasant faculty of adjusting the broken links of conversation,
+supplying a _repartee_ or asking a question, introducing strange
+gentlemen and reviving timid _debutantes_ with a pretty compliment or a
+gracious smile.
+
+"My dear, I wish you would play something," she whispered to Miss Turner
+as she passed her, "I think the group in the drawing room need a little
+change;" and no wonder, for there was Mrs. Dyke in a hot dispute with a
+Unitarian over Robert Elsmere, while her pastor sat near, occasionally
+adding something to Mrs. Dyke's emphatic remarks.
+
+"It's a most blasphemous piece of presumption to present such a picture
+as that of the church. As if it were in its last stages of decay,
+indeed! It was well such a weak-minded idiot as Robert Elsmere died at
+the beginning of his career. I could never forgive the author if she
+hadn't killed him," she was saying in an angry voice.
+
+"We can take it simply as a symbol of the decay of his religion, and
+that is comforting," added the minister, complacently.
+
+"I am not at all in sympathy with the holy Catherine, with her prejudice
+and bigotry. If it wasn't such a true picture of the many Catherines we
+find in real life, I should be quite disgusted, but I do love to see
+real people in novels, then I know so much better how to deal with
+them," said a pretty young lady who aspired to be called intellectual
+because she liked to study character.
+
+"Indeed, Catherine had a deep religious nature, which might be worthy of
+emulation in many respects, and she is certainly a high ideal of wifely
+love," Mrs. Hayden interposed at this critical juncture.
+
+"Well, I didn't read the book for Catherine, but for the sake of knowing
+Robert and what he did to make such a stir in the world. I'm opposed to
+novels, as a rule, and read as little of one as I can," said Mrs. Dyke,
+smoothing her lap and looking at the minister. Mrs. Hayden motioned to
+Kate to play, and presently the rooms were filled with harmony.
+
+Kate Turner was a natural musician, and to-night she fairly excelled
+herself. The little passage at arms just recorded had inspired her with
+emotions that could only be expressed in music, and she played some time
+to the continued delight of her listeners. She finished at last with a
+song that stirred every heart, and even Mrs. Dyke was visibly softened.
+"Verily 'music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,'" murmured the
+intellectual young lady, who was sorry that discussion of Robert Elsmere
+had been interrupted. She rather enjoyed Mrs. Dyke, for she was an
+immensely interesting "character."
+
+This reception, like all others, came to an end at last. Everybody
+expressed themselves as highly delighted with their entertainment, and
+one by one reluctantly took their departure; the gay lanterns on the
+lawn and among the shrubbery went out, the lights inside the splendid
+mansion were finally extinguished, and only the quiet starlight
+illumined Terrace Hill.
+
+Mrs. Hayden, from her high bay window, looked out over the sleeping
+city, then at the North Star that beamed so brightly above her--that
+unerring beacon-light that guides so many lost mariners into port. Some
+deep thought must have moved her, some hidden impulse stirred her mind.
+She sighed. There was no visible reason for it. Then she turned and went
+down the stairs to the nursery. Her two babies were sleeping sweetly.
+Mabel was asleep in her room, and all was quiet. The hush seemed
+oppressive after so much gay confusion. Now she was in another element.
+Now she was the mother, then she was a fashionable woman. She hastened
+back to her room, once more gazed without and then thoughtfully
+retired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+     "Christianity is not a theory or a speculation, but a _life_; not a
+     philosophy of life, but a life and a living process."--_Coleridge._
+
+
+Kate Turner walked slowly along the street at the foot of Terrace Hill.
+She looked up at the beautiful home where she had spent the previous
+evening, and as she saw the velvet lawn and terraced walks bordered with
+bright flowers, she half pitied herself because she was only a plodding
+music teacher. She was not envious, but she had such longing aspirations
+to be somebody in the world; she wanted so many things, needed so much
+to complete her education, and starved herself in so many ways for the
+sake of completing it, that sometimes she grew discontented with her
+lot. Fortunately her moods did not last long, however, and especially
+when she went home to her artist friend, Grace, with whom she shared
+rooms. They were both making their own way in the world, and were a
+great help to each other, as well as a great comfort.
+
+Kate was wondering what Mrs. Hayden did every day with her leisure. She
+should think she would be tired always going to parties and lunches and
+operas, or receiving calls. "But then, I am thankful to know her," she
+concluded, casting a last glance at the stately mansion before turning
+the corner. "After all, life might be worse for me, and I can be a happy
+nobody if not a famous somebody," she said to herself, as she ran
+upstairs, after stopping at the baker's for a loaf of bread and a pot of
+jam.
+
+"Well, Gracious, what noble message have you given to the world through
+your work to-day?" she cried, a moment later, gaily peering into the
+studio through the _portieres_ that separated their parlor from the work
+room.
+
+"Is that you, Kate? Well, I've been trying the whole afternoon to make
+this Hebe look like a modern Hypatia, but----"
+
+"In other words," interrupted Kate, "you would change innocence into
+intellect. Now, look here, Grace, just leave this dainty girl alone. She
+would never do to serve the gods if you gave her the aspect and bearing
+of a goddess. Let her alone, or the world would not recognize her as a
+representative woman," laughed Kate, inspecting the picture with
+critical eyes.
+
+"Kate, stop laughing, and tell me truly if you think it would not do to
+give her a little more independence."
+
+"You know it's the worst thing in the world to give a woman even an
+inkling that such a thing exists," said the mischievous Kate, with a
+total abandonment to consequences as she gave the artist an impetuous
+hug.
+
+"Well, let us have tea, and we'll discuss the subject later," said
+Grace, somewhat mollified.
+
+"I am afraid, Gracious, you are something in the same mood I was when I
+started home to-night, but I concluded to let 'dull care' take care of
+itself, and be merry while the sun shines, which means as long as we
+have enough to pay our rent, and the prospect of a little more next
+month," continued Kate as she brought a tiny oil stove from the depths
+of a closet and proceeded to "put the kettle on."
+
+"I have been so full of thoughts of the nineteenth century that I found
+it hard to go back to the Pagan ages, but here this picture is ordered,
+and I must finish it by next week, so I guess this one will have to go
+without my message," said Grace, a little gloomily, for above all things
+she loved to put her own individuality into her pictures, which she
+generally did with rare success.
+
+"You mustn't have just one ideal of woman, or you'll lose the art of
+painting the sweetest phases of womanhood," replied the busy housemaid
+from the sepulchral closet.
+
+"Oh! if I have such excellent models as you make in that checked apron
+and dusting cap, I can do nobly."
+
+Grace laughed good humoredly as she cleaned her palette and set Hebe in
+one corner.
+
+"Now, my dear, isn't there something I can do to help arrange the
+feast?" as she went into the little back room they used for a kitchen.
+
+"Yes, wash the grapes and open the jam while I cut the bread and pour
+the tea."
+
+A few minutes later they were _tete-a-tete_ at the little table, and as
+they sat down Grace said with a comical smile: "Quite a difference
+between our banquet of last night and this, isn't there?"
+
+"I should remark there is, but after all, Grace, I believe I am quite
+content. As I was passing along at the foot of the hill this evening a
+momentary dissatisfaction came over me that I couldn't have a few
+advantages _like_ Mrs. Hayden's, not hers of course, but similar ones,"
+with a smile at the distinction, "and then I wondered how she spends all
+her leisure, for of course she has the whole twenty-four hours at her
+disposal, and--well, to be brief, I would not want to live without some
+object in life, and so I thought it best the way it is now."
+
+"Very wise conclusion, Kate, that's just what I always say, and really
+who is there with whom we would care to exchange places? There are so
+many kinds of people and so many things for humanity to contend against,
+I don't know that I should want to change burdens with anyone."
+
+"Mrs. Dyke, for instance, would you not think yourself fortunate to be
+like her?" said Kate, with a merry twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, deliver me from that comparison! Why, she carries everybody's sins
+on her shoulders; I even heard she had taken Robert Elsmere to throw at
+the world!" laughed Grace.
+
+"But not his wife; she didn't read about her. Wasn't it too funny to
+hear her go on last night, and the way she looked at the minister to
+emphasize her position?"
+
+"Yes, but how many there are like her--read just enough to know there
+are such and such characters and such and such incidents. Now of course
+she has heard the minister define Robert's crime, as he would call it I
+suppose, so she thinks she can use the whole argument," replied Grace, a
+little scornfully.
+
+"Mrs. Hayden interposed just at the right time. I was glad she did, too.
+It seems she has considered Catherine's position and could speak a good
+word for her," said Kate, sipping her tea, thoughtfully.
+
+"Well, if she calls her an ideal of wifely love, I don't admire the
+reality," exclaimed Grace, with more vigor than elegance, as she put
+down her tea-cup.
+
+"I got positively impatient," she continued, "when I read about her
+cruelty to Robert, judging him in that inquisitor's fashion. Poor
+fellow! _I_ think he died of a broken heart."
+
+"But, Grace, she did what she thought was her religious duty, and it
+must have been hard for her to withdraw herself so completely when she
+loved him so much," said the more charitable Kate.
+
+"Do you call that love which would let him go tramping off alone, with
+not even a word of sympathy, and so afraid that her religion would be
+contaminated she could not even hear him preach? I don't pretend to be
+religious, but any religion stands on a poor foundation if it can be
+swept away by anybody's opinions."
+
+"It wasn't that; it was because she thought it was wrong to listen to
+heresy, as she supposed it was, and----"
+
+"How did she know? Had she taken pains to find out? Did she study it
+carefully and have a reason for her cruel judgment?" interrupted the
+wrathful Grace.
+
+"Well, she was conscientious and was doing what she had been taught was
+right."
+
+"Kate, if there is anything that makes me out of patience with people
+it is when they hang all their actions on what somebody else says, and
+that excuse is simply barbarous in this case."
+
+"Remember that in religion one must follow what he thinks to be right,
+and Catherine Elsmere represents a large class of people; in fact, the
+majority of religious people."
+
+Kate was naturally inclined to be charitable, and this, added to her
+early training in a religious home, as well as her position as a church
+member, made her understand Catherine's position from a conscientious
+standpoint much more than Grace. She could readily appreciate the fixed
+law of conscience Catherine had made for herself by pledging her sacred
+word of honor to her father, whom she revered as an infallible
+authority, as most people revere the legends and doctrines of the
+church.
+
+"I admit that it is right to follow the dictates of one's own
+conscience, but I believe in having an enlightened conscience, and a
+reason for opinions. For that matter, so did Robert have a conscience,
+and while I don't understand his religion, I respect his honesty and
+effort. There are a great many beautiful things in what he says, but
+there must be a mistake somewhere in a religion that can not save to the
+uttermost, and his didn't. I haven't found one that does," said Grace,
+with some irony.
+
+"Nevertheless, Grace, there is nothing to warrant your assertion in the
+Bible. The Christian religion is full of the most blessed promises of
+salvation in _everything_," said Kate, gently, but flushing a little as
+she spoke, for she disliked talking religion with Grace, who was so
+skeptical, although if compelled to do so, it was a matter of duty to
+stand up for her Christian principles.
+
+"Yes, I admit it gives many wonderful promises, but where are they
+realized? It seems to me the very fact that the church has not proven
+them, made such people as Robert Elsmere doubt them even as possible of
+fulfillment."
+
+"Why Grace, surely _you_ don't disbelieve in the power of God to fulfill
+the promises?" exclaimed Kate, deeply pained.
+
+"I am talking from Robert Elsmere's standpoint," answered Grace,
+evasively.
+
+"My sympathy is with Catherine, for to her, religion was a living answer
+to her deepest needs and feelings, and to doubt that answer was nothing
+less than sacrilege," said Kate, with a bright red spot on either cheek.
+
+"Well," answered Grace, throwing down her napkin, "I want to see a
+religion that will stand infinite investigation without falling into
+ruins, and Robert reasoned himself away from the old beliefs and dogmas
+because he investigated them. He used his God-given reason, and I think
+that is to be used as well as the blind, unquestioning faith of
+Catherine."
+
+"There are times when we need faith and times when we need reason, but
+faith applies to religion and reason to the things of the world,"
+replied Kate, recalling what she had heard a few Sundays before.
+
+"Well, to me the ideal of religion is a marriage, a union of faith and
+reason--but this is idle talk. What does anybody know of such perfection
+as I demand anyway?"
+
+Grace impatiently pushed her chair away from the table, and went to look
+at her picture again, in a decidedly gloomy mood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+     "Such is the world, understand it, despise it, love it; cheerfully
+     hold on thy way through it, with thy eye on highest
+     loadstars."--_Carlyle._
+
+
+It was a week since the party. Mrs. Hayden had been to the opera and
+returned late. Her husband was absent on a business trip, and she felt a
+vague uneasiness come over her as she entered the room. She knew not
+why, but it seemed unusually lonely without him. She seldom went out
+alone, but to-night she had gone out as much to while away the time as
+to hear the music. After paying her usual visit to the nursery, she went
+to bed, but slept little for several hours.
+
+About 4 o'clock she was awakened by stifling fumes of smoke and
+startling cries of fire. Was it too late? She sprang up and ran to the
+nursery stairs, but the scorching flames met her, and she retreated to
+the window, shrieking for help, only to get a glimpse of someone through
+the smoke climbing toward her.
+
+"Hold on!" cried the fireman, and reached out his arms for her just as
+she fell back fainting. Grasping her firmly, the brave man dragged her
+out of the window, and began his perilous descent. When about half way
+down, the ladder fell, but its burden was expected, and mattress and
+bed-clothing saved them from what might have been worse. As it was, the
+fireman escaped with a few bruises and slight scorching, and Mrs.
+Hayden with a broken limb. First they feared she was dead, but after a
+few moments she revived and moaned feebly for husband and children.
+Little Mabel clung desperately to her mother, and sobbingly told her
+"only the house was burnt. Fred and Jamie were safe, and now she must
+get up and be glad." Poor child, instinctively she knew the value of
+life above all other things.
+
+"How did it happen, where did it start, and who saw it first?" were the
+queries on every side. Some one down at the foot of the hill had seen a
+tiny blue flame licking the corner of the roof. The fire alarm was
+touched, the bells set to ringing, and the observers leaped up the
+terraced stairways and arrived at the top just as the whole house burst
+into flames. The fire company had not arrived in time to do anything, as
+it was impossible to climb the hill with their heavy trucks, and their
+hose was not long enough to reach the flames, so the house was gone.
+Many people had gathered from all quarters in the fashion peculiar to
+fire crowds, but now they had seen the spectacle, and, as there was
+nothing further to see or do, they slowly dispersed.
+
+Mrs. Hayden and the children were removed to the hotel and a telegram
+sent to Mr. Hayden, informing him of the catastrophe.
+
+When he arrived, twelve hours later, he found his wife confined to the
+bed with a nervous fever and a broken limb. The children were safe and
+well cared for, and though his elegant home was in ruins, John Hayden
+was deeply thankful. Marion would, of course, get over the trouble, and
+things were much better than they might have been, he said. So he tried
+to look on the bright side, and after a few cheering words and a loving
+kiss he left her, to run up the hill and view the ruins.
+
+It was early twilight, and as he beheld the smouldering _debris_, and
+realized that the comforts and luxuries, possibly the necessities of
+life had gone up in the smoke that even now curled in sullen wreaths
+from the blackened heaps, he bowed his head and wept.
+
+It was but a moment, but that moment was the bitterest of his whole
+life. He knew better than anyone else that this was probably the
+beginning of financial misfortune, for a very important transaction was
+even now pending that he feared would take his all. As a merchant he had
+an honorable reputation and position, but this unfortunate speculation
+would ruin him. Failure seemed inevitable. But he hoped to save enough
+to pay every debt and still be able to live, even though in a modest
+way. Now he would not even get his insurance on his house, for in his
+financial embarrassment he had failed to renew his policy, which had
+expired but few days before. He would now have little besides this spot,
+this beautiful hill. Yes, it was valuable, and in time could be sold for
+what it was worth, but not now, and in the meantime what should he do?
+How would Marion take it? Why had he not told her before he went away?
+But he had known it himself only a few days.
+
+"Oh, my dear wife, would that we could commence life as we did when we
+were first married!" he groaned.
+
+His mind went back to the past. He looked again into her sweet, girlish
+face, into her clear, earnest eyes. He remembered how they had both
+desired to live a religious life, how he, having been brought up in a
+religious home, undertook in vain to explain the Bible where it was dark
+and unreasonable to her. He remembered how fruitlessly she had tried to
+be converted, and that he had found even through her earnest seeking
+that he had naught but the letter of religion and was also as helpless
+as to the manner of salvation. And then they had given up trying. She
+sought, for a while, to satisfy herself by doing for others, giving her
+time and energy to the poor that found her out and besieged her for
+favors, while he had been satisfied to let religion alone and believe
+with the majority concerning the doctrines and dogmas.
+
+As the years went on, and prosperity came to them, he had grown more and
+more indifferent, and finally, when they moved away from their early
+home and entered a new city, they had begun a new life, as it were.
+
+He remembered, regretfully, that she had entered the competitive ranks
+of society, at his wish at first, because he thought it would add to his
+popularity as a merchant and increase the number and quality of his
+customers. Too well he remembered that the elegant parties and party
+costumes were first his own instigation, and now that these were likely
+to be taken away, he felt responsible for her happiness, and had a
+secret misgiving, born of his early religious training perhaps, of
+retribution and judgment. He hoped indeed that she would be able to
+rise above circumstances, but he was utterly at a loss to know how she
+would take it, for although he knew that deep down in her heart were
+still traces of the early longings, he felt vaguely there was no way to
+satisfy them any more now than in the past, and probably they would only
+increase the difficulty of finding happiness.
+
+John Hayden was kind-hearted and upright in all his ways, strictly
+honest and conscientious, but apt to be a little one-sided in his
+judgments, simply because, as a rule, he reasoned from one standpoint,
+thought in one groove. He had never considered the questions from this
+point of view, and therefore they were seriously perplexing. Like many
+another he lived within his own world, and knew naught of any other. In
+the later years of their married life he and Marion had grown a little
+apart in the closest confidences, but it was caused by circumstances
+more than anything else, and notwithstanding the present misery he was
+sure of her love.
+
+"Poor girl, I must hasten back to her," he murmured, as he rose from his
+uncomfortable position. "After all, I can thank God for my family, my
+health, my honor, for no matter how much _we_ may suffer, no one else
+shall suffer through me."
+
+There was a little pang at the thought of the privations in possible
+store for the family through him, but he had resolved to make the best
+of circumstances and be brave as possible. Once more he looked over the
+scene, but there were only dim black shadows in the starlight, and he
+went down toward the twinkling lights of the city below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+     "Society is like a piece of frozen water; and skating well the
+     great art of social life."--_Letitia Elizabeth Landon._
+
+
+"Too bad about Hayden, isn't it?" said one business man to another after
+the crash came.
+
+"Yes, I am sorry for him, but he is coming out honorably, and I hope
+he'll commence again before long."
+
+"Well, he is made of the right stuff if he did make one mistake, and I
+guess he will never make the same blunder again. Too bad though about
+his house. No insurance at all, and that was a magnificent property."
+
+"Indeed it was, and I hope for his wife's sake he can sell the lot and
+get another home for her."
+
+"Can't do it now though--real estate is too low for any use in Hampton."
+
+"Yes, that's so. The only way is to mortgage, and that seems a pity in
+this case--" and they passed on out of hearing.
+
+John Hayden, standing within the doorway of the open store, had
+overheard the remarks, and while they pained, they cheered him. From
+that moment his resolve was taken, and as soon as everything was
+honorably settled he applied for credit of his old friends in the
+wholesale houses and they gladly gave it, for his reputation was
+unimpeachable.
+
+Then he rented a modest little store and began anew.
+
+Mrs. Hayden lay sick seven weeks, and arose a weak and nervous invalid,
+"doomed to carry a still limb all her life," the physicians said. They
+could not discover why her limb was stiff, but there was no help for it.
+
+How did she bear the change in her life and circumstances? When her
+husband told her, she just put her arms around his neck and whispered;
+"All right, John, I shall do the best I can to help you bear it." And
+from that moment they began life again. She did not even complain when
+they were obliged to move into a small cottage in the suburbs, but it
+was hard for her to be ignored and forgotten by the elegant social
+world, where she had so recently been an acknowledged leader.
+
+Alas! she had no sugar plums for society now, so it soon forgot her
+existence. There were, however, some exceptions among her former
+friends, and she was glad to welcome among her few visitors, Kate Turner
+and Grace Hall, who had grown to love Mrs. Hayden more than they would
+have thought possible when she seemed so high above them in the social
+scale.
+
+"She is turning out a saint rather than a sinner," said Kate one
+evening, as they were discussing the Haydens and recalled the
+conversation of the night of the party.
+
+"Just wait awhile. Many people can be heroic in great things, but are
+sadly deficient when it comes to the little things," said Grace, with
+her usual caution. "I believe I could be a heroine myself, if some grand
+opportunity came," she added, smiling.
+
+"Oh, Grace, don't trifle so; you know this is a very serious matter with
+Mr. and Mrs. Hayden, and they are both doing nobly," cried Kate, with
+tears in her eyes.
+
+"Well, queen Katherine, I don't mean any harm, and you must not think
+anything of my brusque speeches. As you know, there is a tinge of
+skepticism in me which I can not help, and my ideals are so much higher
+than the realities of life, that I am always painfully conscious of the
+difference."
+
+"Well, what would you wish Mrs. Hayden to be like, for instance, in
+order to come up to your ideal of the heroic woman?" asked Kate in a
+softened tone.
+
+"Kate dear, I love Mrs. Hayden as much as you do, and would not for a
+moment disparage her virtues, but it strikes me as a philosophical fact
+that as a rule, human nature can and does display wonderful courage in
+great emergencies, but fails miserably in details, and this ought not to
+be so. Nothing would please me better than to see one life prove that I
+am wrong."
+
+"That is all true, Gracie, about humanity in general, but she is lovely,
+and I am sorry for her having to be lame all her life. It's a perfect
+shame that she must lose even her health, for of course she will never
+be strong again."
+
+"Another defect to be noted somewhere in the universal economy. It seems
+to me we are pretty helpless creatures, generally speaking, for it all
+appears to be a matter of chance whether we get well or not, when we
+_do_ get sick," mused Grace, bent upon drawing her own conclusions.
+
+Poor girl! Life had been rather hard for her, and she judged it as it
+appeared, and there _did_ seem a great flaw somewhere which she was
+trying her best to solve by noting every phase of life as she found it.
+Naturally bright, keenly intellectual and very independent, she was a
+philosopher as well as an artist, and always ready for a tilt with the
+world on its most petted opinions. Hers was a reasoning mind that
+observed all inconsistencies and discrepancies in anything she studied,
+and there was generally a little acidity in her judgment of the world
+and its bigoted ways.
+
+"I can't see why Mrs. Hayden should not be cured completely," continued
+Kate, ignoring her companion's last shot, "for it wasn't so bad that
+anybody knew of until she got up."
+
+"My dear madam," said Grace, striking an owlish attitude, "you have not
+read the latest opinion expressed by one of the most learned professors
+in the Allopathic school of medicine in Paris. He stood before the class
+of graduating students and said: 'Gentlemen, you have done me the honor
+to come here to listen to a lecture on the science of medicine. I must
+frankly confess I know nothing about it, and, moreover, know of no one
+who does. Any one who takes medicine is fortunate if it helps him, but
+more fortunate if it does not harm him.' Whether our friend is fortunate
+or unfortunate is a question hard to decide. I move we discuss another
+subject."
+
+Kate laughed in spite of herself, and Grace got up to take another view
+of the "Modern Hypatia," which at last was growing into a visible
+creation under her skillful brush.
+
+"Isn't that a woman for you?" she said, pointing to the picture
+admiringly, as she held it under the gas light.
+
+"Yes, I like her better than Hebe. She has a look of reserved power
+about her that is captivating, but there is something in her face that
+makes me sad, something that is lacking."
+
+"What is it? Tell me, for _I_ can see nothing!" Grace questioned
+impetuously.
+
+"Wait a minute, perhaps I can define it. There! hold it so. Let me see,"
+and Kate walked off a few paces.
+
+"Yes, it is dissatisfaction, an incompleteness, as though she had not
+found what she sought."
+
+"Can you see that, Kate? Then I am at the same time the most happy and
+unhappy creature alive," cried Grace, breathlessly dropping into a chair
+and holding the picture fondly near her face.
+
+"Why?" said the astonished Kate.
+
+"Don't you know I am forever putting myself into my pictures? And I've
+succeeded too admirably with this one. The poor thing has caught my
+unconscious fault of finding defects everywhere. Oh, I must get it out
+of her some way; how shall I, when to me she looks so perfect?"
+
+"You better get it out of yourself first, if that is the trouble,"
+replied Kate, with a great wave of pity in her voice.
+
+"I wish I could. Oh, why do I have to see everything in the wrong way?
+It seems to me life would be heavenly, if I could know only the good in
+everything." Grace put down the picture and gazed at it with stern,
+accusing eyes. "I shall leave this one and begin another to-morrow," she
+finally announced in a subdued tone.
+
+"I am glad you won't rub this out, for she is too lovely," said Kate,
+softly, as she went about, gently putting things in order, picking up
+her music and arranging the books.
+
+Grace sat there brooding over her life problems with a new thought in
+her mind. She dimly realized that a woman must have a genuine message
+herself before she tries to give it to the world. And alas, her message
+was sadly deficient, she found. Mechanically she took a book from the
+table and opening it at random, read:
+
+  "If the whole is ever to gladden thee,
+  That whole in the smallest thing thou must see."
+
+"That is not bad philosophy, whose is it?" she thought. She looked at
+the book. It was Goethe's poems, but she was not in the mood for
+reading, and she sat thinking till late at night. This was a new
+sentiment. She would digest it and test its practical truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  Take up the threads of life at home,
+   Let not the stitches drop;
+  The busy world will know 'tis done
+   Though ne'er it pause nor stop.
+
+"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace
+but the triumph of principles."--_Emerson._
+
+
+A year passed away, and Mrs. Hayden grew no better. She was not as
+cheerful as she had been at first, and instead of growing into the
+brave, patient woman she longed to become, she had grown fretful and
+irritable, and was in many ways different from the Mrs. Hayden Kate and
+Grace had talked about so enthusiastically. None knew better than she,
+how miserably she had failed to live the life that was soul
+satisfying--the life that brought forth fruits. In all the years of her
+prosperity, in the midst of the gayeties and luxuries, she had secretly
+longed for something she never found, and in one sense it had not been
+hard for her to give up the life of ease and idleness, because she had
+hoped to find in the new duties a new peace and satisfaction, had hoped
+to live up to her ideal of a noble woman, and it was with her whole
+heart she had promised her husband her help and sympathy, but in all the
+eighteen months, she had been but a burden; even calm forbearance and
+cheerfulness had ceased to be virtues. The children, not having a
+nursery, must needs be anywhere and everywhere, and in spite of her
+efforts to the contrary, their noise annoyed her.
+
+To-night she sat thinking it all over, in one of her most despondent
+moods, for be it said to her credit, things did not always appear as
+gloomy as she represented them to herself.
+
+The ruddy firelight flickered over her in fitful gleams of light and
+shadow. The children were out romping in the twilight, enjoying the
+first snow of the season. Her husband had not yet returned from the
+store.
+
+What was the use, anyway, pursued the relentless conscience--even the
+wish to be good was always choked by a complete forgetfulness; and
+before she could catch her breath the words were out, so, although she
+had believed nearly all her life that one might grow into goodness, she
+was quite rebellious to-night with the thought of its impossibility, and
+she felt bitter, too, to think of the long years of uselessness
+stretching out before her. Scarcely thirty-five and yet she felt like a
+cross, crabbed old woman, and shuddered to think of all the years to
+come, if they were to be like the past, and there seemed no help for it
+unless she could conquer herself. The doctor had done what he could to
+cure her dyspepsia but she was a veritable slave to her capricious
+stomach. She felt one of her oft-recurring sick headaches coming on and
+every thought grew blacker and more disconsolate. Oh! she wished supper
+were over and the children safe in bed, so she could be free from their
+noise, and here they come! she thought, as a great stamping and laughing
+was heard in the hall.
+
+"Oh, mamma! such lovely snowflakes, just like a fairy's quilt, and they
+have been falling all over us till we're like people in frost land. Just
+look, mamma!" cried Mabel, who liked a romp as well as the boys,
+although she was thirteen. Three-year-old Jamie and five-year-old Fred
+came trooping in behind.
+
+"Well, mamma, God has turned on the snow faucets," announced Fred, with
+characteristic importance.
+
+"An' all 'e fevvers is tummin' down fum 'e 'ky," shouted Jamie at the
+top of his voice.
+
+"And mamma, _can't_ we have a sled and go coasting this winter?" queried
+Mabel, not noticing in her eagerness that her mamma was very sick.
+
+"Oh, _don't_ make so much noise. Take them away and keep quiet, Mabel. I
+can not endure so much confusion."
+
+They went out clanging the door behind them in spite of their efforts to
+keep quiet, and as their voices grew fainter, she thought with another
+remorseful pang: "I have sent them away again. Why must I yield always
+to self instead of overcoming?" Presently, however, all attempts at
+thinking were lost in the efforts to get the camphor, bathe her head and
+find some comforting spot whereon to rest her aching temples.
+
+A subdued family gathered around the table that evening and everyone
+felt the necessity of being quiet as possible. Even Fred and Jamie
+understood that they _must_ keep still, and managed to keep their voices
+down to something less than a shrill whisper.
+
+Mrs. Hayden partook only of a small cup of tea and was then assisted to
+her room, where she expected to remain for at least two days--the usual
+time. Her husband spent the evening rubbing her head, bathing it with
+camphor and keeping the house quiet as possible.
+
+The next day dawned cloudy and grey, with a faint mildness in the air,
+indicating a thaw. Mabel went to school, Fred and Jamie amused
+themselves in the back parlor until they were tired and then flattened
+their noses against the window, trying to see how many drops of melted
+snow fell from the porch roof.
+
+"I want a snow man," wailed Jamie, suddenly remembering what papa said
+about the snow long ago.
+
+"Well, you can't have it," said Fred, with great decision, who generally
+opposed anything on principle.
+
+"Yes, we can. We can go out and make one," persisted Jamie.
+
+"Jack Frost'll bite your fingers."
+
+"No he won't."
+
+"He will--"
+
+"He won't eever--"
+
+"He will, 'cos mamma said so," said naughty Fred.
+
+Jamie's little face clouded and the lip began to quiver; then a sudden
+thought striking him, he jumped up, beaming with delight, and cried, as
+he ran towards the hall:
+
+"Mamma said Jack Frost couldn't find me when I had my overcoat and wed
+mittens on, and my wed cap."
+
+"You can't reach your coat an' you've lost your mittens," insisted Fred,
+with perseverance worthy a better cause.
+
+"O, yes I can. I can 'tep on my high chair," dragging it after him.
+
+"I can get my things on first," said Fred who suddenly decided in favor
+of the snow man, and hurriedly suiting the action to the word, rushed to
+get his coat which hung under Jamie's, just as Jamie reached his little
+hands up to get his. Fred gave a tremendous flirt and pull at his coat
+which overbalanced his little brother and down came the high chair and
+Jamie plump upon the luckless Fred, whose angry squeals and kicks,
+mingled with Jamie's loud shrieks of terror made a commotion that
+brought Anna, the housekeeper, to the rescue.
+
+"What _is_ the matter?" as she plucked Jamie from the general _debris_.
+
+"Fred pulled me down--"
+
+"Jamie jumped on me," said both at once as soon as they could get their
+breath.
+
+"An', I aint lost my wed mittens, an' my little white leg is broke off,"
+cried Jamie suddenly, spying the oft-mended leg of the high-chair, which
+in this _melee_, had completely severed company with the rest of the
+chair, and now mutely appealed for help to be put on again.
+
+"There, there, papa can mend it all right again. Don't cry, little man.
+Now Fred, you must stop crying and play nice with Jamie and not quarrel
+so much. There! I hear mamma's bell; I must go see what she wants. Run
+away and be quiet, for mamma can't stand a _bit_ of noise to-day," and
+Anna left them again to their own devices. Jamie carefully laid the
+little white leg away in his box of playthings, and then both children
+went back to the window to watch the drops again.
+
+"I see one, two, three, seven, four, ten--" slowly counted Jamie as the
+crystal drops fell.
+
+"Oh, I see a ice berg, an' I'm goin' to get it for candy," shouted Fred
+as he ran out on the porch and seized an icicle. It seemed so nice out
+there that he stayed and called Jamie to come, too. They were delighted
+with the new plaything and new sights, and any thought of being cold or
+needing their coats never entered their minds, so the icicle, the
+beautiful drops, and finally the snow claimed their attention until they
+were at last happily engaged in the much-desired occupation of making a
+snow man.
+
+It was near noon and the sun had finally rifted the grayest clouds, and
+was sending such warm smiles on the snow-laden earth that trees and
+fences, roofs and ridges burst into tears of joy. So, often does the
+sun-shiny smile melt the ice-bound prison of discontent or
+misunderstanding.
+
+Fred and Jamie were in the midst of their interesting creation when Mr.
+Hayden came home to dinner.
+
+"Boys! boys!" he called from the gate as soon as he saw them. "You'll
+catch your death of cold; run into the house, quick! Why haven't you
+something on your heads and rubbers on your feet?" and without waiting
+to hear their vociferous reply, he hurried them into the house.
+
+"Oh, but it was such fun, papa, an' we was goin' to put two coals in his
+head, cos' his eyes was black, you know, an' your old mashed hat for his
+head, an'--"
+
+"An' me foun' a 'tick for his arm," interrupted Jamie, who must be sure
+papa knew all about this wonderful man.
+
+"Yes, he looks very promising, and I guess I'll have to finish him for
+you; but you must not go out again to-day. Just think what would we do
+if you should be sick while mamma must be in bed. Poor mamma, she would
+feel bad and cry because she couldn't help you, and it would make her
+feel very sorry indeed to know her little boys went out without somebody
+saying they might."
+
+"Well, papa, we didn't mean to go 'thout our things on, but two of the
+_beautifullest_ icebergs hunged down an' we played they was candy an'
+all the pretty drops said stop, stop, stop, an'--"
+
+"Yes, an' the 'no was full of 'tars 'at shined right up at us an'
+laughed an' played hide an' seek wiv each other."
+
+"An' Jamie wanted to make a snow man," suddenly remembered Fred.
+
+"Cos papa did when he was a little boy, an' he telled me sometimes so
+could I--"
+
+"Oh, you little rogues, it is well you can trace it back," laughed papa,
+catching each small man, and placing upon his knees.
+
+"Why, look here, your shoes are all wet, and your fingers red, and your
+clothes sprinkled with water. This will never do. Take off your shoes,
+Fred. Here, Anna," he called, as he heard her in the dining room,
+"bring some dry stockings and aprons. These boys have been out in the
+wet snow, and must be changed right away. Put a flannel round their
+necks, too. I'm afraid they'll have the croup to-night." With as much
+haste as possible, he stripped off their wet clothes, chafed their hands
+and feet, and with an anxious look left them, to go and speak to his
+wife who, when suffering from headache could allow no one to enter the
+room except her husband or Anna.
+
+That night the whole household were aroused by the hoarse and
+unmistakable cough of croup. Jamie had taken cold, as his father feared
+he would. The doctor was sent for in wild haste, and after several hours
+of watchful care and frequent taking of hive syrup or ipecac, Jamie was
+at last sleeping quietly, and every one felt that after this, at least,
+those children should be so well guarded that escape would be
+impossible, and the dreaded enemy kept out. This was always a result of
+exposure, and Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had often wished for the time when
+Jamie would outgrow the attacks as that really seemed the only thing in
+which lay any hope.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  "Build thee more stately mansions
+  Oh my soul,
+  As the swift seasons roll,
+  Leave thy low vaulted past.
+  Let each new temple nobler than the last
+  Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
+  Till thou at length art free:
+  Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea."
+
+  --_O. W. Holmes._
+
+
+"How do you do Mrs. Hayden? You see I come in without ceremony as usual,
+but I heard you'd had one of your headaches again," and Mrs. Reade
+seated herself cosily on the sofa near which Mrs. Hayden sat languidly
+trying to read.
+
+"Oh, I have about recovered my usual strength, but of course I must be
+careful and not get excited or overworked, though my work I am sorry to
+say, does not amount to much." After a few moments commonplace
+conversation, Mrs. Reade said, carefully:
+
+"Now Mrs. Hayden, I believe there _is_ a help for you somewhere.
+Wouldn't you like to try something new?"
+
+"Why, you _know_ I would try anything that would give relief, but I have
+exhausted everything that ever was heard of, and now every remedy seems
+very transient or of no effect at all."
+
+Mrs. Hayden leaned wearily back in her chair and seemed to think there
+was no use discussing the subject any longer. After a few moments
+thoughtful silence, Mrs. Reade looked up at her friend and said,
+timidly:
+
+"Mrs. Hayden, have you ever heard of Christian Healing?"
+
+"No. What is it?"
+
+"I can't tell, only that it is just the most wonderful panacea for all
+ills that ever was discovered and they say it can be learned, and
+applied by everybody."
+
+"Do you mean that I could learn it and could then cure myself?"
+
+"Yes, that is what they claim."
+
+"Why, Mrs. Reade, what is all this wonderful news, and if it is true,
+why hasn't the world heard of it before?" exclaimed Mrs. Hayden with an
+amused smile.
+
+Mrs. Reade did not return the smile but a still more earnest look came
+into her eyes. She bent over her bit of sewing for a moment and then
+looking up, as though resolved to speak the truth at any cost, she went
+on:
+
+"Mrs. Hayden, it is the fulfillment of the promises in the Bible, that
+to them that believe, these signs should be given. You remember the
+passage don't you, where Jesus gave His disciples the same power to heal
+that He had?"
+
+"Well, but that was long ago, and the promise was for the disciples, I
+suppose."
+
+"No, it was for everybody; and do you know, Mrs. Hayden, I can hardly
+wait to learn this new method, I am so interested."
+
+"How did you hear about it?"
+
+"When I was down to Mapleton last summer I heard something about it
+through a friend of mine, who was cured of chronic congestive headaches,
+and now my cousin, Miss Greening, from Norfolk, has come on to spend the
+holidays with us, and strange to say, she has been cured of weak
+eyes--just came straight from Princeton where she was treated,
+and--and--well, the fact is, I want you to come over and see her and may
+be _you_ can be cured."
+
+Mrs. Reade was quite frightened for having said so much, but was
+reassured by the growing interest in Mrs. Hayden's eyes.
+
+"And you know these things to be true? Why, it _is_ wonderful. How is it
+done, by prayer?"
+
+"Not exactly, but it is by some process of thinking. Oh, I can't begin
+to tell you, only that it is wonderful, and you must come over and talk
+with cousin Helen."
+
+"I am afraid to trust myself out in this uncertain weather. Can't you
+both come and take tea with us to-morrow? I hope to be well enough then,
+and it would be a great pleasure, for if there is any truth in this, I
+want to know it. Do come."
+
+This was a good deal for Mrs. Hayden to say, but she was very earnest
+when aroused to interest.
+
+"Yes, we will," said Mrs. Reade, as she rose to go, looking straight
+into her friend's eyes with joyful earnestness, "and I am so glad. Good
+bye," and she retreated as unceremoniously as she had come, leaving Mrs.
+Hayden to wonder why she should be so childishly pleased over that
+invitation. It never occurred to her that Mrs. Reade should be so glad
+to come merely to tell more about this new way of getting well.
+
+Mrs. Reade was a young housekeeper, who, living just across the street,
+was in the habit of often running in to Mrs. Hayden with her little
+vexations, her triumphs of cookery, her questions of how to manage
+little May, or what to do in matters of household furnishing. She was a
+very progressive little woman, and, perhaps owing to the influence of
+Mrs. Hayden, was ready at least to give everything a fair hearing. This
+new "craze," as some called it, had been presented to her in a way that
+compelled her attention and commanded her respect, and especially since
+her cousin's coming had she been intensely interested.
+
+Particularly was she desirous of enlisting the attention of Mrs. Hayden,
+who not only needed the physical help to be obtained, but who would be
+an excellent advocate of the principles, providing she could endorse
+them, as Mrs. Reade was sure she would, if she could only be made to
+understand.
+
+So it was with great anticipated pleasure Mrs. Reade introduced her
+cousin to Mrs. Hayden as they went in the next day.
+
+"Now, Cousin Helen, just tell Mrs. Hayden how you were cured. I am so
+anxious to set the ball rolling," said Mrs. Reade, with an arch look at
+Mrs. Hayden after they were comfortably settled for their talk.
+
+"Yes, indeed," added Mrs. Hayden; "if you have half as wonderful a
+message as Mrs. Reade fondly imagines I shall be delighted to hear it,
+but I would first like to ask what was the trouble with your eyes, and
+something as to their condition when you first looked into this method
+of healing."
+
+"I had been obliged to leave school because they were so weak. They were
+inflamed and bloodshot. I could not bear to go out in the wind, ride on
+the cars, or have any excitement whatever. The occulists said the
+trouble was caused by a physical defect that could not be remedied, so
+you may imagine my despair. Father and mother came home from a visit in
+Kansas, and while there they had heard of a lady in Princeton who was
+having remarkable success with mind-cure, as they called it. They coaxed
+me to go and try it. I had no faith, but to please them thought I would
+go. It could do no harm, they said. The journey, though only sixty miles
+from home, was very hard for me. When I arrived at Mrs. Harmon's it
+seemed as though I could hardly bear the pain caused by the journey.
+
+"Mrs. Harmon allowed me to stay right at her home, and though only there
+a week, I was not only cured, but learned the principles and how to
+apply them. After the first treatment I felt so well and happy she told
+me I could use my eyes to read an hour or so. From the second treatment
+I could use them all I wished. It was perfectly wonderful. When I went
+home I was cured. That is now three weeks ago, and I have been using my
+eyes constantly, have taken several journeys on the cars, and gone out
+day and night."
+
+Mrs. Hayden had listened with the greatest interest, her mind filled
+with varying thoughts. Sudden glimpses of wonderful might-be's, mingled
+with doubts and hopes, had chased each other in wild confusion through
+her bewildered brain.
+
+"Tell me," she found breath at last to ask, "what is it, and how is it
+done, and can anybody do it?"
+
+Miss Greening was delighted to find so willing an audience, for in spite
+of her remarkable cure, most of her family and friends ridiculed her new
+"cure all."
+
+"Oh, I wish I could explain to you as Mrs. Harmon does. I am so very new
+in the thought, but I will do the best I can to give you some idea. The
+main thing in the beginning is to know that you know nothing," continued
+Miss Greening, with a smile. "The world believes in the character as it
+appears, to be the real character, that the person who suffers sickness,
+sorrow, disappointment, anger or pain is the real self. We have always
+taken the people of the world, as they appear, to be the children of
+God. This truth teaches that the real child of God is in His image and
+likeness and in Him lives, is moved and has His being. According to the
+laws of thought, the thought of one individual affects another, and on
+this principle the treatments are given, but it is the omnipresent life
+Principle that does the work.
+
+"Oh, it is perfectly wonderful, and if you could see what I saw while I
+was with Mrs. Harmon, you would not doubt a moment. She was busy from
+morning till night with patients. Hardly had time to eat or sleep. It
+seemed like the times of the New Testament come back again. Mrs. Harmon
+cured a man of rheumatism, where the joints had been stiffened and
+contracted for years, in seven treatments. The first week the
+treatments did not seem to have any effect, but the second week he
+suddenly recovered the use of his arm and limbs, so that he could run
+and jump or do anything else that a healthy man can do.
+
+"One young girl, who was suffering from lead poisoning so that she was
+given up by three or four prominent physicians, received nine treatments
+and, although not perfectly strong and robust, was able to walk several
+blocks and was so well that she did not need further treatment.
+
+"Mrs. Harmon treated an old lady of seventy, so that she laid aside
+glasses and could see to sew on black cloth. A lady who had been an
+invalid for sixteen years was cured so that in a week she was able to
+ride a mile and a half to the lectures.
+
+"All these things I saw with my own eyes, and if the evidence had not
+been enough in my own case, there were all these proofs. And the
+teaching! Oh, it is beautiful. If we could only live up to that the
+millenium would surely be here."
+
+In her enthusiasm Miss Greening scarcely noticed the effect of her
+words, else she would have seen Mrs. Hayden's expressive eyes full of a
+yearning, silent and strong.
+
+"Can it touch anyone's character or moral life?" she asked after a
+moment's pause.
+
+"Yes, indeed; there is not one thing in life that is not amenable to its
+discipline. Mrs. Harmon says it is a great advantage in governing
+children, that every mother ought to know it, for the help in that
+direction, even if not for their health."
+
+"What a wonderful thing it must be; and yet I always thought the days of
+miracles were past, if indeed they ever were," said Mrs. Hayden,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"These are not miracles, as the ordinary understanding of that word
+would imply, but are done in accordance with Divine Law, the highest
+law,--not the setting aside of any law," interposed Mrs. Reade, who had
+been deeply interested in the conversation, but hitherto had been a
+silent listener.
+
+"Oh, mamma, I wish supper was ready; I'm so hungry!" cried Fred,
+bursting into the room, followed by Jamie and Mabel.
+
+"Mamma, can't we have some--" began Jamie, and then stopped, abashed at
+the size of the audience.
+
+"No, dears; mamma don't want you to eat anything before supper. You know
+what Doctor Jackson said about the little stomachs that were overworked.
+Now, run away and be good; when everything is ready mamma'll call you."
+
+"But we want it _now_. Doctor Jackson don't know everything. It's only
+God that knows everything," said Fred, with unanswerable argument.
+
+"Come away, Fred," whispered Mabel, giving him an impatient twitch.
+
+"It's so, anyway; mamma told me about God just the other night."
+
+"He knows I want some ginger 'naps," whimpered Jem.
+
+"Never mind; run out, as mamma says," said Mrs. Hayden, resolutely, and
+the aggrieved trio reluctantly departed.
+
+"It would be an immense help to me if I could learn to manage these
+three irrepressibles without getting tired all out," said Mrs. Hayden,
+with a little sigh.
+
+"Wouldn't it be splendid? I think, Mrs. Hayden, you better let Cousin
+Helen treat you, and get you all cured, and then you can go somewhere
+and learn how, yourself," said Mrs. Reade, as she demurely wound up the
+ball.
+
+Mrs. Hayden looked up with interested surprise. "Do you think anything
+could be done for _me_, Miss Greening?"
+
+"A great many worse than you have been cured, why not you?"
+
+"Well, I don't know; it seems so far away and so intangible some way."
+
+"Now, Mrs. Hayden, try it. Let Cousin Helen treat you," interposed Mrs.
+Reade.
+
+"What must _I_ do, any mysterious unheard-of thing?" was the answer,
+with a look of evident amusement.
+
+"Oh, no! Just sit quietly passive, and be as hopeful as possible during
+the treatment. The only thing that might seem hard is to give up all
+medicine and material applications while you are under treatment."
+
+"That will not be hard at all, for I have lost all faith in medicine
+anyway. When do you want to begin, Miss Greening?"
+
+"Well, I am willing to try my best to help you, Mrs. Hayden, but you
+must understand, in the first place, that I take no credit to myself,
+for it is God's work. Then I have really not tried to heal any one;
+since it was so recently I was cured myself, there has been no
+opportunity, but as I said, I will do what I can."
+
+Miss Greening spoke earnestly and reverently. It seemed rather new to
+her to be called upon to prove her principles, and yet she had such
+perfect faith in them, she never thought of wavering.
+
+"Then it's all settled, and you can take your first treatment to-night,"
+spoke up Mrs. Reade, volubly. "I'm so anxious to see you strong and well
+like the rest of us," she added half apologetically.
+
+"It will seem too good to be true. I can not realize such a
+possibility."
+
+A thoughtful silence fell upon the little company for a few moments, and
+when they resumed their conversation, it was about something else.
+
+At their usual tea time, Mr. Hayden, accompanied by Mr. Reade, came in,
+and all were presently called to the dining room.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Hayden had dropped all pretension of style in their present
+circumstances, and lived like their neighbors, in a modest but
+comfortable way. The children came trooping in when they heard the
+supper bell, and delightedly filed out to the dining room with their
+elders.
+
+"Well, I hope you ladies have been enjoying yourselves this afternoon. I
+notice ladies have that faculty whenever they meet for an hour or so,"
+said Mr. Hayden, with a genial smile, as he passed the plates.
+
+"Oh, we have indeed had a lovely time, and a profitable one, too, I
+hope," said Mrs. Reade, impulsively.
+
+"You have about converted Mrs. Hayden to your ideas, you and Helen
+together, I presume," remarked Mr. Reade, as he spread his napkin out to
+its fullest capacity.
+
+"I should certainly like to be converted, if so many wonderful things
+are possible as I have heard about this afternoon," and Mrs. Hayden
+showed by the unusual energy in her manner and the brightness of her
+eyes that something had inspired her to an unwonted degree.
+
+"Well now, tell me what all this is about. You seem to have conspired to
+talk in riddles," exclaimed Mr. Hayden, with an injured air.
+
+"Why, it is this new 'craze' they call Christian Healing that seems to
+have taken hold of our worthy partners, Mr. Hayden," exclaimed Mr.
+Reade, with a half-believing, half-skeptical air.
+
+He really believed much more than he cared to acknowledge, but until he
+was better informed of Mr. Hayden's opinions, he thought "discretion the
+better part of valor." Someway we often stumble upon such characters in
+life. Good-natured souls they are, and so anxious to please everybody.
+
+"I am not sure but there is a good deal in that, Reade. I heard some
+gentlemen talking about what was being done in Chicago, and it is truly
+wonderful. After all, we know that the mind has a great influence over
+the body, and why shouldn't we discover new abilities and powers in that
+as we develop in other directions?"
+
+"To be sure; just what I have always said, and now I am having an
+opportunity to prove it since my wife is willing to listen," replied Mr.
+Reade, with graceful diplomacy.
+
+"Oh, there is something far beyond what you gentlemen see--something so
+spiritual and beautiful, that mere intellect can not recognize it. But
+you will come to that after awhile, if you only seek to know for Truth's
+sake, though the recognition of what you see often comes first,"
+interposed Miss Greening, with a warm flush of enthusiasm on her face.
+
+"Certainly. I believe our capacity to recognize higher phases of thought
+grows with our eagerness to receive. That is true of any branch of
+study," said Mrs. Hayden, with conviction. She was well pleased that her
+husband was so favorably inclined to hear, and expressed himself so
+cordially. While she was quite independent in her own way of thinking,
+it was still a keen pleasure to have her husband on the same side. He,
+on the other hand, had great confidence in her judgment, and generally
+allowed himself to be convinced, even if he had an opinion in the
+beginning. They had been especially near to each other the last year.
+
+Miss Greening was mentally congratulating herself on having found such a
+ready audience, and felt as though she could do anything in the way of
+healing, as she talked on and on, telling them the many things that had
+happened in Princeton. She finished by saying, enthusiastically:
+
+"When I had such wonderful proofs right before my eyes, do you wonder
+that I looked with awe and astonishment and wanted to know the secret
+of this power? Can you wonder that I felt anxious to go forth into all
+the world and preach the gospel? Oh, how delightful, I thought, to carry
+such blessed news and be able to give such blessed proof! So when Cousin
+Ruth's letter came, asking me to make her a visit, I felt that perhaps
+an opportunity would offer in which I might demonstrate the truth of my
+precious science, and here it is ready for me, the very work I wanted.
+Yes, just as far as possible will I use my knowledge, though as yet it
+is but little, to help Mrs. Hayden."
+
+Miss Greening had waxed eloquent in her unconscious enthusiasm, and
+seeing the whole company gazing at her in astonished admiration, she
+paused suddenly, with a vivid flush on her face, saying: "Pardon me. I
+did not mean to monopolize the conversation."
+
+"That apology is entirely unnecessary, for we have been listening to
+something so new that its very newness and unconventionality is quite
+refreshing, and certainly interesting," said Mr. Hayden, warmly.
+
+"Surely, there must be some healing virtue even in your talk, for I feel
+remarkably well to-day," was his wife's delighted addition.
+
+"How glad, oh, how glad I am," fluttered Mrs. Reade.
+
+A movement from Jem caused Mrs. Hayden to notice his extra dish of sauce
+and huge piece of frosted cake.
+
+"No, Jem, dear, you mustn't eat any more to-night, and you know mamma
+don't want you to have any cake."
+
+"O-o-o-h, peaze, tan't I have some more?"
+
+"Not any more to-day. You know you had to be sick all night, not long
+ago, and mamma had to give you some medicine. You don't want to have to
+take paregoric, do you?"
+
+"No-o-o, but I want e take!"
+
+"Mamma said you couldn't have any. You're too little, anyway. Didn't I
+tell you I ought to have the biggest piece 'cause my stomach's the
+biggest, an' I'm not afraid of stomachache. Give me your sauce, if you
+can't eat it," said shameless Fred.
+
+Papa and mamma Hayden looked upon their oldest son in dismay, as he thus
+openly delivered his sentiments.
+
+"Hush, Freddie, you mustn't want any more, either, nor talk that way to
+Jem. You have had enough for to-night."
+
+"Well, I've had six biscuits any way," and Fred settled himself back
+with a satisfied air as though he could stand anything if necessary,
+while poor Jem was taken away from the table crying as if his heart
+would break at the loss of his coveted sweets.
+
+"You see, we seldom have company, and the children are unused to sweet
+things as a rule, because the doctor always says their diet must be
+carefully attended to, in order to avoid inflammation of the bowels,
+which Jem once had," explained Mrs. Hayden with the old look of
+weariness for a moment settling back on her face.
+
+"Just wait till you have studied Christian Healing and then see how to
+manage," said Mrs. Reade with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Have you taken such a fancy to this too, Mrs. Reade?" asked Mr. Hayden,
+rather teasingly.
+
+"Oh, she's almost a crank _now_," answered her husband, with a merry
+twinkle.
+
+"Well, it is very good to have such an article in the family. It keeps
+things lively and announces the world's progress with unerring
+certainty," she retorted, and with this good-natured sally they rose
+from the table. The evening was spent in a mixture of small talk and
+earnestness, and before they departed Mrs. Hayden received her first
+treatment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  "Like an AEolian harp, that wakes
+   No certain air, but overtakes
+   Far thought with music that it makes,--
+
+  "Such seemed the whisper at my side;
+  'What is't thou knowest, sweet voice?' I cried;
+  'A hidden hope,' the voice replied."
+
+  --_Tennyson._
+
+
+The second morning after this Mrs. Hayden awoke, feeling much better
+than she had for months. A strange, happy feeling possessed her. All
+that had seemed dark and hopeless now appeared as nothing but gossamer
+fog-wreaths. The world seemed so joyous and beautiful. God seemed so
+near, so loving, so all-protecting. Why had she ever doubted the
+possibility of health? Surely it was easy to feel well when she felt
+happy; and yet, would this last? Had this delightful change any
+connection with Miss Greening's treatment? No, surely not. It would be
+too unreasonable to expect any benefit so soon; besides, she was
+probably no better physically, that is, her lameness and dyspepsia were
+not touched as yet, if indeed they ever could be. Well, how it would
+astonish everybody if she really were cured, and could walk like her old
+self again. Her stiffened limb would have to undergo a marvelous change,
+but time would tell--it seemed nothing was beyond reach of this
+extraordinary Power. Miss Greening was so sincere and earnest, she could
+not for a moment doubt the truth of her statements, besides Mr. Hayden
+himself confessed to having heard of the wonderful works, though he had
+never mentioned it before, strangely enough. At the time it probably
+appeared so vague and visionary, that he had thought best not to excite
+her curiosity and hope without cause.
+
+How glad she was that he had at last allowed her to try this without
+ridiculing or scolding her. How beautiful this theory was, but it seemed
+too good to be true. She would not be carried away with it until she had
+demonstrated beyond doubt, until she could see the reason and understand
+it.
+
+The clock struck nine. Why, it was time to rise, and she really felt
+hungry, so hungry that dry toast and hot water had no attractions for
+her. She wondered if there would be anything on the table she dared not
+eat; it would be hard to resist if there were. Thus musing she dressed
+with more alacrity and energy than she had displayed for many months.
+
+Her husband stood in the doorway as she left her room, and remarked as
+they went down stairs:
+
+"You must have had a good sleep last night, you are so bright and spry
+this morning."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I can scarcely remember when the night has passed so
+quickly and the morning seemed so exhilarating; please help me down this
+turn, won't you? It is always so hard to get down stairs."
+
+The cane was brought into requisition, and with Mr. Hayden's help the
+stairs were descended, but the refractory limb was forgotten again in
+the interest with which she viewed the breakfast table.
+
+"Mamma, we've waited and waited till we thought we'd have to eat
+something, so we each took a doughnut to save time," was the explanatory
+greeting of Fred, who acted as spokesman for the three hungry culprits,
+who had this time, at least, disobeyed the imperative injunction not to
+eat cake the first thing in the morning.
+
+"Why, children, don't you remember how Dr. Jackson--"
+
+"Well, mamma, I heard that lady 'at was here, say 'twouldn't hurt us to
+eat if you wasn't so 'fraid 'bout our stomachs; an' she's a doctor, too,
+an' ladies know 's much 's men, 'cos you said so," interrupted the
+irrepressible, as usual, with unanswerable argument.
+
+"Well, we'll see this time, but you must be more careful to remember
+what mamma wishes you to do," said Mrs. Hayden more mildly than usual,
+while her eyes smiled a little.
+
+The breakfast was brought in, and, much to the astonishment of all, she
+recklessly disregarded the dry toast and hot water, mutely appealing to
+her from the side of her plate, and ate heartily of beefsteak, potatoes,
+and pan cakes. "I am so hungry, and will risk it on the strength of
+Fred's reminder," she apologized, as she sent her plate the third time
+for cakes.
+
+"Don't tell me you've no faith in Fred's newly-acquired wisdom," laughed
+Mr. Hayden, and then added, with some concern, "but, really, my dear,
+you ought to be careful. Remember the condition of your stomach."
+
+"That is just what she told me to forget."
+
+"Well, it beats all how things can be turned upside down," mused Mr.
+Hayden, as he rose from the table preparatory to going to the store.
+
+"It certainly is strange about this, for you remember yesterday, I even
+walked over to Mrs. Reade's and back without any unusual fatigue."
+
+"Oh, yes! I've noticed various daring breaches of the old code, and,
+more than all, I've seen the best color in your face that has been there
+for many a month," and he went out with a thoughtful expression on his
+face.
+
+"Mamma's well now," said little Jem, timidly, "'cos she puts me to bed."
+
+"Yes, an' we can make a noise when we dress, an' talk 'bout Christmas,"
+added Fred, as he was walking about, wiping his hands, in his usual
+restless manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
+  Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."--_Shakespeare._
+
+
+Of course Kate and Grace were told about the new way of being healed,
+and Grace looked on at first with her usual incredulity, but when she
+saw Mrs. Hayden getting so well and looking so happy, she began to
+wonder and then to exclaim. Then she wanted to learn something about
+this new "doctrine," and Mrs. Hayden had Miss Greening come over and
+meet the girls one evening so they could hear her explain a little about
+it. Grace was delighted, saying that was more reasonable than anything
+she had ever heard.
+
+"I really should like to learn it," she said for the third time as they
+walked home.
+
+"Why, you are really enthusiastic about it," said Kate, giving the
+artistic arm a gentle squeeze.
+
+"I must confess, Kate, that it is nearer my idea of religion than
+anything I ever heard, and it _is_ marvelous to see Mrs. Hayden. Did you
+see how bright she looked to-night? More like her old self than since
+her sickness. I can't understand it."
+
+"She said her limb was actually growing natural again so she could bend
+it," added Kate.
+
+"If _she_ could be cured, it would be a wonderful demonstration or proof
+of the theory," remarked Grace.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, Grace, I am afraid, after all, it might be wrong.
+You know it says in the Bible we are to beware of false doctrines, and
+the miracles of anti-Christ, and this may be that very thing," said
+Kate, with a sudden smiting of conscience and reproaching herself that
+she had not thought of this before. She had been brought up a strict
+Methodist, but had grown rather careless of religious matters, till all
+at once she realized the mighty import of her backsliding.
+
+"I don't think if there is such a thing, it could do so much good, and
+good power must come from the God of goodness," answered Grace, with
+unusual gentleness. They walked on in silence, each pondering her own
+thoughts.
+
+Three weeks after, Mrs. Hayden was known as a restored invalid, was
+daily answering a thousand questions as to how it was done. Was it
+really so? Could she walk as well as ever? Didn't she get tired? Had she
+any faith after all? etc.
+
+She patiently told them the truth of the matter, that her limb had
+become well and pliable as ever, that her stomach was perfectly sound,
+her head free from nervous aching, her nights a joyous rest and her days
+a round of delightful labor.
+
+For the first time she learned there had been many cures, and several
+classes taught in Hampton, but no case had excited the attention, public
+and private, that hers had.
+
+The various members of society wagged their wise heads, and cast mingled
+glances of pity, wonder, ridicule or disdain upon the poor deluded
+victim of the "latest humbug." Even the select circles heard of it as a
+report finally reached the daily paper, which appeared with a glaring
+head and ridiculous comments.
+
+One of the weeklies contented itself by reprinting a scathing
+denunciation from a prominent religious paper. Another contained
+clippings from an Iowa paper giving an account of the arrest and trial
+of a so-called Christian Scientist for illegal practice. But it failed
+to add that "the judge instructed the jury to return a verdict for the
+defendant," remarking that "under the constitution and laws of Iowa it
+is no crime for a person to pray for his afflicted neighbor."
+
+Among the worthy M. D.'s, a miniature storm arose and spent itself in
+the characteristic fashion of storms, now carrying everything before it,
+in its impetuous fury, now quietly subsiding into a ripple of
+condescending concession, or languid comment, now breaking out with
+renewed force into explosive epithets or vindictive rage.
+
+Dr. Crouse expressed his astonishment that anybody should have the
+audacity to practice medicine without a diploma, as this woman evidently
+did, and demanded that the authorities enforce the law at once with the
+utmost rigor--. "Such quacks ought to be dealt with without mercy, as an
+example to other upstarts!" and with an angry growl the doctor
+recklessly spat the whole width of the sidewalk.
+
+Dr. Jones admitted that the mind had a great deal to do with the body,
+and possibly this mind cure might help nervous prostration or hysterical
+women, but if Mrs. Hayden's limb was healed, depend upon it, the
+medicine taken all those months was the cause.
+
+Dr. Bundy considered the matter too absurd to even mention.
+
+Dr. Hone went up and down the streets, loudly denouncing such "humbugs,"
+while his partner, Lapland, laughed at the preposterous idea of learning
+all about materia medica in three weeks! "It is simply ridiculous, sheer
+nonsense! Ha, ha, ha!" and the office fairly shook at the outburst of
+merriment.
+
+On the other hand, Dr. Wilson was deeply interested, and went so far as
+to call on Miss Greening, and to her he frankly admitted there was an
+unaccountable power in the mind some way, and if it did the work for
+suffering humanity he was quite ready to welcome it, and anxious, for
+his part, to investigate the matter.
+
+Kind, liberal Dr. Jackson, Mrs. Hayden's former family physician, shook
+his head wonderingly, but said nothing. He was a careful thinker and
+needed time for his conclusions, but as every one well knew, he had the
+friendliest, most charitable heart that ever was, and very candid,
+withal, in his judgments, and fair in his investigations. So in time
+they would know what he thought. It was whispered about that he had
+already invested in some books, and was quietly studying Christian
+Healing in his leisure moments.
+
+Among the churches no less of a tumult raged. Rev. Rush preached a
+stirring sermon about the evil days in which even the very elect should
+be deceived by the miracles of anti-Christ, and warned his hearers
+against being beguiled.
+
+Rev. Long openly denounced Christian Healing as but another form of
+spiritualism, and admonished his flock to beware of ravening wolves.
+
+Rev. Morton mildly preached about being steadfast to the old faith,
+avoiding investigation in anything new, while from the gentle,
+spiritually minded Prof. Mill was heard an eloquent disquisition on the
+promises and the all-abiding power of God.
+
+All shades and phases of ministerial sentiments were expressed, and
+whatever was grand and Christ-like sprang up as dainty, fragrant
+blossoms amid the wayside weeds of falsity and Pharisaical bigotry.
+
+The ladies' sewing societies discussed the subject to its fullest extent
+with widely varying opinions, some exclaiming with wonder and awe that
+it certainly must be a higher power that would perform such miracles;
+others that it was nothing but mesmerism. A few reverently expressed
+their conviction that Mrs. Hayden was extremely fortunate to be chosen
+for such a favor, while still others of quite a contrary mind declared
+it was nothing more nor less than the devil, who was stealthily taking
+possession of the weak.
+
+One timid little woman ventured to say that it could not be Satan, for
+he was never known to do anything good. Another said there must be
+something uncanny about it, for she had experienced the most peculiar
+sensations when shaking hands with Mrs. Hayden.
+
+Mrs. Dyke had waited for a more practical time to give her opinion, and
+now she concluded the whole matter for herself, at least, by saying in a
+most practical way:
+
+"It is the devil's work from first to last, and I am not surprised that
+that woman, Mrs. Hayden, has got into his clutches, for she never did
+her duty to the church, and such people can't expect he will always let
+them go their own way. Christian Healing has no right to its name or its
+pretentions. It is only the magician's rod, and I, for one, don't
+propose to look at it," with which profound announcement she went to the
+other room to oversee her charge of sewing girls.
+
+"Oh, how righteous we are!" giggled one very young lady, with a mock
+look of reverence.
+
+"Well, now, see here ladies!" declared Mrs. Grant, another "practical"
+woman, but of a different type from Mrs. Dyke, "we may as well look at
+this matter in a sensible and candid light. Here are the facts: Mrs.
+Hayden is a lovely and reliable woman. She has, as we all know, suffered
+everything from her headaches and dyspepsia, besides the limb that was
+broken at the fire. We see her well, and ought to believe what she says.
+They often say, 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' An example has come to
+our door, and why should we refuse to believe, when the proof is so
+plain? For my part, I can believe though I do not understand, and I want
+to know what there is in Christian Healing."
+
+Mrs. Grant had spoken, and as she usually did, turned the tide of
+thought in her direction.
+
+"Why, yes, we all want to know if there is anything in it, but there is
+an if--"
+
+"_If!_ There it is again! I've no patience with people who always tumble
+over an _if_. You can bar the very gates of heaven with that nipping
+little word. It means doubt, and doubt is the destroyer of faith which
+we _must_ have in this world, if we live at all."
+
+Mrs. Grant unwittingly preached a little sermon, which not only served
+to quell the confusion, but gave them a helpful thought to carry home.
+Scattering good seed seemed to be her mission, and many a good word
+dropped into fruitful soil, and took its time to bring forth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+     "Soul, receive into thyself the warm and radiant life of heaven, to
+     breathe it out again as spiritual fragrance over other lives, and
+     so change this wilderness-world into the garden of the Lord! This
+     is the lovely moral which hides within the roses of June, and makes
+     more than half their sweetness."--_Lucy Larcom._
+
+
+And Mrs. Hayden? The old expressions of joy seemed utterly inadequate to
+describe her feelings. It seemed that she was veritably dreaming of
+heaven, such a sense of largeness, of freedom, had come over her, so
+much wider was her horizon, so much more clearly could she see and
+understand the hard questions that had always puzzled her, and yet she
+had, as it were, just come to the edge of the beautiful flower-dotted,
+dew-besprinkled field that seemed spreading out before her. So long
+hopeless, so long hungry as she had been after this taste, she only
+hungered the more. Wonderingly she looked at herself walking about
+without pain; with an elastic step and the springing freshness of
+health; wonderingly she remembered the dull, nervous throbbing
+headaches, contrasted with the refreshing clearness, the joyous comfort
+and peace of mind which made thinking a tonic, and labor a luxury.
+
+What a glorious strength of exhiliration seemed flowing in to her with
+every breath; how it expanded and thrilled her with its power! If this
+was life, what joy to live, to know and feel the gladness and beauty of
+God's beautiful world, and it must not be for her alone, but for all
+hungering, thirsting mankind. She must impart it to those who had been
+suffering and helpless like herself. It was even now flowing into her
+own family. Although Miss Greening had given her but the first and
+fundamental principles of the method, she had in many instances already
+demonstrated their worth and power. It soon grew to be a regular matter
+of course to treat every one in the family who seemed in need of a
+remedy for anything.
+
+Mr. Hayden had frequently come home with neuralgia in his face, but
+after one or two attacks the unwelcome intruder vanished. The family
+medicine case, which had recently been replenished for the winter, was
+left to its own devices, and dust gathered on the necks and shoulders of
+the cough remedies, paregoric and hive syrup bottles, until they would
+have looked quite pitiful in their desertion, if anybody had seen them.
+Jamie's one attack of croup yielded more readily to his mother's silent
+treatments than it ever had to hive syrup, and it was with a deep
+thankfulness, not unmixed with awe, that Mr. and Mrs. Hayden felt their
+little one at last free from his old, dreaded enemy. Never before had
+the children been so free from colds or ailments common to childhood, as
+this winter. Never before had there been such a seemingly reckless
+carelessness in wrapping them up, keeping them out of the draughts, or
+letting them eat just what was on the table.
+
+"Why, it is like living in another world altogether," said Mr. Hayden,
+enthusiastically to one of the neighbors. "The children are so much
+happier, quieter, more peaceable. I tell you, it is like getting free
+from prison to come into this way of living, and my wife is getting
+stronger all the time. Of course you want it," he continued. "Come over
+some time, and we'll tell you more about it." Saying good night he
+walked away, leaving his friend to wonder if the entire family had not
+turned lunatics.
+
+Enwrapped in the seamless robe of Truth, the sharp winds of worldly
+criticism seldom reach us, because we are no longer susceptible to their
+sharpness. A gentle mildness beams from every face, for beyond the veil
+of outward appearances we learn to discern the pure, perfect holiness of
+God's child--the divinity behind the bars. Not, however, till we know
+how to put on this wondrous robe are we invulnerable.
+
+Although Mrs. Hayden had learned much and lived much in these last few
+months, there came a time, as the summer drew near, when it seemed that
+everything was slipping away from her. Not her health, except that her
+old headache occasionally threatened her, but things did not seem as
+clear to her. Many problems were only in a partial state of solution,
+and a vague dissatisfaction, a helpless discouragement took possession
+of her at times, very hard to bear, especially when contrasted with the
+light she felt had so long guided her. Of late even her treatments
+seemed almost fruitless. Her old-time impatience had manifested itself
+on several occasions, and one warm June morning she went about her work
+in a decidedly old-fashioned mood.
+
+It was Monday, and in addition to the washing to be seen to, the little
+extra help to be rendered the girl, her husband had sent her a large
+case of strawberries to be put up, manlike, forgetting that this day at
+least was full. She was hastening to get them ready before the dinner
+hour, and the "picking up" of the sitting-room, so essential Monday
+mornings, had been left till a more convenient season.
+
+Mabel had gone to school, while Jamie and Fred were playing in the sand
+in the back yard.
+
+With her hands in the berries, and her thoughts busily engaged, she was
+suddenly roused from her reverie by the noisy entrance of Fred, who just
+came in for a drink of water. As he turned to go out, he threw his arms
+around his mother's neck and gave her a boy's impetuous hug, and a kiss
+that ought to have rejoiced any mother's heart, but this morning it
+annoyed her. "Run away, now; mamma hasn't time this morning," and she
+pushed him impatiently away. Just then the door bell rang, and Fred
+sprang to answer it. In another moment he ushered into her presence a
+shabbily dressed, poor, miserable looking woman, who immediately asked
+for a drink of water. "I can get it," said the ready Fred. While he was
+gone, the woman began her request:
+
+"Plaze, Ma'am, would you be wantin' some garters to-day? They are
+warranted by the very man as made 'em. My boy is layin' sick, and his
+father is dead, and all my health has been took away carin' for him, and
+a friend of mine, she has been in this business a long time, and says
+it's very good some days, and she let me take her place to-day, so if
+you could take a pair or two to-day it would be very thankful I'd be,
+and I'm sure this boy would need a pair; they are only 25 cents, and
+will just fit; ain't they nice, my boy?" She poured her story out, as
+though there were no end to it, as she held up some brilliant red and
+blue elastics that quite dazzled Fred, who claimed them at once.
+
+"I have not time to examine and choose this morning, and Fred, you do
+not need them now," said Mrs. Hayden, with some annoyance in her tone.
+
+"Now, mamma, you didn't see my old ones, they ain't red and blue, nor
+stretchy, an' my stockin's come down all the time. See how wrinkly they
+are," and he held up a dusty little shoe with a sadly demoralized
+stocking above it, rich in holes as well as wrinkles. The stocking had
+been torn on a nail, he volubly explained. In his excitement Fred raised
+his voice, thus summoning Jamie to the scene with a rush that upset the
+dish of berries just picked over.
+
+"_I_ didn't mean to, and I can pick them up again," and he swept his
+dirty little hands into the soft mushy pile, gathering berries, dust,
+stems or whatever happened to be in the way, dashing the miscellaneous
+mess into the clean berries that had escaped.
+
+"Jamie, you careless child! how can you be so naughty? Go and wash your
+hands this minute! Fred, leave those things and stay out with Jamie, I
+can not have you around when there is so much to do!" and with an
+impatient gesture she brushed Jamie aside and began sorting the berries
+as best she could.
+
+Fred started toward her with the elastics, saying:
+
+"But, mamma, you haven't looked yet;"
+
+"Well, you see my hands are full, and I can tell you just as well
+without looking."
+
+"You always tell me to do as I am told," pouted Fred as he reluctantly
+departed.
+
+Mrs. Hayden was ashamed and yet reckless with discouragement, and
+scarcely noticed the anxious pedlar, who stood waiting for some decisive
+word from her.
+
+"I have no use for the supporters at present," she said at last. But as
+she noticed the look of despair slowly settling on the woman's face, she
+added, "but, if you are in such distress, I will let you leave two
+pairs. Take the 50 cents lying there on the shelf," pointing to the
+place. The woman was very grateful and soon went away with a brighter
+face.
+
+For a long time after she was gone, her picture remained in Mrs.
+Hayden's remorseful memory, though she put it away as much as possible
+and went on with her work. Jamie and Fred had quarreled several times,
+but even in peace, the fires of war were likely to burst out afresh, for
+it was always so when she felt this way.
+
+As Mrs. Hayden sat in her own room that evening, reviewing the events of
+the day, which seemed the culmination of many days, it seemed that the
+Marion Hayden who had been so happy these last few months, improving in
+health and strength and ability to live a more useful life, and the
+Marion Hayden who had so miserably disgraced herself to-day, were far
+apart--in fact irretrievably separated. Where, indeed, had gone her
+power of self-control, her wisdom and tact in governing the children?
+Why had she so harshly told Fred to run away from her when the dear
+child was only showing his affection according to his own nature? Such
+an active, impulsive yet loving child must be wisely dealt with, and she
+had often realized that with Fred, love must be the governing power, not
+force. To give way as she had to-day would be to lose her influence over
+him, not only because of repulsing the child himself, but because his
+critical eyes noticed every weakness and failure in her, to live up to
+her own code of morals laid down for him to follow.
+
+Her accusing conscience asked why she had not questioned and tried to
+help that poor woman who, with all her ignorance, was doing the best she
+could, to solve life's problem.
+
+After all, what had she, Marion Hayden, to offer the world while she had
+not yet conquered herself?
+
+Oh, the bitterness of regret, the repining for wasted moments and lost
+opportunities! but here she was in her old groove of thought. Could she
+not try the new way, now that she so sorely needed it?
+
+She would try; she would begin to look on the other side of these
+questions. She _would_ regain her footing in spite of her humiliating
+downfall, although there might still be a lingering sense of shame over
+her defeat.
+
+Later, her husband came home. He tossed her a paper saying: "Here is
+something that will clear you up. Read it aloud. I just glanced over it,
+and found it very good." He threw himself upon the sofa, waiting for
+her to begin. Mechanically she took up the paper.
+
+"'The Ubiquity of Good;' is this the article?"
+
+"Yes, there are several just as strong as that one."
+
+"Oh, I see; yes--I can hardly wait to read aloud," she exclaimed,
+running her eyes over the pages, instantly imbibing the spirit of the
+writer. She began with an awakening interest which increased till she
+was fairly electrified with delight.
+
+Her husband looked at her in astonishment although it had much the same
+effect on him. "I thought you needed something like that;" he said,
+sitting bolt upright and looking at her. "You see, Marion, if you could
+only be as enthusiastic all the time as that woman is, you could do the
+works that she does, and be as positive too."
+
+"I know it, and if I understood as well as she does, it would be
+different, but I know so little comparatively. Oh, if I could take
+lessons of the teacher she had--just listen, she says: 'I have just had
+the privilege of going through a class in metaphysics taught by one who
+is conceded to be the best teacher in the world,' but," continued Mrs.
+Hayden, "I've looked all over the paper and can't find the name of the
+teacher; queer, isn't it? Mayn't I subscribe for this paper, John, and I
+will ask her who this teacher is, when I send the subscription?"
+
+"Well, yes, I think if you could get the benefit from every number you
+have from that, it would be money well invested," replied Mr. Hayden. In
+fact he was as much interested in this subject as she, and desired her
+to "go to the bottom of it," as he expressed it.
+
+That night she retired with a new hope. If others could learn and
+demonstrate and keep, why could not she?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     "Oh, thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, and criest
+     bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create, know
+     this of a truth, the thing thou seekest is already with thee, 'here
+     or nowhere,' couldst thou only see!"--_Carlyle._
+
+
+The very next morning the letter was written and the money sent for the
+new paper.
+
+Mrs. Reade came over on one of her bird-like errands, and of course,
+must hear something of the great help that had come so unexpectedly.
+
+"How fortunate it came just now, for I have noticed several weeks you
+have been losing courage, and as for myself, I don't seem to know what
+to do in any case any more," she exclaimed, after hearing a few extracts
+read from the paper. "Now you will find out who the teacher is and--"
+
+"I shall go away to take lessons as soon as possible," interrupted Mrs.
+Hayden. "Yes, I must go," she continued, "and see what there is in it. I
+have already experienced too much physically and spiritually to be able
+to give it up."
+
+"Indeed, you have certainly had as much of a proof as one could wish. If
+I could only do as much as you have, I should feel that it would be
+better to go without many other things rather than this."
+
+Mrs. Reade forgot that she had been able to keep little May in perfect
+health; that she herself had ceased worrying over trifles and learned to
+make the best of everything. To her, the change had been so gradual
+that she hardly knew in what it consisted. In the meetings held by the
+few who were interested she had, unconsciously almost, given many
+glimpses of her private efforts and success, which showed how faithfully
+she used what light she had.
+
+"I wonder what Mrs. Grant would say to this," she resumed, after looking
+over the paper. "I think she ought to take this paper, too. Of course, I
+expect to read yours," with an arch smile.
+
+"As you certainly may, I will let you have this number this afternoon; I
+can't spare it yet. You can't imagine the abyss I fell into yesterday.
+It seemed that I had not only lost the ability to hold myself up, but
+the self respect that would help to regain my footing."
+
+"'It is always darkest before the dawn', they say," quoted Mrs. Reade,
+merrily, "and now the dawn of our delivery is at hand, we shall know
+what to do before the twilight comes again. But I came after your jelly
+mold and must not stand here all day talking about things so utterly
+unlike--well, good-bye! I can hardly tear myself away when I talk with
+you," and she ran out with a gay smile.
+
+Nearly every week these last few months Mrs. Hayden, Mrs. Reade, Mrs.
+Grant and occasionally one or two others had met to read and talk on the
+all-absorbing topic and gain confidence and strength by an exchange of
+ideas and experiences; but they knew not how to draw from the fountain
+of knowledge itself, and while they had learned much and gained much,
+there was a lack which, in the moment of trial, they knew not how to
+supply.
+
+In a few days Mrs. Hayden received the coveted information as to the
+identity of the wonderful teacher, and that she was to teach several
+classes in Marlow, only two hundred miles away, which quite set her on
+fire with impatience to go at once.
+
+But circumstances were not propitious. There were many details to be
+arranged, much to be considered. What should be done with the children?
+Could she afford it? What could she wear? In her eagerness she could
+have overcome every obstacle within an hour, but her better judgment
+told her to be patient a little longer, a decision her husband quite
+approved.
+
+In the meantime she tried to live more faithfully up to the light she
+had received, but the first flush of faith that had brought forth the
+works, seemed gone, and she knew not how to bring it back. Not that she
+was not just as earnest, not that she had lost a whit of her faith or
+interest, but the fire of impulse, unclouded by doubt, had disappeared.
+She thought about it every leisure moment, but concluded at last to let
+go such intense effort that must necessarily be blind, and live more in
+the "holy carelessness of the eternal Now," as George MacDonald so
+beautifully expressed it in his book she was reading.
+
+In one respect she fared as comparatively few women do, who hunger after
+spiritual things; she had her husband's full sympathy and co-operation.
+Afterward, when she had seen more of the world and knew more about other
+women's lives, she realized the value of it, realized that without it
+she would have starved before she could have feasted. Oh, the sweet
+influence of a sympathy that unites and harmonizes two natures, no
+matter how opposite in character and tendencies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+     "As out of a dream, paths impossible to sense and every day show
+     plain and sudden transit into distant places, so from your shut
+     souls widens out an entrance way into God's everlasting joy!"
+
+     --_A. D. T. Whitney._
+
+
+At last the time came. She was to go for the last class in Marlow. The
+last problem as to what to be done while she was gone had been solved.
+The children were to be under the kind care of Anna, who agreed to do
+her best in looking after them.
+
+Mrs. Hayden's wardrobe had received the necessary additions, the
+question of affording was not asked again, for it was like asking if she
+could afford food or clothing.
+
+It meant a great deal to her, going out in the world to get this
+wonderful knowledge. It was a new way of seeking the kingdom of heaven,
+and it must surely teach the right knock that would open the door. The
+little light that had already come to her proved that, for never before
+in all her years of hungry longing had she been so well fed, so visibly
+nourished. Surely her soul could not be mistaken in thus dictating her
+quest.
+
+"It seems too good to be true, John, that there _is_ a way and that I am
+going to find it," she said a few days before she went away.
+
+"I am very glad, dear Marion, for your sake, that you are so happy in
+this. It certainly is a beautiful religion as far as we can understand
+it."
+
+"Yes, the very thing we tried so hard to find during all those years of
+darkness, and I have begun to actually feel thankful for our
+misfortunes, because it seems they have led us into this knowledge. What
+would we have known or cared for Miss Greening, had we been living in
+the mansion on the hill? Or what would we have believed, even if we had
+read something about Christian Healing?"
+
+"It is hard to tell, but if you are content I am, wifie, although I
+should like the old home again."
+
+Like many others he was able to appreciate the material good things, but
+knew not that the material are but emblems or symbols of the spiritual.
+
+"We shall possess something far better than all the palaces and kingdoms
+of the earth, if we get this 'pearl of great price.' I know now what it
+means for the rich to hardly enter the kingdom of heaven. It is because
+they are so satisfied in their rich possessions they feel they have
+everything worth having and need nothing more. That very indifference
+and apathy keeps them from getting spiritual treasures."
+
+"How true that is, Marion," said her husband, stroking his mustache
+thoughtfully.
+
+Just then the door bell rang and the girl presently ushered Grace and
+Kate into the room.
+
+"Why, how do you do? I am more than glad to see you," said Mrs. Hayden,
+warmly grasping a hand in each of hers.
+
+"It is such a lovely evening that we felt we should like a walk, and as
+we generally gravitate toward your house, here we are," said Kate,
+laying aside her hat.
+
+"Do you know I am going to Marlow to take the Christian Healing
+lessons?" asked Mrs. Hayden, with a bright smile, as they were cosily
+seated for their chat.
+
+"Are you, really? I am so glad, Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "When are you
+going?"
+
+"Monday, on the afternoon train, and I shall be gone three weeks. It
+seems a long time now, but I hope it will be so profitable and pleasant
+that it will not seem long while it is passing."
+
+Kate looked very grave. Finally she said: "Well, Mrs. Hayden, I am sorry
+you are going."
+
+"Why?" exclaimed Mrs. Hayden.
+
+"Why?" echoed Grace, and the host looked the interrogation he did not
+verbally express.
+
+"Because I am seriously afraid it is wrong. Just a few days ago I had a
+talk with the minister, and he is very decided in his denunciation of
+it, saying it is plainly contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and I
+have been reading an article this afternoon that is very convincing in
+its arguments against it. No, Grace, you needn't shake your head. I have
+been cowardly and lazy long enough about my religion, now I shall stand
+up for what I think is right, and I love Mrs. Hayden too well not to
+warn her of what I believe to be a most dangerous heresy."
+
+She had evidently nerved herself to say this, but her voice trembled
+with earnestness, and when she finished there were tears in her eyes.
+
+"I thank you, dear Kate, for your sincere regard, and appreciate your
+motive most deeply, but of course, that can not change my mind now,"
+said Mrs. Hayden, much touched.
+
+"That, of course, is for you to decide, but I have suddenly realized my
+religious responsibility as never before, and have been earnestly
+considering this matter. At first it seemed all right and very
+beautiful, but I believe it is only the work of the devil to get people
+into his net of wickedness."
+
+Grace was too astonished for speech; now she understood what Kate had
+meant by her disinclination to talk on the subject since that night they
+had heard Miss Greening. _Now_ her thoughtful spells were explained, as
+well as her eager desire to come here to-night.
+
+"I do not see why the ministers should oppose it as they do," said Mr.
+Hayden, after a short silence.
+
+"If you look back over the history you will find they opposed giving
+freedom to the slaves; they opposed the temperance movement until it was
+forced upon them. Many of them now oppose woman's suffrage, though their
+audiences are often composed almost entirely of women. It seems a great
+mystery why they should oppose any of these good and necessary reforms,
+but I think it is because they are only mortal men, and have many mortal
+faults and a great deal of mortal ignorance," said Grace, recovering her
+tongue at last.
+
+"It seems to me if everybody would read the words of Jesus and follow
+his example they would never be harsh, or critical, or uncharitable, and
+above all, they would not judge anybody or anything without a righteous
+reason. The whole burden of his teaching is expressed in the sentence:
+'Little children, love one another,'" was Mrs. Hayden's opinion. Kate
+looked at her gratefully.
+
+"We would have a very different world if every one followed that law,
+and we have never heard a better one. The only difficulty is to know
+_how_ to follow it," added Mr. Hayden.
+
+"We must know the whole truth if we would be free from all error, and we
+can only get truth by earnestly seeking for it, is my firm conviction,"
+said his wife.
+
+"If the truth makes us free, certainly we ought to search for it, and as
+we get it we can not be moved from our position, for by the nature of
+truth it is forever the same. Imagine anybody telling me two times two
+are five. If they argued and talked forever they could not prove it, for
+a lie can never be proved true."
+
+"That's capital reasoning, Grace," exclaimed Mr. Hayden, admiringly.
+
+"Then if these ministers are in the right," she continued, "why should
+they need to be so active and emphatic and malevolent, as they sometimes
+are, in their denunciation of what they call a lie, because if it is a
+lie, won't it prove itself? And if their position is assured, and the
+truth must necessarily be assuring, since that is the essence and nature
+of it, if their position is assured, why is there any need of such
+resistance? Jesus plainly taught the _non_-resistance of evil, if I read
+my Bible correctly this morning. I have been studying religion somewhat,
+too, the last few weeks," she concluded, glancing at Kate rather
+apologetically.
+
+"It would be well if we studied it a great deal more earnestly than we
+have before," said Kate, flushing warmly.
+
+"Well, Kate, isn't one of our best ways a thorough investigation of it?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Then I intend to look into Christian Healing at my earliest
+opportunity, and see what there is in it. If there is nothing, it can
+not hurt me. If there is something, it will prove _itself_, and I shall
+gladly accept the help it gives," and Grace rested on her oars.
+
+"I have a suggestion to make," said Mr. Hayden, "and that is that Mrs.
+Hayden write us a report of each day's lecture, and you can come down
+and we will read them together, or I can hand them to you after I have
+finished them."
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed Grace. "Will you do that, Mrs. Hayden?"
+
+"I will do the best I can, and be delighted. It will help me as well as
+you; but they will be nothing but ordinary letters, for I would have
+neither the time nor the ability to write lectures." Then she added,
+turning to Kate, "You will read them, too, won't you, dear? for I do
+want you to understand that this is the true Christ-religion, and as
+Grace says, if it is true it will prove itself."
+
+"I do not object to reading your letters; indeed shall be glad of the
+privilege," replied Kate, with a deprecatory gesture.
+
+"You must be sure and give us the practical part, so we can learn by
+practice as well as theory," said Mr. Hayden, playfully.
+
+"Yes, and I will promise to be a faithful student, if that will be any
+inducement," added Grace; "and I know Kathie will, too; won't you?"
+
+"Don't say any more, please. You all know I want what is true and good,"
+she replied, huskily.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It seemed hard to say the good-byes, even to go on this little trip.
+Mrs. Hayden looked at the children and home through blinding tears as
+her husband helped her into the carriage. They did not say much as they
+drove away to the depot, and both were deeply moved. There seemed such a
+momentous meaning in this journey.
+
+"You must promise to write often, John?"
+
+"Yes, dear Marion, and don't worry about us."
+
+"I shall write every day, John, and I _do_ want you to grow with me.
+Read the lessons please, very carefully."
+
+"Yes; good-bye."
+
+A kiss, and he was off. She waved her hand as the train started.
+
+Like a leaf on the rippling river, gently touching the stones or mosses
+in passing, but hurrying on to a broader outlook and a straighter
+pathway, we float in the varying current of life, now dallying with
+youth's pleasures and playfully touching the problems before us, then
+sent adrift by a deep desire to _know_, we go out on a voyage of
+discovery, and be the winds rough or gentle, we go on till harbored at
+last.
+
+Nor would we leave thee, gentle Truth. May thy voice guide and
+strengthen and cheer; thy sweet knowledge be the lamp to our path; thy
+words of wisdom our armor and shield, and all the sweet enchantment of
+thy presence be with us forevermore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  "Our weary years of wandering o'er,
+  We greet with joy this radiant shore;
+  The promised land of liberty,
+  The dawn of freedom's morn we see.
+  O promised land, we enter in,
+  With 'peace on earth, good will to men,'
+  The 'Golden age' now comes again,
+  And breaking every bond and chain;
+  While every sect, and race and clime,
+  Shall equal share in this glad time."
+
+  --_E. B. Harbert._
+
+
+Mrs. Hayden immediately sent a few words to her husband informing him of
+her safe arrival, but said nothing concerning her plans until later in
+the week, she wrote:
+
+"I attended a reception last night that gave me a good idea of the great
+interest manifested in this new subject by people from all parts of the
+country as well as this great city. Many who have been attending a
+convention of truth seekers this week were there, and I met, among
+others, Mrs. Harmon. She is lovely, with such a sweet pleasant face and
+clear mild eyes. I do not wonder Miss Greening was charmed with her. We
+had quite a chat about mental healing. She gave me an interesting
+account of how she came into the work and what she is doing. I also met
+many others. One thing noticeable about these people that seems
+peculiarly characteristic, was the bright, happy faces so full of repose
+and trustfulness contrasted with the dull, sluggish care-worn
+expression of people in general. It really rests and cheers wonderfully
+to look upon countenances that carry the gospel of healing with them.
+
+"After a pleasant social time, Mrs. Pearl, in whose honor the reception
+was given, was called upon for an address, the substance of which is
+about as follows:
+
+"It is an unexpected pleasure as well as privilege to thus meet face to
+face so large a body of people who are working or desire to work for the
+uplifting and healing of humanity by this new yet old Christ-method.
+
+"While there are so many thousands of the world's best workers engaged
+in lifting the burdens of sickness, sorrow and sin, there are none who
+accomplish more marvelous or speedy results than Christian healers.
+Indeed they have already demonstrated this philosophy to be a most
+powerful means of reclaiming the sinful and adjusting social relations
+as well as healing the sick.
+
+"It already promises a better method of dealing with intemperance than
+that of any other class of reformers. Why? Not because earnest, devoted
+women do not give time, labor and hearts' blood to the temperance cause;
+not because wise, honest men are not doing their best with tongue and
+pen, in legislative halls and political conventions, but because neither
+women nor men have learned the true principle of moral reform.
+
+"The wise mother knows that the best way to keep her child from mischief
+is not to talk about his temptation but cause him to forget it by
+thinking of other and better things. She encourages him to do better by
+recognizing his higher nature and showing him a better way. She
+'overcomes the evil with the good.' Thus his moral nature gradually
+gains ascendency over the lower. This, and this only is the true reform;
+but the same mother fails to carry out the same principle with larger
+children. She must learn that the same management which corrects and
+improves the child will correct and improve the sinner, for a sinner is
+only a child of larger growth.
+
+"Thus far, the world has been most attracted to the healing of bodily
+ills, and all discomforts of the flesh, but the material demand is only
+a forerunner or symbol of the spiritual, and the signs of the times are
+even now ready for the keenest readers. People are beginning to enquire
+if this wonderful power for healing the body can not be used for the
+healing of vicious minds, the curing of depraved appetites.
+
+"Since religious teachings and ethical lectures seem to be so inadequate
+to meet the crying need, why not try this new method which claims to be
+a panacea for all ills, ask the moral philosophers.
+
+"'The world moves slowly,' it is said, but the world awakes slowly, it
+should be. We are ministering angels to one another, in our process of
+awakening. If we have not enough realization of truth to keep ourselves
+awake, some one comes along and wakes us up, by telling us more and we,
+in turn, wake some slumbering neighbor.
+
+"Invisible and silent are the workings of Truth, and none may judge what
+best teaches the law. None may know what has given this or that insight
+into a broader truth, but all at once some one has the new light, and
+hastens to impart the knowledge.
+
+"All effort for truth points to one end--Truth. All reforms, all
+religions point to a higher standard of living, a clearer realization of
+the highest and best, a broader vision of truth, a breaking away from
+the false and a bringing about of the true.
+
+"Mankind is conservative and must needs consider many things in many
+ways. Old opinions are not easily relinquished because they are 'bone of
+our bone and flesh of our flesh' and not till we awake to spiritual as
+well as intellectual knowledge, shall we realize that we are free--free
+to listen, learn and live.
+
+"As in the history of every reform, we find opposition and persecution
+facing the Christian healers, but as time goes on, even the unbelieving
+and conservative shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth. Many
+things unaccepted and unestablished to-day shall be proverbial
+platitudes of to-morrow.
+
+"We who have a clearer vision of the better way, who are demonstrating
+our position with such wondrous signs, must realize more and more the
+importance of the first and only law--the law of love. Judge not. Be a
+unit in Truth.
+
+"We come together as many, but should go away as one. We now have
+thousands of Christian healers all over the country who are striving as
+never before to live a higher life, to work for humanity according to
+the Master's teachings, and it becomes us, as true disciples of such a
+leader to so live that we shall see the fulfillment of that blessed
+promise: 'Greater works than I, shall ye do.'
+
+"Let us recognize the use and beauty of unity. Let us be as one, and
+then, like the brave and faithful Joshua, we shall be able to break down
+the walls of any Jericho.
+
+"Christ followers, truth seekers, friends! Make use of the golden
+privileges of to-day, use every moment for the furtherance of good, make
+every silent thought or uttered word a stream of influence that shall
+cause the desert to blossom like the rose. Send your thoughts out to the
+grand reformers, the women workers and the men workers, the tired
+mothers and the anxious fathers, the faithful teachers and the innocent
+children. Sow the seed diligently, no matter what the soil. Never mind
+the coldness, the indifference, the slighting disparagements, for
+bye-and-bye will come the harvest. Do in all ways as you would be done
+by.
+
+  'Thou must be true thyself if thou the truth wouldst teach,
+  Thy soul must overflow with truth, the true results to reach.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  "One Holy Church of God appears
+    Through every age and race,
+  Unwasted by the lapse of years,
+    Unchanged by changing place.
+
+  "From oldest time, on farthest shores,
+    Beneath the pine or palm,
+  One unseen Presence she adores,
+    With silence or with psalm.
+
+  "Her priests are all God's faithful sons,
+    To serve the world raised up,
+  The pure in heart her baptized ones,
+    Love, her communion cup.
+
+  "The Truth is her prophetic gift,
+    The soul her sacred page;
+  And feet on mercy's errand swift
+    Do make her pilgrimage."
+
+  --_Longfellow._
+
+
+The next day Mr. Hayden, with great interest, read the letter containing
+the first lecture, which was given the day after the reception reported
+in the last chapter. Pertaining to the lesson he read:
+
+"How I wished you were with me yesterday, and could see the fifty eager
+faces as they gathered in the class room and waited for Mrs. Pearl.
+
+"Some sorrowful and careworn, some filled with the marks of suffering
+and pain, some hopeless and despairing, some careless and gay, some
+merely curious, but all expectant and interested.
+
+"It matters not with what varying motives a mass of people meet
+together, there is a common chord of sympathy, which, if rightly
+touched, will cause the many to think and feel as one, and herein lies
+the secret of a teacher's power. Mrs. Pearl has this faculty of
+gathering and holding the thoughts of her audience, and I could not help
+noting the calm and satisfied expression as they went out after the
+lecture.
+
+"The first lesson is about The True Foundation, and while much of it is
+what we have known and believed, it is stated in a new and interesting
+way. I will give it, as nearly as possible, in her own words:
+
+"It is necessary to have a common premise in order to sustain a
+harmonious argument, and the first thing is to find a base or foundation
+from which and upon which to build. Our doctrine is to be established by
+sound reasoning and scientific argument, and we must go back to the
+beginning and learn something about the First Cause of all things.
+
+"In ancient times students devoted themselves to the study of pure
+reasoning, and they found that by putting themselves in harmony with
+First Cause, they attained a power, by certain lines of thought and
+through the speaking of words, to perform wondrous works, healing the
+sick, having dominion over all creation.
+
+"They discovered the different results of speaking words of science,
+which are words of truth, and words of error or words contrary to
+reason. Right, true words brought forth right and true conditions to
+everyone around them, but deviation from this line of reason, would
+bring discord and trouble and undesirable conditions. These wise
+thinkers declared Mind to be the First Cause of all creation, and
+announced the study of Mind and the words and ways of Mind, to be the
+profoundest theme that could engage the attention of man.
+
+"We find this philosophy and these conclusions corroborated by the
+Bible, which we shall consider and prove to contain revelations of
+changeless, eternal truth.
+
+"Truth is universal, and whatever is true in one part of the universe
+must be true in all parts. That which has been understood and conceded
+to be true in all ages and climes is what we call universal truth.
+
+"Because the first chapter of Genesis, then, agrees in all essential
+particulars with the accounts of other nations and among other peoples
+we consider it universal truth.
+
+"Because it is so beautiful, logical and spiritual, we revere it;
+because our own inner consciousness of truth agrees with its statements,
+we concede it to be as accurate and reasonable an account of Creation as
+we have, and we are therefore willing to use it as the basis of our
+argument.
+
+"We read: 'In the beginning God created,' but a more literal and
+spiritual rendering would make the pivotal statement, 'God creates.' Now
+we know there can be no beginning or end to Omnipotence, hence there
+must be a continuous creating, and thus the term 'beginning' could only
+refer to the manifestation of what had already been created. How was the
+creation manifested? By the Word. 'God said, let there be light, and it
+was so,' and by every 'God said,' was manifested the thing which He said
+was to be.
+
+"The word God is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Saxon of Good, the two
+words in that language being identical. To many this will be an aid to
+realizing the omnipresence God, and add to the reverential sense of that
+personal nearness which makes the Deity a Father and an ever-loving
+Friend.
+
+"God is not person as to form or personal limitations, yet personal in
+the sense of Presence and intelligent communication with intelligent
+beings. Jesus said truly, 'No man hath seen God at any time, because the
+eye of the flesh cannot perceive spirit.' Through the quality or
+influence of Good, Intelligence, Love and all we may name as soulful, we
+perceive and feel God's presence.
+
+"Thus in the spiritual sense, the 'pure in heart may see God.' We can,
+too, perceive the quality of God in Good, as we perceive the attributes
+of the sun in its light. As the light of the sun warms the dark earth,
+making it fruitful, so the divine Light (Intelligence), shining upon our
+earth nature, makes it fruitful because of the presence of its Creator.
+
+"Some there are who call this ever-present Intelligence or Good the
+living Principle. As the Infinite, it wears all phases and adapts itself
+to every conception of the Finite, so in the sense of omnipresence and
+unchangeableness it might from this point of view be called Principle.
+This is the cold, mathematical conception of God as Law, which without
+Love would be incomplete. We must, therefore, know the duality of God if
+we are to understand either Law or Love. Some things can only be known
+by intuition, without the aid of the senses, and because of an inherent
+idea in our consciousness. For instance, every nation worships Deity in
+some way. Since we cannot know God through the senses, by which we gain
+knowledge of visible things, how can we know there _is_ a God?
+
+"As Paul says: 'Likewise the spirit itself beareth witness with our
+spirit that we are the children of God;' and what better answer could we
+have?
+
+"Spirit, according to Webster, is: 'Life or living substance considered
+independent of corporeal existence--vital essence, force, or energy as
+distinct from matter.' God is the vital essence, God is spirit, and God
+is substance--'the real or existing essence,' 'the divine essence or
+being.'
+
+"God, therefore, is the Divine Power that creates and sustains all
+things--the All-Power, the All-Intelligence, the All-Mind, the All-Love,
+the All-Substance, the All-Harmony, the All-Life, the All-Good,
+omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. This is the one Creator, 'one God
+who is Father of all, over all, and in all.'
+
+"Though we cannot see this God or Good Principle, we can apprehend it
+through the signs or manifestations that we see. As we look about, we
+everywhere see the signs of life--not Life itself, but the signs of
+it--that tell of the presence of God or Good. Now Life is Good in and
+for itself.
+
+"We often see the divinest love manifested through every deed of love,
+every heroic act of higher living, every grand sacrifice of
+self-comfort, pleasure, even life itself. Jesus says: 'Greater love can
+no man have than to lay down his life for his friend.' Such love is a
+manifestation of the one, only Love, which is God--Good omnipresent.
+
+"Every glimpse of Truth which the whole world seeks to know and wherever
+found, is a realization of the omnipresent Truth, which is God.
+
+"Intelligence, in its highest or lowest form, is but a manifestation of
+God as Intelligence; for whence comes our intelligence if not from the
+great and only Intelligence, which is ever flowing to us and through us,
+which is ever being generated in us, whenever and wherever we are
+willing to let it manifest itself.
+
+"Emerson says: 'There is one mind common to all individual men. Every
+man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once
+admitted to the right of reason is made a free man of the whole estate.
+* * * * Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is
+or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.'
+
+"So we reason about health and strength and justice, or any of the
+divine qualities, which we may claim as a part of our inheritance,
+because they are inherent in the All, in which 'we live, are moved, and
+have our being.'
+
+"Having something of an understanding as to the nature of this divine
+Creator, we can, to some extent, apprehend that the essence of all
+things manifesting it, and manifested by it, must be good like itself,
+must be of the same quality as itself; as light emanating from light,
+must be of the same essence and quality as that from which it emanates.
+God, like light, is always the same, and cannot send forth or create
+anything opposite Himself.
+
+"The nature of God embraces every good quality of masculine and
+feminine character, as also the impersonal life Principle. It is
+therefore proper to use the masculine, feminine or neuter pronoun when
+referring to Deity. As different phases of the one Love, we see
+manifested, the strong, all-protecting, intelligent father-love, the
+tender, restful, patient mother-love, the innocent, confiding, trustful
+child-love, each complete in the whole, which can be recognized by all
+or one of these attributes.
+
+"The great Mind of which the ancient philosophers tell us and which
+Emerson so plainly realized, is the the Origin and Force of all
+Creation, the Mind for which we have found so many synonyms and so many
+offices, the Great Invisible of which all visible things are but signs
+or symbols.
+
+"There is but one great Mind, one great Thinker. All thoughts of this
+Mind, which is Infinite Goodness, must be infinitely good, and man is
+the crown and apex of the wonderful creation--is made in the image and
+likeness of God.
+
+"If we concede the Creator, God, to be omnipresent, omniscient and
+omnipotent, the only Power there is, perfect, unchangeable and eternal,
+we must necessarily concede that all which He creates is good, and must
+remain so because everything connected with, emanating from, or similar
+to Him is, and must be like Him in quality and essence.
+
+"The true man is spiritual, perfect like his Father, and can only be
+subject to perfect conditions. If we continually and persistently
+recognize the true creation which is invisible, we make manifest the
+perfect conditions in the sign of the true, which is the visible. In
+doing this, we are, in the most essential sense, acknowledging God,
+worshiping the one Deity.
+
+"Because we have so long recognized the other powers we have become
+idolators, and must now turn back to the only true God. 'If thou return
+to the almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity
+far from thy tabernacles.... For thou shalt have thy delight in the
+almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God.'
+
+"We have become filled with false beliefs, because we have judged
+according to appearances, and hence drawn false conclusions. How can we
+know spiritual truth without spiritual knowledge? How can we have
+spiritual knowledge without spiritual perception; how can we have
+spiritual perception without recognizing Spirit, Substance, God, as the
+supreme Essence back of all visible forms?
+
+"This is the fundamental principle of healing--this recognition of
+spiritual being and spiritual law. Grasping only the surface meaning of
+this grand truth, we recognize and admire the mental power which
+produces cures, hence it is frequently called mind-cure, because,
+through the agency of mind, the cure is wrought, as we say, water-cure
+or sun-cure for the same reason; but as we proceed in the study, we will
+go beyond an intellectual to a spiritual perception of what is meant by
+_met-a-physical_, which pertains not only to a science of mental
+phenomena, but the science of real being, and has to do with the
+spiritual or real self of man.
+
+"Now John, if you don't understand, just wait and study, for really we
+must study these statements, without prejudice, too, for that is the
+only way, and of course we cannot expect to understand at once. The
+great essential is to keep uppermost the _desire_ for truth, but I need
+not tell you that, for what an earnest truth-seeker you are, nobody
+knows better than myself.
+
+"This is the best I can do toward giving the first lesson, but you must
+think well upon it and get a good foundation laid for what is to come
+next. This science is to be developed rather than learned.
+
+"I want to put in every moment I can get for study, so must close. Hand
+this to Kate and Grace. I do hope they will be interested.
+
+"Tell me all about your progress, and the precious little ones--how are
+they?
+
+  "Your loving MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+     "How shall I know if I do choose the right?"--_Shakespeare._
+
+  "Truth is one,
+  And in all lands beneath the sun,
+  Whoso hath eyes to see may see
+  The tokens of its unity."
+
+  --_Whittier._
+
+
+"That is a very clear statement," said Mr. Hayden, as he handed the
+letter to Grace when she called the next evening.
+
+"Do you think we can get much of an idea from it?"
+
+"O yes, indeed we can; but you take it home and read it with Kate."
+
+Grace went straight home with her prize for she was more interested than
+she cared to admit just yet, and Kate was still reluctant and fearful
+about the possible wrong.
+
+Grace had awakened in the night, just after Mrs. Hayden had gone and
+found her crying. "What is the matter, Katie?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, Grace, I am so worried about this Healing, and I am afraid I did
+wrong to even promise Mrs. Hayden I would read her letters," sobbed the
+poor child.
+
+"Why, Katie dear, we could never know anything if we did not look into
+it and use the reason God has given us. Surely you are not afraid to
+examine into what claims to be such wonderful truth. You do not
+necessarily accept by examining it, and I am glad we can have the
+privilege of reading what Mrs. Hayden says, for she has such a fair,
+unprejudiced mind, and will give us the matter just as nearly right as
+she can; then we can judge for ourselves."
+
+She reached over and drew Kate into her arms, but the sobbing did not
+cease at once. Grace was naturally kind-hearted, and respected people's
+feelings. To-night she was very gentle, as Kate gratefully realized.
+
+"Come Kate, put away your fears. There's nothing can change the truth
+you have, and if it isn't truth, the sooner you change your mind the
+better. What makes you feel so, all at once? Has some one said
+anything?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Narrow gave me such a talking to when I asked him if it was
+wrong; for someway, I got so troubled that I did not know what else to
+do."
+
+"Well, what of it; you don't see anything wrong in it yourself, do you?"
+
+"N--o, not exactly."
+
+"What are you afraid of, then?"
+
+"I--I don't know," with a hysterical sob. She was ashamed to admit that
+she was half afraid of eternal punishment, something she had been in
+vague terror of all her life. It had been impressed upon her so vividly,
+and now she was suffering from a keenly reproachful conscience, because
+for so long a time she had been indifferent and neglectful of her
+religious duties.
+
+Grace finally persuaded her it would be all right to give the matter a
+fair investigation. Then she went to sleep, comforted, for half her
+misery had been caused by her indecision and wavering.
+
+When they read the letter together, Grace was delighted and Kate not
+much less so, though she demurred a little about some things.
+
+"What beautiful ideas of God! It seems plainer than anything I ever
+heard. To say God is Principle, not person, makes it easier to apprehend
+His omnipresence," exclaimed Grace, laying down the letter.
+
+"Y-e-s, in one sense," slowly assented Kate, "but in the Bible He is
+spoken of as Person, or at least as having personal attributes, and you
+know they frequently refer to what He says and how He talked with
+Abraham."
+
+"O, I think that is figurative, if it is true at all. How can a being
+with a definite or outlined form be everywhere at the same time?"
+
+"But surely, you believe His thoughts can be everywhere, and that is
+what is meant by this omnipresence," said Kate, earnestly.
+
+"Then do you think of Him as sitting on a great golden throne, listening
+to the petitions of men below, and able to hear and to grant or refuse
+at the same moment every prayer that is sent to Him by the millions of
+His children on earth?"
+
+"'God's ways are not our ways, and with Him all things are possible.'"
+
+"But is it not much easier to say this is Principle, which is everywhere
+waiting for our recognition of its presence to become manifested to
+us?" pursued Grace.
+
+"Yes, I don't know but it is."
+
+"Now Kate, I am truly in earnest and mean to study this very earnestly.
+I know very little about the Bible, because it has been a sealed book to
+me every time I ever tried to read it, but during these three weeks that
+Mrs. Hayden is gone, I am going to put away my preconceived opinions as
+far as possible and see if I can learn something, and now let us get the
+Bible and see what it says on these questions. You have a concordance.
+Let us look up the word omnipresence and read some of the passages in
+which it occurs."
+
+Kate was well pleased, not only to make the Bible the foundation of this
+study, but to find Grace so changed, and so ready to look into sacred
+things. "Perhaps she will be converted," she thought, and from that
+moment she, too, resolved to look fairly into Christian Healing. She
+brought the concordance and found there was no reference to
+omnipresence.
+
+"We'll look for present or presence," suggested Grace. She glanced
+rapidly down the columns and found a reference to Ps. cxxxix. and turned
+to that.
+
+"Yes, in the seventh verse it says: 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit
+or whither shall I flee from thy presence?' and here is a marginal
+reference to Jer. xxiii: 24. 'Can any hide himself in secret places that
+I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?'
+Now it seems to me that carries the idea of a personal Being," said
+Kate.
+
+"Well, let us look up the references to God," suggested Grace again.
+"Here's one in Deut. xxxii: 4. 'He is the rock, his work is perfect; for
+all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and
+right is he.' Yes, there He is compared to a rock. Of course that is
+symbolical, but find another. Isn't there one that tells of Him as
+spirit?"
+
+"Yes, 'God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in
+spirit and in truth,' that is in John iv: 24, and in the first chapter
+of John it reads: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
+God and the Word was God.'"
+
+"Ah! there we have it very plain; word is not flesh and blood or person.
+Doesn't it say in the letter that God is Intelligence, which is only
+another way to express the same thing?"
+
+"Yes, and I remember when Jesus prayed for His disciples, He said:
+'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth;' and some place in
+the Bible it speaks of God as truth," said Kate, quite willing to give
+all the corroborative testimony she could.
+
+"Truth can only be considered as principle, so we have that statement
+confirmed by the Bible, and that would agree with what Pythagoras
+wrote," said Grace, quoting: "'There is one Universal Soul diffused
+through all things, eternal, invisible, unchangeable; in essence like
+truth, in substance resembling light; ... to be comprehended only by the
+mind.' Now it is comparatively easy to see manifestations of the Good.
+By the way, I think it a volume of explanation in itself to say Good
+instead of God, don't you?"
+
+"Well, yes, it does seem peculiarly expressive, but the old way sounds a
+little better yet."
+
+"Of course," pursued Grace, "it doesn't matter so much what we call this
+omnipresent power, as whether we understand it. All humanity worship the
+same Deity in the sense of recognizing an omnipotent Power. I once read
+something comparing the ideas of God among the different peoples, and it
+was really wonderful how similar they were, excepting, of course, each
+nation had a different name for Deity. I believe I have that book now
+somewhere;" and Grace went to look for it, but presently returned
+without finding it. "Well, it made such a vivid impression on me that I
+remember a few of the principal statements. One was that the Hindoos
+teach of an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Being called Brehm
+who is the creator of all things, from whom all things emanate and by
+whom all things are sustained. The Persians, Egyptians, Greeks held
+similar ideas. The Persians called God, Ormuzd, the Greeks, Orpheus, the
+Egyptians, Osiris."
+
+"I did not know the Pagans held such ideas of Deity. I always thought
+they believed in many gods," said Kate.
+
+"They did, but as Edward Everett Hale, says: 'The innumerable Gods of
+the Pantheon are but manifestations of the One Being,' that is, they had
+special names for the different manifestations of God, as He appeared to
+them in the sun, the air, the earth, and also the different qualities of
+human character. They all alike believed in a Supreme Being, and made
+statements almost synonymous with many in the Bible. That is what may be
+called universal truth, and if this philosophy is what is consistent
+with fundamental truth, it will be just what I have been wishing to
+find." Grace leaned back meditatively, adding, "Mythology used to have a
+peculiar charm for me, and many of those old stories are coming back
+with a new significance."
+
+"'There is but one foundation, other, can no man lay,'" quoted Kate,
+earnestly.
+
+"Yes, my dear," and Grace rose and paced back and forth in deep
+abstraction. "There is but one Truth and we can not establish a falsity.
+But I want to carry my reflections a little further concerning this
+universal worship. To my mind, the power inherent in everything and
+recognized in some way by every individual is the supreme, perfect Power
+in different phases of manifestation. The man who trusts an unseen power
+to bring the seed he plants to full fruition, is believing in the true
+God, though he may not know it.
+
+"The whole world lives on faith from one year to another, for there is
+not enough food produced in one season to last more than one year, and
+if men did not know every succeeding season would provide, they would be
+desperate indeed. What is this but believing in a supreme Power? Even
+materialists admit that the great First Cause is beyond matter. Herbert
+Spencer speaks of it as the 'Universal Reality, without beginning and
+without end.'"
+
+"All people reverence and admire the sentiments of love and justice and
+truth and mercy. Let us agree they come from the same cause and are
+everywhere present, and we shall come nearer to worshiping God in spirit
+and in truth, than we ever have before. Now let's have your opinion,
+Queen Katherine," concluded Grace, looking at Kate with a playful smile
+as she finished her long dissertation.
+
+"There is nothing I can add to that, and it seems a very good conclusion
+to our first lesson. I did not know you had thought so much about
+religious things, Grace."
+
+"I always had a fondness for looking on the forbidden side of things,
+and I am afraid I was more curious than religious, but I am rather glad
+if there is an explanation to these things that have always puzzled
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+     "A lie can not exist--it only appears. Truth is consciousness
+     consistent with itself in every relation; error is consciousness
+     inconsistent with itself in some relation."--_Judge H. P. Biddle._
+
+     "And what an end lies before us! To have a consciousness of our own
+     ideal being flashed through us from the thought of God! Surely, for
+     this may well give way all our paltry self-consciousness, our
+     self-admiration and self-worships! Surely, to know what He thinks
+     about us will pale out of our souls all our thoughts about
+     ourselves!"--_George MacDonald._
+
+
+  MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear John: I hope you are as anxiously awaiting this letter as I
+awaited the second lecture. It was splendid, so comprehensive, and above
+all, so practical. It throws light on many puzzling points, and I am
+delighted so far with what seems so plain and true.
+
+"Some of the members of the class seemed quite shocked at some of the
+statements, but it is not strange that they should seem startling to one
+who has never thought on the subject, for indeed, I should think it
+would take a good while to get used to reasoning that is directly
+opposite the world's first conclusions; still we are looking for results
+that are quite contrary to what the world looks for, so we can afford to
+collide with its opinions. When Mrs. Pearl came into the class room, all
+turned to look at her and every ear was ready to listen.
+
+"In yesterday's lesson we made a statement of God as the only Mind of
+the universe, the Great Reality beside whom there is absolutely nothing
+in existence; but as we look around at the scenes of suffering and
+poverty and ignorance, we are mightily tempted to disbelieve such a
+statement.
+
+"'Talk of omnipotent Light in the midst of midnight darkness!' you
+exclaim. Ah, but you are to remember we are talking of the real
+creation; the invisible and unapparent instead of the visible and
+apparent; the changeless and eternal instead of the evanescent and
+decaying.
+
+"If God is the only Reality, His creation is the only real creation. The
+word real is applied to that which actually exists, which forever is,
+not to that which seems or appears; therefore, in speaking of the real
+we mean the changeless and invisible.
+
+"If God is the only Mind, His are the only real thoughts, and thoughts
+are invisible to the eye, but discernible to the mind or consciousness.
+
+"If God is everywhere, there is no possible place or space in the
+universe where God is not; hence He is all there is. One of our modern
+prophets wisely wrote: 'Has not a deeper meditation taught certain of
+every clime and age that the Where and the When so mysteriously
+inseparable from all our thoughts, are but superficial adhesions to
+thought; that the Seer may discern them where they mount up out of the
+celestial Everywhere and Forever. Have not all nations conceived their
+God as omnipresent and eternal, as existing in a universal Here, an
+everlasting Now?
+
+"'Think well, thou too wilt find that space is but a mode of our human
+sense, so likewise Time. There is no space and no time. _We_ are--we
+know not what; light sparkles floating in the ether of Deity. So this so
+solid seeming world, were, after all, but an air-image--our _me_ the
+only reality.'
+
+"This me is the spiritual self, the individual idea of God, His image
+and likeness.
+
+"What then, about this body, which is not spiritual, you ask? What about
+the material universe?
+
+"Wait a moment. Think of the premise. As God the invisible is the
+changeless, what is the variable, fleeting, visible unreality? The real
+is everlasting, the unreal is transitory. The real is called Spirit, the
+unreal matter.
+
+"What is Spirit? The underlying omnipresent substance that we call God.
+
+"What is matter? The counterfeit, shadow, emblem, showing that Spirit
+exists or is.
+
+"We read in a very ancient Hindoo Scripture: 'Those who have
+understanding, whose thought is pure, see the entire universe as the
+picture of Thy wisdom;' and the thoughtful Carlyle said: 'All visible
+things are emblems.... Matter represents some idea and bodies it forth.'
+
+"These thoughts are in perfect accord with the principles laid down in
+our premise, hence we find that as we believe matter, believe the body
+to be the real creation, we are believing a falsity. This is the idol we
+are worshiping instead of the true and only God. The grand visible
+universe in which we see so many beauties, so many charms, is but the
+mighty object lesson before us by which we may learn of the infinite,
+invisible All. As Theodore Parker said: 'The universe itself is a great
+autograph of the Almighty.'
+
+"The characters used in mathematics do not constitute the science but
+merely represent to the senses the invisible ideas of the principle of
+mathematics. The visible does not constitute the invisible, but may
+carry its messages as we learn to read its poetic and mystic pages. The
+visible speaks to the mortal nature, but the invisible beyond and above,
+speaks to the immortal nature.
+
+"Since we find matter to be so totally opposite the real, there is no
+other name for it than as the unreal, and the unreal being a counterfeit
+of the real, must be a lie, as the nature of a lie is to make false
+claims, pretending they are true.
+
+"Matter is a counterfeit because it is not genuine or of God, because it
+is changeable and fleeting, because being limited to a visible form, it
+must have finite limitations and can merely give finite conceptions.
+
+"Taking it as a _sign_ of something infinite, we learn of the infinite.
+All the students, teachers, learned men and women of the world have
+added to the world's spiritual ideas revealed by their study of the
+finite as well as their intuitive knowledge of the infinite. Charles
+Kingsley gives us a hint of how to learn: 'Do not study matter for its
+own sake but as the countenance of God. Try to extract every line of
+beauty, every association, every moral reflection, every inexpressible
+feeling from it.'
+
+"Our ideas of matter must then be entirely changed, and we must learn to
+look beyond the seeming, to the true. We have believed in the reality
+of matter and material environment because of reasoning from the false
+basis that man is material or that he is a mixture of material and
+spiritual. To believe that the flesh and blood of our sister or brother
+is their real self, is to believe God capable of creating something
+utterly unlike himself (John iii, James i.) which may suffer, sin and
+die, and if He is all perfection, He can not know imperfection. If He is
+all spirit, He can not know or be matter. Keep before your mind the
+perfection, omnipotence, omnipresence of Spirit, God or Principle, and
+you will see more and more clearly the inconsistency of anything
+opposite Him emanating from Him.
+
+"Believing in matter as a reality, we have endowed it with all the power
+of the real, have ascribed to it life, substance and intelligence, when
+it possesses neither.
+
+"Where is the life when the body dies? If life were inherent in the
+physical body, could it ever cease to be? God the eternal life principle
+can not cease to be. The life manifested through the body is the life
+which is God and can not be affected by the decay or disappearance of
+the body.
+
+"The invisible essence of life is also the true substance, the reliable
+and changeless something, upon which we may forever depend. We use the
+word substance in its etymological sense (from _sub_, under and _stare_,
+to stand), and since Spirit or Mind is the reality that underlies every
+material or sensible object, there is no substance to the object itself.
+
+"Plato taught that '_ideas_, are the only _real_ things.' Ideas are
+expressions of thoughts, and thoughts are expressions of mind, and this
+reasoning brings us back to God as Mind and Mind as Cause. Admitting
+Mind or Spirit to be the life and substance back of or expressing itself
+through the body, we may easily see that intelligence can not exist
+apart from Mind, and hence can not belong to matter.
+
+"That the mind or intelligence is seated in the gray convolutions of the
+brain, is held by the materialists, and yet Dr. Laycock affirms 'that
+matter is fundamentally nothing more than that which is the seat of
+motion to ends, of which mind is the source and cause.' Professor Huxley
+crowns the statement by saying, 'That which perceives or knows is mind
+or spirit, and therefore, that knowledge which the senses give us, is,
+after all, a knowledge of spiritual phenomena.' Professor Faraday held
+to the immateriality of physical objects.
+
+"In the language of Jesus the Christ, we are told, 'Spirit is all, the
+flesh profiteth nothing;' thus from all classes of conscientious but
+confessedly diverse thinkers, we find statements of universal truth, and
+this is what the hungry, starving world is seeking with more earnestness
+than ever before.
+
+"Since there is no life, substance or intelligence in matter, it will be
+comparatively easy to prove that there can be no sensation, for where
+there is no life in the body, there can be no feeling. Even the
+physiologists tell us mind must know pain before it can be located in
+the body. We state therefore a theorem which is practically
+demonstrated; there is no sensation in matter.
+
+"As we visit penitentiaries, reform schools and hospitals, as we read
+and hear the startling statements of press and pulpit, we grow
+disconsolate and heavy-hearted over the awful power and reality of evil,
+forgetting again that He who is perfect goodness can not behold evil or
+in any way permit its existence, any more than heat can permit cold, or
+light can permit darkness.
+
+"Granting the omnipotence of Good, where is there any room for its
+opposite?
+
+"If there is but one Power, and that omnipotent and perfect, there can
+be no evil _in reality_; hence we are dealing with another lie when we
+judge according to appearances, which Jesus said we should not do. It is
+really disloyalty to God to impute to Him all misery, pain, sickness and
+suffering caused by the evil and ignorance of man. We are told: 'Let
+your soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but of
+God.' Because we have not done so, but have believed in every claim
+power, we suffer from 'evils which our own misdeeds have wrought,' as
+Milton wrote, or, in the words of Emerson, 'we _mis_create our own
+evils.'
+
+"Jeremiah said: 'It is your sins that have withholden the good things
+from you.'
+
+"According to Webster, 'sin is a transgression of the law of God.' There
+is but one law--the perfect and unchangeable Truth. Any deviation from
+Truth is error, and error is sin. In proportion as we deviate from the
+strictly true, then, we sin. Because we admit things to be true which
+are not true, we _admit_, then _commit_ sin, and hence suffer for sin.
+'Know ye not that to whomsoever ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
+his servants ye are, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto
+righteousness,' wrote Paul. We first think wrong. Sin is of the mind,
+not of the body.
+
+"To acknowledge the reality of sin or evil is a transgression of the
+law, because, according to our established premise, it cannot be true.
+
+"Through a misconception of our relation to God, and a belief in the
+power of evil, we are obliged to admit the existence of sin, sickness,
+and death, neither of which can be true in the presence of God, as the
+only Reality, in which or in whom are all things that eternally are, not
+that temporarily appear.
+
+"We have believed in a mind or power of thought opposite and contrary to
+God, when in reality there can be nothing opposite or contrary to
+eternal Mind. We have believed ourselves endowed with a mind separate
+from God, and ourselves subject to temptation from some cause not Good.
+We have believed in minds, when there is but one Mind.
+
+"This false force, this false mind, is variously called the evil or
+carnal mind, the mind of the flesh, the old man, the serpent, the devil,
+the adversary. It is simply the opposite or contradictory of the Good,
+the god of evil.
+
+"Beside every true or positive statement there is a false or negative
+claim, and in so far as we are ignorant of the true, we are in bondage
+to the false. To _believe_ the claims of error is to be bound; to _know_
+the reality of truth is to be free. To believe in a mind or power
+separate or opposite from God, is to be subject to any suppositions or
+beliefs formulated by that mind or negative thought.
+
+"That we are spiritually perfect is true, but it is necessary for us to
+prove that fact by 'working out our own salvation,' by manifesting the
+positive or God quality of thought through our life and actions, and the
+only way to be filled with good thought is to recognize and acknowledge
+the Good only as the real.
+
+"This error, tempter or devil, was spoken of by Jesus as having no
+truth, as being a liar, and the father or cause of lies (John viii: 44).
+Instead of devil (which is only another name for evil or the slanderer),
+or 'carnal mind', as Paul called it, we find mortal thought a better
+term for the expression of this power of thinking.
+
+"'Why have we this power of thinking wrong thoughts when there is but
+one good and only Mind?' you ask. As God's idea, in the image and
+likeness of Mind that thinks, we have the power of recognition, the
+power to be or not to be, the possibility to become sons of God. We have
+the power to distinguish, to judge, to know; we have the spirit that
+ever leads us on and on in truth.
+
+"But here is where we fail. In our ignorance or limited state of
+unfoldment, we have mistaken the symbol for that which is symbolized
+matter is the symbol, as also the body, we have judged according to
+appearances instead of righteous or strictly true judgment; we have
+yielded to a belief in sin, hence are servants of sin.
+
+"The conception of matter as having power, is based on appearances, and
+because we have delegated to it a power, have acknowledged it as an
+entity, separate from the eternal mind, it has enslaved us.
+
+"Reasoning in this way we find everywhere two opposites or
+contradictories to be recognized and judged, as the visible and the
+invisible, the material and the spiritual, the false and the true, the
+mortal and the immortal, the unreal and the real, the negative and the
+positive.
+
+"Judging of the true by that which is changeless and eternal, we can
+decide at once on those qualities or attributes belonging to or
+describing what is true, and by knowing what is true, we can readily
+distinguish it from the erroneous.
+
+"We have considered these great errors or negatives which the world has
+believed and still believes in, and they must be dealt with according to
+scientific law.
+
+"Through all the ages of Christianity have been heard the words of the
+Master: 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
+his cross and follow me;' but who has understood it? The letter of the
+law has indeed been observed by many earnest followers of Jesus to a
+degree not considered necessary in this age, but what has it
+demonstrated? What has come of all the fasting and renunciation, the
+cruel asceticism and severe discipline?
+
+"Do these conscientious disciples give an unmistakable proof of their
+discipleship by showing the signs that must follow the true believer?
+How can they when they talk of sin, sickness and death; of things
+contradictory to the nature, power and presence of God?
+
+"Then they must not have understood the spiritual import of these words
+of Jesus to 'deny himself.' Deny means, according to Webster, 'to
+contradict; to declare not to be true; to disclaim connection with; to
+refuse to acknowledge; to disown.' Jesus meant deny the mortal thought,
+the false self; refuse to acknowledge it as having any authority; and it
+is only as the Christ follower proves this to be the true mode of
+denying self, that he can speak with authority as to the scientific
+method of dealing with all the errors to which mortal thought gives
+birth.
+
+"No other way has brought the desired result; hence we confidently
+assert that all these mistakes agreed to and participated in by mankind
+must be emphatically, persistently, scientifically denied.
+
+"Systematically and repeatedly we say:
+
+"1. There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter.
+
+"2. There is no sensation or causation in matter.
+
+"3. There is no reality in matter.
+
+"4. There is no reality in sin, sickness or death.
+
+"5. There is no reality in evil.
+
+"6. There is no reality in mortal thought.
+
+"This is denying the self recognized by the world. This is the life that
+must be laid down, that must be sacrificed, lost.
+
+"Humanity has proven its subjection to these errors. Now, by its
+faithful rejection of them, let it prove them lies, for the force of a
+lie is always annulled by rejection. This proves the law referred to by
+Jesus when he made a denial of self the first duty of his disciples.
+
+"In denying, it is necessary to say the words over and over again; it
+may be mechanically at first, but say them over, several hours at a
+time, if possible.
+
+"More is accomplished by concentration than anybody is aware, and the
+repetition of the words helps to concentrate the thought. First repeat
+the whole list of denials, then select one on which to spend most of the
+time for several days. The denial of matter, for instance, makes us more
+spiritually minded.
+
+"When denying, try to realize there is no space, but that anywhere you
+send your thought it will go, and as you think or say the words, you
+will be denying error for the world as well as for yourself, as every
+thought is world-wide in its influence, and helps to free or bind
+humanity, even as it is truth or error.
+
+"To deny is to put out of mind, to erase, as it were, the false beliefs.
+Be earnest, be faithful, and you will have an abundant reward.
+
+"This, dear John, is the substance of the lecture as nearly as I can
+give it. After Mrs. Pearl had finished the lesson, she requested the
+class to sit in silence a few moments and together hold the thought,
+'There is no reality in matter;' after which we were dismissed with this
+benediction: 'May we realize that God _is_, that spirit is the only
+reality.'
+
+"The lessons are always opened by silent prayer, which I have forgotten
+to mention before.
+
+"Please, dear husband, observe these rules and study every assertion as
+carefully as though you were in the class. You, and Grace, and Kate, can
+accomplish a great deal together; but by all means don't pass judgment
+till you have carefully examined all the evidence.
+
+"Tell me all about the children. Such details will greatly comfort me,
+for I must confess that to-night I am the least bit homesick.
+
+  "Good night,
+
+  "Your loving MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     "God is commanding us off, every hour of our lives, toward things
+     eternal, there to find our good, and build our rest. Sometimes He
+     does it by taking us out of the world, and sometimes by taking the
+     world out of us."--_H. Bushnell._
+
+
+"The second letter has come," said Grace the moment Kate entered the
+room, after her day's lessons were over.
+
+"Has it? Let us hurry and get the tea over so we can study it."
+
+"Don't you want to hear it first? I haven't looked at it because I
+wanted to wait for you, but I can't wait that long," cried Grace,
+pulling it out of her painting-apron pocket.
+
+"All right, then read away while I start the fire."
+
+"No; come and sit down like a good child, you can't half listen when
+your mind is filled with stoves and tea-pots."
+
+Kate smiled, and drawing her chair up beside Grace, she listened to the
+reading, while her face alternately brightened or darkened.
+
+"Well, it sounds very beautiful and very plausible, but I can't see how
+any one can say there is no evil when the world is full of it, and to
+say there is no sin, sickness or death! why, that is blasphemous! I know
+the Bible won't corroborate that," she said, in a horrified voice, at
+the conclusion of the letter.
+
+"Hold on, we must not be so fast; there are good reasons for every
+statement, and she says it is necessary to say these denials over and
+over. It is harder for me to believe there is no matter, but if there is
+a way to prove there is none, then I will submit. But first let us see
+what the Bible says," said the more moderate Grace.
+
+She got the Bible and concordance, but could find no reference to matter
+as pertaining to physical creation, but she found under the word "flesh"
+an allusion to John i: 12-13, and iii: 6. "The first reads," began
+Grace, "'But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
+the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
+not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
+of God.' That evidently refers to a creation possible to all, but where
+is the authority for saying 'there is no matter'?"
+
+She pondered a moment, then referred to the letter--"Oh, I see! She
+says, 'no _reality_ in matter,' and then goes on to explain about the
+real. Yes, now I see. Do you understand it, Kate?"
+
+"I can understand that the body is not the real," replied Kate,
+thoughtfully, "for Jesus said 'the spirit is all, the flesh profiteth
+nothing,' but--"
+
+"That's so. Why didn't we think of that before? Besides, it was taught
+by the ancient philosophers as much as 4,000 years ago, that matter has
+no reality. Yes, its plain to see how it can be, theoretically, but
+where they can demonstrate it practically, puzzles me. Here is a
+reference; let us see if that will tell us something."
+
+She read Heb. xi: 3: "'Through faith we understand that the worlds were
+framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made
+of things which do appear.'"
+
+"That seems quite conclusive," said Kate.
+
+"Yes, it does. Now we will consider your problem," replied Grace,
+running her finger down the references, "and see if we can find anything
+in that. Let us bear in mind," she continued, "she does not say there is
+no appearance, but no reality in evil. Among the first references, I
+find one to the twenty-third Psalm: 'I will fear no evil, for thou art
+with me.' How plain that is! Of course there can be no evil where God
+is, and God is everywhere. God is Love. In Love there is no evil."
+
+"But just think of the awful crimes that are committed every day, and
+the wicked people who commit them," demurred Kate, with an incredulous
+look.
+
+"We haven't got far enough to solve everything; listen to this: 'Only
+with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked,'"
+read Grace.
+
+"That must mean that with the carnal mind we see all things opposite
+God, and with the mind of the spirit we discern spiritual things; that
+is in Romans somewhere," exclaimed Kate, with a gleam of understanding
+in her face.
+
+"What word shall I look for?" asked Grace, intently pursuing her search.
+
+"Mind, I think; shan't I look for it?"
+
+"No; here it is in the eighth chapter and tenth verse: 'The carnal mind
+is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God,
+neither indeed can be.' That is plain enough. It means that all
+thoughts opposite God and God's creations are of the animal man, hence
+at enmity with God, and since there is nothing real but God and His
+creations, of course there is no reality in them. Now you are satisfied,
+aren't you, Kate?"
+
+"I suppose I ought to be, for I don't see any other way to understand
+those passages," she admitted, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Just one more, and we'll go on to the next denial, which will hit me,
+I'm afraid," continued Grace.
+
+She turned to Isa. xxxiii: 15-16: "I declare, Kate, here is the essence
+of the whole lesson," and she read: "'He that walketh righteously, and
+speaketh uprightly' (according to the true creation), 'he that despiseth
+the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes,
+that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
+seeing evil; He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the
+munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be
+sure.'"
+
+"I really did not know there was such a passage in the Bible, and I
+don't see why other people haven't found it before," said Kate, quite
+won over. "But how strange it seems to deny this way."
+
+"Yes, that is the most unreasonable part of it, and yet I think Mrs.
+Hayden has explained it very clearly. Now what is next?" asked Grace.
+
+"There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter," answered Kate,
+glancing at the letter.
+
+"I must confess that puzzles me," mused Grace, thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, that is easy enough to understand, when you remember the spirit is
+all, besides, when a person dies the organs of the body may be perfect,
+but there is no life or feeling, and according to this new
+understanding, no substance," explained Kate, in her turn.
+
+"I can see it well enough as a theory, but what all this has to do with
+practical every-day living, is a mystery to me."
+
+"'We haven't got far enough to solve everything,' somebody said to me
+once, and here it is for you," remarked Kate, with a spice of mischief
+in her tone.
+
+"All right, what next?"
+
+"No sensation or causation in matter; but I think that is answered the
+same way as the other. But this last one; I do wonder if the Bible
+corroborates it?" Kate looked troubled again, as she read: "'There is no
+sin, sickness nor death.'"
+
+"The same reasoning applies to that as to all the rest. There is no
+reality to anything but God's creation, and that is changeless and
+perfect. But we will see what the Bible has to say; I. John iii: 2-10.
+In the second verse it reads: 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, but
+it doth not yet appear what we shall be;' that of course is an assertion
+of our spiritual self. Then verse nine says: 'Whosoever is born of God
+doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him and he can not sin,
+because he is born of God.' Then it seems plain there can be no sin to
+the spirit, neither can there be sickness nor death."
+
+"It is wonderful," murmured Kate.
+
+"What is next?" pursued Grace, with the concordance open before her.
+
+"That is all, except she explains the use and necessity of denial, and
+suggests to Mr. Hayden the benefit of denying for hours at a time."
+
+"Well, we can do that, too. If it is good for him, it must be for us. I
+mean to do it," said Grace, shutting her book with a snap and pacing
+back and forth excitedly.
+
+"Oh, well, take it calmly; we can do that while we are getting supper,
+and I am hungry now. Do you know it is seven o'clock?" Kate exclaimed,
+looking at her watch.
+
+"Two hours we have been studying," said Grace. "Really, this is as
+interesting as painting. I don't see one thing but what is reasonable,
+do you, Kate?"
+
+"Not the way it seems now."
+
+After everything was put away they began making earnest application of
+the rules. Each sat silently thinking, according to directions: "There
+is no reality in matter, there is no reality in matter," etc. For two
+hours neither spoke. Then Kate said: "I feel so light; as though there
+were no weight to my body. What does it mean?"
+
+"I don't know, unless it shows you are realizing what you say."
+
+"That is it. I can feel that there is no obstruction to spirit or
+thought; that spirit is limitless and God is everywhere."
+
+She seemed lost in her new thoughts, and went to bed as though she were
+dreaming. Grace had experienced nothing but a sense of dullness and
+extreme sleepiness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+     "The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soul _is_. Under
+     all this sea of circumstance, whose waters ebb and flow with
+     perfect balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being. Existence
+     or God is not a relation or a part, but a whole."--_Emerson._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear husband: I was made very happy this morning by the messages from
+home, and especially Fred's and Jamie's baby efforts. They wanted to
+send mamma their love, and the straggling characters meant for words,
+convey as much meaning as though they were in good English, for they
+speak to me in unmistakable language. Why do I understand so well? Ah,
+John, I see. Because, being filled with love for them, I recognize the
+same quality in what they feel for me, and only need a sign to read the
+meaning back of it.
+
+"As I write, new light comes to me regarding the real meaning of signs
+and symbols. Until we are filled with a desire and love for God, we can
+not perceive or understand the real meaning of the universe, can not
+read God's love for us. Until we have a conscious apprehension that
+there is a spiritual knowledge, we can not recognize spiritual truth.
+
+"Oh, I can not help wishing you had been here to-day! It was simply
+grand; such an uplifting, such a glimpse of the wondrous Now. We learned
+about what _is_, what we _are_ and how to prove ourselves God's
+children. Mrs. Pearl opened with a few words on the use and necessity of
+silence, after which we were all silent awhile, when she commenced:
+
+"Garfield said, 'The world's history is a divine poem, of which the
+history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains
+have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been
+the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, the
+philosopher, the historian and the humble listener, there has been a
+divine melody running through the song, which speaks of hope and halcyon
+days to come.'
+
+"What has made possible this divine melody but the spirit of love and
+truth that ever animates the children of God? Were it not for this vein,
+nay this wholeness of the invisible spirit, what could we have on which
+to found hopes of 'halcyon days?'
+
+"Not from the visible man of flesh and blood do all things beautiful and
+true emanate, nor from the material and unstable, but from the one
+source that is God, as apprehended and realized by His idea, the real,
+invisible, spiritual man. Beauty, worth, can only be in idea or
+understanding.
+
+"What made Milton, Shakespeare, Emerson, truly great was their
+appropriation and manifestation of the invisible inheritance of spirit,
+mind.
+
+"What is man without intelligence, without love, without life, without
+truth? The real man is spiritual because he is the idea of Spirit, Mind,
+God, the only Creator. All that is grand, noble, true in an individual
+is a manifestation of the God-power and presence. There is but one real
+Mind, and all real or positive thought or intelligence is the
+manifestation of Mind, which is God. There is but one real Intelligence,
+and the intelligence manifested by the individual is the Intelligence
+which is God.
+
+"God is absolutely one Verity, the primordial Essence. But how shall we
+know this as a fact? How shall we prove it as an incontrovertible truth?
+you ask.
+
+"By persistent acknowledgement of God and His creation, we become one
+with Him, and to be one with God is to know absolute Truth. We are
+conditioned by the thoughts we think and by the words we speak. By
+thinking and speaking right words we manifest true conditions; by
+thinking and speaking wrong words we manifest false conditions. 'As a
+man thinketh in his heart so is he.' If we desire to manifest strength,
+justice or wisdom of God, we must 'acknowledge God in all our ways.'
+
+"'The only salvation,' says George MacDonald, 'is being filled with the
+spirit of God, having the same mind as Christ.'
+
+"In order to realize the essence of these words, in order to realize the
+essence of any truth, we must enter into its meaning by becoming one
+with it, by making ourselves the expression of its harmony, the picture
+of its idea.
+
+"Knowing the potency of the word, we say the true words over and over
+again, silently or audibly, we think of them in every possible way, with
+varied expression if we will, as it is the thought, the prime idea that
+we are seeking to manifest.
+
+"We want the true salvation; 'we want to be filled with the spirit;' we
+want the truth that makes free; we want strength, justice, wisdom. To
+secure these we have only to rid ourselves of the false and be filled
+with the true.
+
+"By the positive denial of a lie we annul the lie; by the positive
+affirmation of truth we establish truth, or rather our consciousness of
+truth is established; thus, as we deny error or affirm truth, are we
+carried forward and upward. These are the 'wonderful words of life' that
+clothe us with righteousness.
+
+"The words that we use first are statements of fundamental Truth,
+acknowledging who and what God is, what we are, and in what relation we
+stand to our Father.
+
+"1. God is Life, Truth, Love, Substance.
+
+"2. God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.
+
+"3. I am the idea of God, and in Him I have my being.
+
+"4. God is my sufficiency in all work and my will in all ways.
+
+"5. I am subject to God's law and can not sin, suffer or die.
+
+"Over and over again we speak the words, and by marvelous law new
+meanings flash upon us, new thoughts are born, new interpretations come
+to efface the more obscure ones of the past. It may be easier to follow
+every denial with its corresponding affirmation; if so, study the lesson
+that way.
+
+"_Hold to each affirmation till it yields its pearl._ Take the first,
+'God is Life;' say the words over and over, think of them in every
+conceivable way. Make every tiny leaf and slender blade of grass tell
+you something of the infinite Life. Bear in mind that every where life
+is manifested, whether in plant, animal or man, wherever we look there
+is omnipresent Life.
+
+"God is Life. This same Life is our life, which can not be taken away
+from us. This Life is good, and in It we live even as God lives in us.
+Oh, wondrous life that flows on and on, without beginning, without end,
+even as the river sings: 'Men may come and men may go, but I go on
+forever.'
+
+"God is Truth, all truth, wheresoever or by whomsoever recognized, is
+the everlasting Truth that must forever be.
+
+"There is not a community or church, not a society or family, but is
+organized and held together by some phase of the all-embracing and
+perfect Truth. The different sects and parties are only different
+because certain people see the same side of Truth, and preferring to be
+of one mind, they separate or unite and build their respective
+sanctuaries.
+
+"'Truth is always present, and we only need to lift the iron lids of the
+mind's eye to read its oracles,' said Emerson. When the 'iron lids' are
+lifted we shall see as one, we shall belong to the Church of the
+universe and the oracle shall reveal to us its deepest secrets and most
+sacred mysteries.
+
+"Truth _is_. All that we have, can have, or will have or can conceive
+of, exists in the ever present Here and Now. It only remains for us to
+recognize and acknowledge it.
+
+"God is Love. To realize the mighty sea of omnipotent Love that enfolds
+and blesses humanity, would be to plunge into the healing waters of
+Bethesda. Like the sick man, we wait until the majestic Christ commands
+us to arise--help ourselves, instead of waiting for others to put us
+into the cleansing current. Let us recognize, then, the allness, the
+tenderness, the sacredness of this divine Love by submerging ourselves
+in it, until all thoughts of evil, suffering or hatred are lost in its
+embrace.
+
+"'Lift up the gates that the king of glory may enter in,' sang David,
+and we too cry aloud with earnest aspiration that the gates shall be
+lifted away, that into our consciousness may come the high tide of
+omnipresent Love. 'Love alone is wisdom, love alone is power, and when
+love seems to fail it is where self has stepped in and dulled the
+potency of its rays.'
+
+"God is our substance. True substance alone is reliable. God is our rod
+and our staff. Firmly relying on the Rock of substance which is God, we
+can not be shaken, can not be destroyed. Though all seeming powers
+totter and fall around us, the One is ever the same, indivisible,
+unchangeable I Am. When we are one with the eternal Substance, weakness,
+danger, failure shrink into cowering nothingness.
+
+"Study to know, and know to live, should be our motto. Deny all error
+and affirm all Truth is the way to appropriate whatsoever we desire to
+manifest. Deny weakness and affirm strength, deny discord and affirm
+harmony, deny sickness and affirm health. Why? Because we erase the
+false beliefs of weakness, discord, sickness, by the denial, and
+appropriate strength, harmony, wholeness by affirmation.
+
+"Can the spiritual self be ignorant, weak, sick or sinful? we argue.
+Impossible, for God is our sufficiency, is all there is. We refuse to
+admit any belief of dullness and ignorance, but gratefully acknowledge
+our likeness to God our Wisdom. We refuse to entertain anything contrary
+to the Good, but fellowship only with God-like qualities. They are ours
+by right of inheritance. We gladly claim them and prove our claim by our
+manifestation.
+
+"Cleansing our consciousness from false conceptions, what wondrous power
+may we not reflect! Our sufficiency is of God, not of ourselves, and to
+Him we ascribe all honor and glory.
+
+"The Master taught the divineness of yielding our will wholly to God,
+'Not my will but thine be done,' He prayed. This is the highest
+conception of the denial of self. The mortal self is to be set aside,
+our immortal consciousness awakened into oneness with the Father.
+
+"MacDonald has beautifully said, 'Oneness with the mighty All is the one
+end of life--God or chaos is the only alternative.' We say God works
+through man to will and to do, and implicitly trust the divine
+Intelligence that guides every waiting child.
+
+"We choose the Good and reverently await our leadings. In every stormy
+trial, in every doubtful moment, in every hard-pressed circumstance we
+stand aside and let the divine will work through us. There can be no
+mistaking this standing aside. It is not to sit down idly with no
+thought of responsibility or effort, but it is to do the best we can so
+far as we know, constantly awaiting more knowledge of God's will and
+more strength to do.
+
+"When the will of man is at one with the will of God, when man realizes
+his mortal nothingness and the allness of God, there is divine and
+perfect healing. The poet was right when he wrote,
+
+  'Our wills are ours we know not how,
+  Our wills are ours to make them Thine.'
+
+"'I am subject to the law of God and can not sin, suffer nor die.' The
+real _I_ is governed by spirit, as an idea is governed by the mind that
+thinks it. The real creation, being spiritual, can not be subject to
+mortal beliefs or 'carnal mind which is at enmity with God.' With spirit
+there can be no sin, sickness nor death, for these are enemies to be
+overcome by the Son of God, the Christ within. 'Thou wilt keep him in
+perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.' 'The last enemy (belief) to
+be overcome is death.'
+
+"Until we persistently refuse to judge according to appearances, and
+acknowledge the true and invisible, we will continue in our old code of
+beliefs and be at the mercy of the consequences.
+
+"When we recognize the Christ or God principle within, we are then truly
+the sons and daughters of God. Spiritual insight gives a logical and to
+some, a new meaning to the term Christ. Christ means Truth and Truth
+means God. 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and
+the Word was God, and the Word was made manifest in the flesh, or the
+Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.'
+
+"'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.' Jesus said of
+Himself, 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' But He did not speak
+this of His physical body, He referred to the spirit or Christ within,
+which was one with the Father, that was and is, literally the way, the
+truth and the life. If you will substitute Truth for Christ any place in
+the Bible, with this understanding, you will be able to read and
+apprehend as never before. In this line of thought read the thirty-fifth
+chapter of Isaiah, the title of which is 'The joyful flourishing of
+Christ's (Truth's) kingdom.' With this understanding, we so much more
+clearly see what Paul meant when he said such things as 'Your life is
+hid with Christ in God,' 'Christ in you, the hope of glory,' 'Until
+Christ be formed in you,' and many other similar expressions. In the
+eighth chapter of Romans, especially the first verse, it is much clearer
+by reading with this new spiritual signification. 'There is, therefore,
+now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Truth), who walk
+not after the flesh but after the spirit.' Who could ever believe the
+physical Jesus was meant? No: Christ was exactly what the first chapter
+of John says He was, the Word (or Truth) made manifest in the flesh, and
+the name of the flesh was Jesus.
+
+"Jesus Christ means Jesus, the manifestation of Truth, and this explains
+many hitherto obscure passages, which are exceedingly hard to
+understand, when the flesh and spirit are regarded as one.
+
+"What vast possibilities unfold to the human being persistent in his
+search for truth! What a glorious realm of knowledge, what wonderful
+power, what blissful peace, for he will have 'put on the new man, which
+is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that creates him.' He
+will have attained the clear vision of liberty, for he will no longer be
+bound to the 'letter that killeth' but be filled with the 'spirit that
+giveth life.'
+
+"The silence at the close seemed like a baptism of peace. To me came the
+realization of the intimate relationship of God's children to their
+Father, whose love ever comes as a benediction to those who will or can,
+recognize and appropriate it.
+
+  "With love to you all, I am,
+
+  "YOUR MARION.
+
+"P. S. I take great pains to have the quotations accurate, and
+fortunately I have made the acquaintance of the shorthand reporter in
+the class who sits next to me; she takes notes and as a special favor,
+reads the quotations for me after the class is dismissed.
+
+  "Once more, good-bye. M."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  "Got but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like
+  A star new-born that drops into its place,
+  And which, once circling in its placid round,
+  Not all the tumult of the earth can shake."
+
+  --_Lowell._
+
+
+"How are you getting on in your study of Christian Healing?" asked Mr.
+Hayden, meeting Kate as he was going home, and handing her the letter.
+
+"It is getting plainer, but Grace seems to catch the reason of things
+much more readily than I. In fact, I am afraid I should have given up in
+disgust had not she helped me out, for some of the statements seemed so
+unreasonable."
+
+"They are rather inconsistent in some respects, I must admit; but if we
+will only be patient, and not allow prejudice to color our judgment,
+everything will straighten out," replied Mr. Hayden, smiling. "You
+notice Marion is careful to warn me not to judge hastily. She knows how
+I am in religious matters, always insisting on the one interpretation.
+But I am growing some, I hope, so I trust my judgment is broad enough to
+make a fair and impartial investigation."
+
+"Do you follow directions about denying?" Kate asked, as they walked
+along.
+
+"I am trying to, but of course my days are busy, and evenings somewhat
+taken up with the children. Still, I deny matter as being inert, having
+absolutely no power of itself, except what is delegated to it by the
+senses. I know it has no life, intelligence or causation of itself, but
+only as man in his ignorance allows it to have. This has been held by
+wise men of all ages. I have an idea this way of thinking will help me
+in business as well as socially and religiously."
+
+"I am glad to hear that," said Kate; "though I must confess at first I
+was very much afraid to look into this; but last night I had a very
+clear assurance that there is something in it. Grace and I denied a long
+time, and I had a most peculiar experience. Such a strange, exalted
+feeling, as if there were no weight about me, and it was very clear that
+there is no reality in matter."
+
+"Remarkable!" murmured Mr. Hayden. "Suppose you come down Sunday and
+we'll compare notes," he suggested, as he turned the corner toward home.
+
+"We will," she promised, and went on with a hurried step, anxious to
+read the letter, for she was now as interested as Grace. When she
+arrived at their rooms she found her friend had gone out, so she went
+about the domestic duties, resolving to have everything ready when Grace
+returned.
+
+"Isn't that a beautiful lesson?" exclaimed Grace, when they finally sat
+down to study, later in the evening.
+
+"Perfectly grand; but I want the Bible corroboration, though I am not
+afraid it is not there this time."
+
+"Of course everything that proves the theory helps to establish the
+consequent facts, and I suspect all things prove it when we understand
+it. Well, here is the first statement about God that is about the same
+as in the first lesson," said Grace. "Look up the references to life."
+
+"Here is one in Psalm xxvii: 1. 'The Lord is my life and my salvation,
+whom shall I fear?'" read Kate; "and here is another in Acts xvii: 25:
+'God giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.'"
+
+"That is good; see if you can find another," said Grace.
+
+"Here is one, but I hardly understand it--John xi: 25, 26. 'Jesus said
+unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me,
+though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
+believeth in me shall never die.' What can that mean, Grace?"
+
+"Wait a moment," said Grace, silently pondering. Then she looked again
+at the letter. "Why, of course! How could we forget so easily? I had it
+just a moment ago. Jesus never referred to his flesh and blood when he
+spoke of himself as life, resurrection, truth, bread, but always meant
+the Spirit of God that was manifest in him, and the Spirit of God which
+is the Christ, is Truth, and whosoever believes or apprehends Truth,
+shall be whole and live."
+
+"But it says, 'shall never die,'" interrupted Kate, still unsatisfied.
+
+"I don't know, then, unless it means 'the Spirit is all.' Find another
+passage."
+
+Kate read John vi: 51-64, and then added, anxiously, "it seems to grow
+more mysterious all the time."
+
+"Never mind, let us be patient. Read the fifty-first and sixty-third
+verses again."
+
+Kate read, "'I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any
+man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will
+give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.... It is
+the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that
+I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.'"
+
+"That last clause is the key to all," exclaimed Grace, eagerly. "He was
+the Word, idea made manifest in the flesh. Flesh was a symbol of Word,
+and he said they were to eat his flesh, which meant they were to eat his
+word. Now let us look up Word, since so much hinges upon that."
+
+Rapidly turning over the leaves, Kate read again, John xv: 7: "'If ye
+abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it
+shall be done unto you.'"
+
+"There we have it. Christ, we must remember, means Truth. If we abide in
+the Truth and the words of Truth abide in us, that is, in order to eat
+the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, we are to abide in the spirit
+and speak the words of Truth. Oh, how beautiful!"
+
+"Yes, it is. Here is another passage, Col. iii: 3, 4: 'For ye are dead,
+and your life is hid with Christ in God.... When Christ, who is our
+life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.' Even
+I, can see that," cried the delighted Kate, "and I remember a verse in
+Ephesians, iv: 18, that will make it still plainer. Here it is: 'Having
+the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through
+the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart'
+(mind). Ignorance is the opposite of truth, and one who is ignorant of
+truth is subject to the carnal mind which leads to death. When we know
+truth, we know the opposite of death, which is life, so when Christ the
+Truth, which is life, shall appear, we shall be glorified with the
+knowledge of eternal life, and just as far as we realize truth we
+manifest it, do we not?" She appealed to Grace, as if the thought were
+too good to be true, and must needs be confirmed before she could
+believe it.
+
+"Manifest it? Why yes; I suppose so; that means in the body," answered
+Grace, thinking deeply; "manifest truth in the body. Of course," she
+continued, "we will show forth a more perfect body in proportion as we
+acknowledge and realize more perfect thought. How strangely we lose our
+premise! If this could not be reasoned out so clearly, I should get all
+tangled up; as it is, I don't keep out of snarls."
+
+"Just think of poor me who seem to have no reasoning faculty at all in
+these matters. What should I have done without you to help me out?"
+queried Kate.
+
+Grace smiled as she replied: "In one sense you will get on faster than
+I, for you can get it spiritually or intuitively, while I get it only
+intellectually, and the intuition flies where reason walks. You had a
+perception of the unreality of matter last night and I had nothing at
+all but stupidity and sleepiness. But let us go on. I am more deeply
+interested than I can tell, and the Bible is a new book to me. I never
+dreamed there were such treasures of truth in it. No matter where I
+read in the Bible before, I could not understand, and then I stopped
+trying, but it is very different now."
+
+"What is the next point in the lesson?" asked Kate, taking up the Bible
+again.
+
+"I am the child of God. Look for child."
+
+"Yes, in Rom. viii: 16, 17: 'The spirit itself beareth witness with our
+spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs
+of God, and joint heirs of Christ; if so be that we suffer with him.'"
+
+"That means," said Grace, "we prove ourselves heirs if we suffer with
+him, mortify the flesh, lay down the life of appetites and passions and
+talk continually of spiritual things; in short, live the life that Jesus
+did."
+
+"Here in Gal. iv: 1: 'The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
+nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all,'" read Kate.
+
+"While he has a child's ignorance of his inheritance, of course he could
+not enjoy its possession, and the longer he remains ignorant, the longer
+will he have the station of a servant," explained Grace, readily.
+
+"But there is a seeming conflict in the two passages. The first says the
+spirit itself tells us we are children and heirs, and the second says,
+as long as he is a child, even though an heir, he is nothing but a
+servant," said Kate, in perplexity again.
+
+"But isn't there a place in the Testament somewhere about being born
+again?" inquired Grace.
+
+"Yes," replied Kate, wondering what that could have to do with it. "Yes,
+that is where Nicodemus went to Jesus by night--"
+
+"Find it," interrupted Grace, who was determined to be thorough in this
+study at least.
+
+"John, iii: 3-7, reads: 'Except a man be born again, he can not see the
+kingdom of God.... That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which
+is born of spirit is spirit.'"
+
+"Well!" said Kate, as she finished.
+
+"Didn't we learn that the words are spirit and life, and does it not
+mean we are born into the spiritual knowledge by abiding in the words of
+truth?" reasoned Grace.
+
+"Why, that is it, I do believe, and one of the last verses of the third
+chapter of Galatians says, 'for ye are all the children of God by faith
+in Christ Jesus.'"
+
+"By faith in the Truth," amended Grace, for the sake of the clearer
+meaning.
+
+"What a stupid I am!" cried Kate. A moment later she said thoughtfully,
+"there is a text in the first chapter of James which reads: 'Of his own
+will begat he us with the word of truth, that we might be a kind of
+first fruits of his creatures.' My youthful Sunday school training is
+not quite in vain," she added, meekly.
+
+"It would not take us so long if we knew the Bible as some people do,
+provided we want to take that as sole authority," remarked Grace,
+referring to the letter again.
+
+"I don't know about the advantage of knowing the passages unless you can
+interpret them, and that is certainly essential to the understanding,"
+replied Kate, thoughtfully, as she drew her hand slowly over the open
+page.
+
+"Mrs. Hayden refers to the liberty brought by the spirit. Suppose you
+look up a reference to liberty," suggested Grace.
+
+"Yes," said Kate, a moment later, "here in verses 17 and 18 of II. Cor.,
+third chapter, it reads, 'Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the
+spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.... But we all, beholding as in
+a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
+glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.'"
+
+"Why, Grace," exclaimed Kate, shutting the book in her eagerness, "I see
+it all now. By denial we take away falsities that bar us from looking
+into the face of God (Good), and by the affirmation we acknowledge Him,
+which is turning an open face to Him and reflecting His glory. Isn't
+that the way you understand it?"
+
+Kate's face was all aglow with enthusiasm. A new light had come to her,
+and she was lifted to a higher plane, both in conception and feeling.
+
+"That is a beautiful interpretation, but I don't want to stop to think
+about it now," said Grace, with a yawn, betraying fatigue for the first
+time.
+
+"Why, Grace, a little while ago you said you were 'so interested.' What
+has come over you?" was Kate's rather discomfited answer.
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing!" rejoined Grace hastily, "only you know one _can_
+be surfeited with good things, but never mind. I shall not stop till we
+get through with this looking up, and then I must have a good long
+think." She playfully chucked Kate under her chin, and asked her "to go
+on," but the searching was not so spontaneous as before, and in the
+spontaneity of study lies the acquisition of knowledge.
+
+Grace, it must be confessed, was compelling herself to a thorough
+intellectual investigation which, till now, had been a novel pleasure,
+but was getting a little monotonous, although she was deeply interested
+and more pleased with the Bible readings than she would have thought
+possible, because, as she had said herself, the Bible had been a sealed
+book to her before. She was very careful to conceal this new feeling
+from Kate, for at least, she would not lay one obstacle in _her_ path,
+and after a few moments' desultory conversation, they went on as before.
+
+"The next affirmation is about the will, what can you find for that?"
+asked Grace, as they had resumed their study again.
+
+"I have found it already," replied Kate, with her finger on the passage.
+"In Phil. ii: 13: 'For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to
+do of his good pleasure.' That subordination to the will of God runs all
+through the New Testament."
+
+"Here is the last one," resumed Grace, referring to the letter again. "I
+am subject to God's law and can not sin, suffer or die," she read.
+
+"Oh, that does not sound right; I do _not_ see how it can be right to
+say such things," interposed Kate, darkening again.
+
+She looked up a reference to sin and turned to the sixth chapter of
+Romans. "I don't see very clearly yet," she faltered, after she had
+finished the chapter.
+
+"Yes, in the 16th verse is the key to it all," said Grace, looking over
+the page with her. "The idea is, if we admit sin or talk about it, we
+are committing sin, for it is wrong to do either."
+
+"I understand a little better now, but it is not an easy matter to be so
+good," sighed Kate.
+
+"But we are given these rules in order to know _how_ to be good. Let us
+sit as we did last night, and say these affirmations," suggested Grace,
+determined to do her duty, for Kate's sake at least.
+
+Diligence and faithfulness never fail to bring forth fruit, and they
+were laboring hard, both with soil and seed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     "Each of us is a distinct flower or tree in the spiritual garden of
+     God,--precious each for its own sake in the eyes of Him who is even
+     now making us,--each of us watered and shone upon and filled with
+     life for the sake of His flower, His completed being, which will
+     blossom out of Him at last to the glory and pleasure of the great
+     Gardener. For each has within him a secret of Divinity; each is
+     growing toward the revelation of that secret to himself, and so to
+     the full reception, according to his measure of the
+     Divine."--_George MacDonald._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear Husband: Your letter seemed the only bright spot in my yesterday's
+experience, for, strange as it may seem, I awoke with the same old
+headache and pain in my limb, and felt so dull and stupid, that I was
+almost doubtful whether I had ever known anything. In vain I tried to
+treat myself, but the more I tried the more perplexed I became, until
+about noon, when I began to feel better, though the whole day was a
+novel and rather disagreeable experience. When I went into class to-day,
+from nearly every quarter was heard a similar story of how the day of
+rest had been passed.
+
+"It was more and more astonishing. Dr. Bright had hardly recovered from
+her sick headache; Mrs. Dawn was still feeling stupid; two ladies were
+not able to attend class; Dr. Johnson and Dr. Lorimer actually looked
+angry, and the two ministers in the class were gravely discussing the
+knotty points and knitting their clerical brows over 'doubtful
+explanations' as they called them, while a perplexed and troubled air
+seemed to settle on everybody. But there are a few old students in the
+class, and they looked at us with a knowing smile, saying: 'This is only
+chemicalization; you will be all the brighter after you get over it.'
+
+"They did not explain further, but I knew something about it from the
+experience we have had, but had never thought of it in that light. 'It
+is a comfort to know there is some prospect of an end to our darkness
+anyway,' said Mrs. Dawn, with a long-drawn breath of relief, voicing the
+sentiments of all.
+
+"The kind and gracious look Mrs. Pearl gave us as she came in, sent a
+wave of peace and satisfaction over me, for I felt that she understood
+the situation and would lift the curtains and let in the light.
+
+"After the usual silence, which seemed longer than before, Mrs. Pearl
+began in a calm clear voice:
+
+"We have come now to a point where it seems necessary to explain the
+process of growth, and the phenomenal changes which take place at
+certain stages of our development, whether known or unknown to the
+individual.
+
+"Hitherto we have recognized material ideas, objects and processes. We
+have looked upon our physical being as the indisputable creation subject
+to all changes, circumstances or conditions. Having experienced a
+material birth, we conceive of no other as being either possible or
+necessary, and like Nicodemus we go in the night of our ignorance to ask
+the divine Teacher, Truth, questions concerning spiritual things, only
+to be told we must be born from above if we would know the things of
+the spirit. 'That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is
+born of Spirit is spirit.'
+
+"We are covered with the cold, hard shell of material beliefs, which
+must be broken and cast away before the sweet and tender germ of spirit
+can spring up. We are born like the flowers, and blossom like them.
+'Consider the lilies of the field, _how they grow_.'
+
+"Seed typifies the desire for truth planted in the conscious and
+unconscious being. The more constantly and persistently we hold the
+desire, the more rapid and perfect will be the development that produces
+the fruit. The hard little kernel must first lie in the dark earth,
+while hidden forces make it swell and sprout until the outer shell dies
+and falls away, leaving the pure white germ to push its way up and up
+through the cold dreary earth. At this period it is very delicate and
+tender, and yet it must pass through a trying stage, for when the white
+spire just peeps above the ground it has to encounter elements that at
+first seem bent upon its destruction.
+
+"Will the sun's rays now prove too hot for it? Will the winds be too
+rough and stormy? Will the cold air bite, or the storm beat and bruise
+it unto death? Pointing ever skyward, does it stop to shiver at the
+prospect of dark and cold and heat, or windy violence?
+
+"Let us see. Bravely the young shoot goes its way. As soon as it sees
+the light it displays new beauty, and the reflected glory clothes it in
+a brighter robe--the fresh, dainty green of spring's supernal dress,
+emblem of everlasting youth. But a storm of wind and rain assails it.
+Dense cloud-curtains hide the sun, and the air is cold and chilling.
+Sometimes for days this benumbing coldness lasts. But after the storm
+our little friend is greener and brighter and larger than ever. It has
+withstood the storm and wind, by using them for its own advancement.
+Everything has been turned into good by recognizing only the good.
+
+"When the sunshine comes again the little slip is baptized with dew and
+warmth and light, and joyously springs on toward budding time, and then
+another and different experience befalls. Instead of rolling every new
+leaf outward to be bathed in the light and kissed by the wind, there is
+a rolling inward, a curling up and shutting in of the new and delicate
+leaves. A hard, unlovely roll or lump now displays itself on the green
+stem, and every day the roll becomes larger and harder. The green stalk
+never questions, though for a time her face is veiled. She lives in the
+waiting silence, content with what is. One bright day she looks at her
+ugly bud and finds it a rare blossom of surpassing beauty and sweetest
+fragrance. Thus is born the fair-robed lily, pure emblem of the child of
+God.
+
+"But we have many and various symbols of divine thought in the many and
+various flowers, from which we learn divine lessons. There are the
+violets that come so early in the spring, with their wildwood fragrance
+and dainty blue cloaks, and the lovely roses of summer, the goldenrods
+and asters of autumn, while among the rarer kinds we have the
+night-blooming cereus, the beautiful but slow blossoming century plant,
+and many others. These are types and symbols of ourselves and our
+process of birth and unfoldment.
+
+"The new birth is a development from material to spiritual knowledge.
+The individual corresponds to one or another plant, but none may know at
+what particular stage.
+
+"Some blossom early, some late, some manifest a nature like the violet,
+others the rose, the water lily or the century plant. I can not tell,
+you can not tell, none can tell. Even the Master said, 'The wind bloweth
+where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
+whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of
+the spirit.'
+
+"The wonderful seed (desire for truth) we have planted must be moistened
+by the water of right words, warmed by the sunshine of faith, fed by the
+dew of patience.
+
+"Our trials will be similar in character to the flowers, and the outcome
+will be the same in proportion as we follow their example of
+unquestioning faithfulness.
+
+"The very desire to grow is a challenge to the elements that _seem_ to
+oppose growth, but the plant overcomes all obstacles by its
+non-resistance, and herein lies one of our most valuable lessons.
+
+"In our progress we meet with many conditions and circumstances that try
+us, that seem indeed to call in question our earnestness in thus
+starting out, with new assumptions. Sometimes these adverse conditions
+are called trials of faith and they may come to us in one way or
+another, sometimes in sickness, sometimes in misunderstandings,
+sometimes in grief, sometimes in disagreeable duties.
+
+"Peculiarities of disposition that we thought overcome, may manifest
+themselves very unexpectedly and cause us great annoyance, not only
+because we may have congratulated ourselves on having risen above them,
+but because it would be a mortification to us to have our friends know
+that we who believe in the possibility of such high moral attainments,
+should be guilty of these old weaknesses and follies. In every way, the
+tempter--mortal thought--may show us the fallibility of human nature and
+tempt us to disbelieve in our high ideals.
+
+"The forty days' temptation in the wilderness is the soul history of
+every human being who starts out to lead the life of Jesus. Tempted in
+everything as we are, he was the type of strength, purity and
+faithfulness to principles, which we most earnestly should seek to
+follow. After his baptism, 'He was conducted by the spirit into the
+desert to be tempted by the enemy.'
+
+"We are baptized by the spirit when we have come into the realization of
+our sonship and daughtership, our true relation to the divine Father and
+Mother Love, and have consecrated our lives to the service of Truth. In
+order that we may be fully aware of the magnitude of our desire, we are,
+as it were, led by the spirit to the desert which literally signifies
+forsaken, where every means of comfort and companionship are gone, where
+we must learn to choose between the ever present but invisible things
+of God and the transitory but gratifying pleasures of the visible world.
+Having a glimpse of the power and blessedness conferred by the knowledge
+of Truth, we are tempted to keep hold of the power, at the same time
+fellowshipping with the world, which by our recognition and fellowship
+will be greatly pleased through the acquisition of our society and
+talents.
+
+"When tests are required of us similar to the turning of stones into
+bread, healing the lepers, raising the dead, will we realize our
+dependence on the word of God which is the 'bread of life?' Temptations
+to dare the protection of the power, give us an insight to the very same
+trial of Jesus, and when we are led up to the mountain of knowledge from
+which we may view the pomps and vanities of the world, realizing the
+superior insight that gives power, then comes the decisive
+question--shall God or mammon gain our allegiance? Shall we forego the
+seductive allurements of mortal thought (which is really only the
+negative thought or the false power called the world's beliefs reflected
+upon us), or shall we, in ringing tones cry out, 'Get thee behind me,
+adversary (or opposer). Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only
+shalt thou serve.' Then the enemy leaves us, and behold, angels come and
+minister to us.
+
+"After the long forty days, which with some seem longer than with
+others, after the darkness and desolation of a desert night, we are
+ministered unto by the blessed angels--good thoughts--and the glory of
+the Most High shines round about us. The struggle is ended, the Good
+which is ever ready to be our guide when we choose, leads us into many
+sweet experiences that bring us nearer and nearer to the 'promised
+land,' the true inheritance of God's children. We begin the ascent of
+the mount of transfiguration, and though we come to many steep places,
+though we sometimes stumble over rocks of ignorance, though we encounter
+clouds of doubt that veil the glorious peak from our longing view for a
+time, though we meet wild beasts, (untamed human nature), though we
+cross shadowy valleys and dark ravines, lighted only by the torch of
+faith, we shall have transcendant glimpses of the fair Beyond, shall
+breathe the perfumed air of Zion's Hills, and be transported with
+delight at the never ceasing revelations made to the true seeker after
+eternal wisdom.
+
+"After faith, comes knowledge. If we were overcome by the tidal wave,
+when wading out a little way from shore, and a rope were thrown us, we
+should at least catch hold the rope, hoping to be delivered from the
+danger. After several successful experiences, we should have faith in
+the rope, so when we feel the tidal wave of trial overtaking us, we are
+to catch hold of our denials and affirmations which correspond to the
+saving rope. An invariable rule in Christian Science is to deny the
+undesirable and affirm that which can be predicated of spirit. _No
+matter what inharmony_ assails you, whether it be pain, poverty,
+sickness, loneliness, fear or anxiety, _deny_ it positively and
+repeatedly and _affirm_ the opposite. Like Jesus, we must speak of that
+which is true, but not visible. Thus when called to raise the daughter
+of Jairus, he said: 'She is not dead but sleepeth.' The appearance of
+death was denied, and its opposite, life, affirmed.
+
+"When talking to the Jews, Jesus said: 'If ye continue in my word, then
+are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth and the truth
+shall make you free.' It is continuance in the word that brings the
+blessing, mark that.
+
+"And now let us enter into the silence with one accord, saying: 'For Thy
+blessed words and example we thank Thee, O, beloved Master, and with Thy
+words we enter now into Thy faith.'
+
+"An impressive ten minutes, and then, with reverent voice and gesture,
+Mrs. Pearl dismissed us with the words: 'It is finished. We have
+received that which we asked, and are filled with the peace that passeth
+all understanding.'
+
+"While we sat thus, just before she spoke, I had one of those peculiar
+experiences they tell about, coming so often in the silence. It seemed
+as though I was in the cool quiet of early morning, watching the signs
+of a summer dawn. All at once the creeping rainbow colors shot up toward
+the zenith, and the most glorious sunrise I ever beheld flooded me with
+a dazzling glow of gold. The moment she spoke it vanished, but oh, how
+lovely it was! What could it mean unless the dawn of the 'Sun of
+Righteousness?' I must wait and see, for surely the understanding of
+these things will come when I am ready for it.
+
+"Several of the class have been having strange signs or hints of
+something on which they have been studying deeply. Dr. Bright said that
+everything turned black before her one day when she was denying, and
+when she could see again it seemed as though there were no walls to the
+house and she was gazing into empty space. This is on account of denying
+till material things seem immaterial, and we begin to realize the
+reality of spirit.
+
+"The saying of the affirmation for strength, Mrs. Dawn says, makes her
+body feel almost electrified with vitality, and she can realize that the
+words bring to her what they claim.
+
+"One young man, who sits just back of me, told his experience in denying
+the reality of matter. He was quite rebellious at first about saying
+what seemed such a huge lie, but finally concluded to do the best he
+could, and so said it over and over one day till he fell asleep.
+Suddenly he was awakened by the words sounding in his ears, 'Be not
+afraid, but trust,' and opening his eyes, he saw written on the wall the
+very same words, and immediately a restfulness and satisfaction came
+over him, so that he no longer demurred at the thought of saying the
+words and, though he did not yet understand, he felt willing to wait.
+
+"Oh, how I wish the great busy world would listen to this beautiful
+doctrine. It seems that we must compel it to come to the feast. I think
+we all feel like a child delightedly showing its new toy to everybody.
+But the little experience I have had before, will teach me to withhold
+where there is antagonism to the truth, beautiful though it is, because
+my work at home even with my cure, did not interest or convince some
+who would shut their eyes and ears to all. I remember so well how I felt
+like shouting to everyone in my joy the glad story of my recovered
+health, but the cold, incredulous looks, and the averted faces chilled
+the tidings on my lips, and I learned that only when the world is
+thirsty, will it appreciate the cool and sparkling waters of truth.
+
+"Well, dear John, I have not answered your letter at all because I was
+so afraid I would forget the substance of the lesson to-day, but I am so
+glad it seems plain to you as I present it, and it is such a help to
+know you are glad I came here. How we shall grow together when we
+_begin_ together. Continue to write your opinions and ideas of the
+lessons, for you have such a clear way of expressing yourself. Don't let
+Jamie forget to write again when you all write. Bless his dear little
+self! I would so like to see him, but then, I know all is well with you,
+for Good is everywhere.
+
+  "Good night and good-bye,
+
+    "MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     "But when every leaf is dropped and the plant stands stripped to
+     the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from
+     which shall spring a tenderer foliage and a brighter wealth of
+     flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly
+     joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the
+     soul."--_Harriet Beecher Stowe._
+
+
+Saturday no letter came. All the forenoon Grace tried to do her duty by
+saying her denials and affirmations while Kate was out giving lessons,
+but she seemed so stupid and felt so cross that in despair she resorted
+to her painting, but only succeeded in spoiling the picture she had
+spent hours and days upon before. When Kate came in at the usual hour,
+feeling so gay and light-hearted that she scarcely knew how to contain
+herself, she was astonished to hear Grace say:
+
+"Oh, I am glad you have come at last! Such a day as I have spent!
+Thought I'd have so much extra time while you were gone to give Millie's
+lesson, and here I've wasted the whole afternoon and spoiled my
+'shipwreck' besides, and I'm in a villainous humor. Now, I'm going to
+pour it all out on your innocent head." She smiled grimly, as she tossed
+her painting apron aside and spitefully turned the picture to the wall.
+
+"What in the world ails you, Grace?" cried the astonished Kate. "Have
+you lost your senses? I was congratulating myself coming home on the
+good time we would have again to-night."
+
+"I anticipated it so vividly this morning I could hardly wait, but
+really, Kate, I feel ugly, and perhaps it would be as well not to talk
+to me. I will go out for a little walk, while you get the tea," and she
+went forthwith.
+
+A tumult raged within her that she had not conquered. One moment filled
+with the most exhilarating sense of freedom and joy, the next the direst
+disgust with herself and her failings; one moment clearly understanding
+the many problems that had come up for solution the past week, and the
+next with no ability to reason about anything. This had been going on
+all day. She had even felt unreasonably irritable because Kate had so
+quickly overcome her prejudices. What right had she to give away her own
+for some one else's opinions so easily?
+
+Grace gave her glove an impatient twitch as she thought of it, but the
+next instant she wished she, too, might be as childlike and receptive as
+her companion.
+
+To Kate the Bible was final, unquestioned authority; to Grace it was a
+corroboration, not a foundation. It was more interesting, she must
+confess, than ever before, but then she must have better reasons than
+had yet appeared for taking it as Kate did.
+
+After all, perhaps this religion was but another mirage that had come
+into her moral vision, as many another had come in all the years she had
+been seeking truth and happiness. Happiness! Had she forgotten that for
+two years that word had been dropped from her vocabulary? That she had
+resolved to live on the best intellectual food the world could offer,
+without tasting its heart viands? She walked on with an unwonted
+energy. No, she would not be deceived; the best and sweetest in life was
+not for her, but she ought at least, to help poor little Kate.
+
+It was a calm, quiet evening. The sun was just disappearing over the
+distant hills. The sky was radiant with delicate pink and blue tints.
+She was walking toward the east, when, glancing at the scene in front of
+her, she saw what seemed to be a brilliant fire, not only in one place
+but in many. Somewhat startled, she looked more closely and discovered
+every window ablaze with the sun's reflected glory. Like a flash it
+came: "I am walking away from the glory of Truth. Oh! how shall I turn
+my face to God?" she cried, with unspeakable yearning.
+
+An agony of suspense seized her. She looked up at the calm, beautiful
+sky, and its rays of radiance seemed to send down upon her a benediction
+of peace. Like a soft whisper the words, "Lo, I am with you always,"
+fell upon her ear. Blessed words that filled her with a new-born awe,
+but they brought a realizing sense of ever-present nearness of Truth,
+such as she had never had before, and she was so filled with peace that
+all the world looked like a new world. The turbulent waves of doubt and
+unrest had been divinely stilled.
+
+She walked on, so filled with her new thoughts that the twilight
+deepened into starlight before she thought of home, and then it seemed
+that every star beam was an angel of love sent to guide her on her way.
+She entered quietly as Kate was playing one of Beethoven's symphonies,
+and never had music seemed so sweet. It was like a welcome into heaven.
+It was the heaven within her that made a heaven without.
+
+To Kate had come such a realization of divine harmony, that her soul
+poured itself out in music she had never dreamed of before. All the
+struggles and pains of the past years, all the disappointments and
+unhappiness found expression through the wailing tones of the piano only
+to be swept away or swelled into sweeter and more joyous strains. More
+and more clearly a conception of joy and peace unspeakable filled her
+heart. She wandered again, a happy child, in country pastures gathering
+violets and buttercups. She could scent the clover and hear the birds.
+The water rippled over the pebbles and the air was filled with leaf
+music. Now, again a child, she "walked in green pastures and beside the
+still waters." The sun of love was shining down upon her, and its rays
+warmed her, clothed her, fed her. "Surely goodness and mercy shall
+follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the
+Lord forever," she sang softly in an awed, hushed voice, as the music
+grew more divinely sweet, and the realization of a nameless Presence
+filled her. It was the presence of impersonal, omnipresent Truth, ever
+flowing into the heart ready for its reception, and though at first it
+may be but a tiny stream, it grows to a swelling tide, and all the words
+in the universe can not name its sweet influence, or describe its
+wondrous allness.
+
+Oh, Katie darling, what wouldst thou have put away from thy life, if
+thou hadst obstinately refused admittance to this heavenly Guest?... At
+last the music ceased. She bowed her head and gave herself up to the
+inexpressible thoughts that welled into her mind. For some moments she
+was not aware that Grace was in the room, but as she finally arose and
+turned around, she saw her. Their eyes met, and silently was told the
+story of experiences too sacred to utter. A silent understanding and a
+heartfelt sympathy bound them by closer ties than they had ever known
+before. To be at one with Truth is to understand humanity, and
+understanding is a voiceless language.
+
+Sunday afternoon they called on Mr. Hayden and found the fourth letter
+awaiting them.
+
+"I did not send it up because Kate promised you would come over to-day,
+and now let us have a little experience meeting," he said, as he found
+chairs for them, and seated himself, seemingly awaiting a reply.
+
+"First let us read the letter," suggested Grace, who was more interested
+than ever since her yesterday's experience.
+
+"Read it aloud," said Mr. Hayden, settling himself back to enjoy it.
+
+Grace had scarcely begun reading when Jamie came in, screaming that his
+finger was "boke."
+
+"Never mind, Jamie, it will soon be all right. Shall papa treat it?"
+taking the child in his lap.
+
+"Teat it, papa," and he laid his little head on papa's breast with
+perfect confidence that the pain would soon be gone. A few moments of
+silence and he looked up innocently, saying with the brightest smile:
+
+"It's all gone now. Papa telled the good Jamie to tome home," he
+explained to the girls, "and here he is, papa," he added, holding up his
+sweet mouth for a kiss.
+
+"How beautiful is a child's faith," exclaimed Kate, after the little
+fellow had gone out to play again.
+
+"Indeed I have learned more than I can tell you from the children," said
+Mr. Hayden, thoughtfully. "Mabel is old enough to understand a good
+deal, but Fred and Jamie are very quick to apply what they learn. Last
+night Jamie complained of the stomach ache. Neither of the children knew
+that I was near, but I overheard Fred telling his brother that he would
+treat him if he would keep still. Jamie consented and I peeped in a
+moment later, curious to know what they were doing. Fred sat there grave
+as an owl, with his hands over his eyes, and Jamie in a chair opposite,
+his eyes shut tightly and an air of expectancy on his face."
+
+"Now you're all right," said Fred, very positively, after a few minutes.
+They were soon playing and not once did the child complain after that.
+When going to bed, Jamie told me about it, and I asked Fred what he did
+when he treated.
+
+"W'y," he answered, "w'y, I just 'membered what you said to Mabel that
+everybody has two kinds o' thoughts, and one kind _thinks_ you're sick,
+and the other kind _knows_ you're well, so I thinked about Jamie till I
+thinked the _know_ thoughts, and _course_ he got well then."
+
+"It was a lesson to me, and I have tried to emulate their receptiveness
+and childlike trust. I don't know how well I am succeeding, but it is
+pretty hard sometimes to get the problems all worked out."
+
+"We wouldn't have to work them out if we had the faith of a child," said
+Kate, warmly. These little incidents touched her deeply.
+
+"Well, there is nothing better to learn from than living examples, and
+yet we can only take them as guides, they will not do our work for us.
+Every one of us must go through his own experience, and prove his right
+to an inheritance, by claiming it on trust as the child does. Now,
+yesterday," continued Mr. Hayden, leaning back and stroking his chin, "I
+worked hard all the forenoon, and everything seemed to go wrong with
+me,"--Grace glanced at Kate--"I was not willing to live a moment at a
+time, as the child does, with no thought or care as to where its next
+day's supplies are to come from, but I was tired and cross all day. The
+consequence was, in the afternoon my old enemy, the headache, began to
+assert itself. Then I got Marion's letter and that helped me, because it
+threw some light on the cause, but when I heard Fred's explanation of a
+treatment I just applied it. I 'thinked,' till the 'know thoughts
+came,'" Mr. Hayden concluded with a grave smile.
+
+"I believe that is what it means to 'work out our own salvation,'" said
+Grace, "and how beautiful to have the children learn! It will make
+different men and women of them."
+
+"Indeed it will; I have already seen some change in the children. But
+are you not going to read the letter, Miss Grace?" asked Mr. Hayden.
+
+"Yes, I am anxious to read it, but I have learned a great deal without
+it."
+
+She took it up again and read without interruption to the end.
+
+"Well, that _is_ quite an explanation of your experience of yesterday,
+Mr. Hayden," explained Kate smilingly.
+
+"And mine, too," added Grace. "It is comforting to know that there is a
+scientific reason for it though."
+
+"I think my darkness came earlier in the lessons, for yesterday and
+to-day have been very bright to me," replied Kate, soberly; "but," she
+continued, "there is so much about this to admire and so much to prove
+that the system is founded on Christ's teachings, I can not see where
+doubt could enter."
+
+"We might not doubt the principle where we would often doubt ourselves,"
+suggested Mr. Hayden.
+
+"Yes," said Grace, "I believe that doubts will come as long as we
+consider it a personal power."
+
+"Which it is not, of course," interrupted Kate.
+
+"Certainly not, but we must grow into a realization of Truth, we can not
+change our old natures in a day, and it is only natural at first to feel
+that it is a personal power because we are given so much personal
+responsibility."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Mr. Hayden, quietly, leaning back as if
+thinking deeply. "You mean it is hard to forget self, and I agree with
+you. This mind of the flesh claims so much wisdom and power of its own
+that it is hard to attribute everything to a higher power, and let that
+power work through you; but when we can do that, we have the kernel of
+the whole system."
+
+"It is a wonderful thought to me, that we reflect _all_ things
+spiritual, as we divest ourselves of our false beliefs," remarked Grace,
+earnestly.
+
+"In other words, when we know ourselves as we are, and not as we appear,
+we shall recognize that all things we desire are already ours," added
+Mr. Hayden.
+
+"How could it be otherwise? The sun is always shining behind the darkest
+clouds. All I ask is that the ignorance may be removed," replied Grace.
+
+"Well, I want to understand and believe truth, but it seems strange,
+after we have declared our willingness to believe and acknowledge God to
+be all, that we should be tempted. Why couldn't our acknowledgement be
+sufficient?" queried Kate, in perplexity again.
+
+"Why isn't the simple act of joining the church sufficient to make
+Christians? Although some seem to think it all sufficient, it is not. It
+is the daily life of overcoming, and denial of self that constitutes
+true acknowledgement," said Grace, laying her hand upon that of her
+friend.
+
+"Not denial of self in the old way, either," said Mr. Hayden, "but
+denial of the mortal thought, or as Paul would say, the 'carnal mind.'"
+
+"Yes, and in the temptation of Jesus, we read our own temptations,"
+interrupted Grace, "and it is all important that we should deal with
+them as he did. Over and over he met the opposing thought, represented
+by the tempter or opposer--error always opposing truth--and gave it
+either a plain denial or an emphatic command to get out."
+
+"That is very plain and very true," said Kate, with a little sigh, "but
+still I can not see why God should allow us to be tempted after we have
+fought the battle once as Jesus did."
+
+"But he fought it more than once," explained Mr. Hayden, earnestly. "He
+was continually overcoming, and at times found it necessary to withdraw
+into the mountains where he fasted and prayed."
+
+"That is a good thought to carry home," suggested Grace, rising, "for we
+need to follow his example."
+
+"I need it more than anyone else," said Kate, feeling a lack of
+spiritual understanding, and wishing she could get on faster.
+
+"You are doing grandly Miss Kate, just think how you opposed it all at
+first," said Mr. Hayden encouragingly.
+
+"Yes, I know I did," flushing a little, "but even thus far I have seen
+enough, or rather experienced enough to make me anxious to understand
+it, and I only ask so many questions because I am determined to get
+every speck of light I can."
+
+"If everybody would lay aside prejudice as you have, Miss Kate, they
+would have no difficulty in seeing the truth as you do," he replied.
+
+The tears came into her eyes. Neither Mr. Hayden nor Grace knew how much
+it had cost her to 'lay aside prejudice,' but she could thank God that
+she had done so, and indeed believed it was Providence that had led her
+into this study in spite of herself.
+
+"I want the truth," she said simply, and turned away to join Grace, who
+stood at the open door waiting for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     "People imagine that the place which the Bible holds in the world
+     it owes to miracles. It owes it simply to the fact that it came out
+     of a profounder depth of thought than any other book."--_Emerson._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Dear husband: The first thing I heard when I went into the class to-day
+was Mrs. Dawn telling how she had treated a severe belief of headache
+last evening and how marvelously soon the terrible pain ceased. She was
+quite rejoiced because it was the first time she had tried to
+demonstrate the principles.
+
+"They all have plenty to tell now, and are growing more and more
+interested. Every day somebody has some new experience. Little Mrs.
+Dexter, who has been so long treated by the old method, says she fully
+believes she will be cured, is feeling much better, and has such an
+assurance all the time that she has found the true healing. She has had
+several quite remarkable demonstrations with others.
+
+"The whole line of argument is unfolding so naturally and beautifully
+that it seems like a piece of fine mosaic, with every form and color
+interwoven with the most exquisite exactness. Mrs. Pearl gave us a
+lecture on inspiration and the Bible, which I consider one of the most
+useful and interesting of any she has yet given:
+
+"In studying the very fountain springs of Truth, and basing our ideas
+upon a God who is the unexpressed and inexpressible essence of Truth
+itself, with whom is 'no respect of persons,' and to whom we owe _all_
+knowledge, it becomes us to inquire a little into the manner and means
+of gaining that knowledge.
+
+"That all peoples in all climes and ages have developed similar ideas
+and expressed them in like terms, as philology shows, is an indisputable
+fact, strengthened and corroborated by our broader conception and higher
+understanding of God, the omnipresent Good.
+
+"But how have these ideas come to them? Have they come through what is
+known as inspiration or revelation? As the one fountain of Intelligence
+is open to all alike, this must be the case, because Truth comes only in
+this way. Inspiration means an 'inbreathing,' a breathing in of true
+knowledge, and because the omnipresent Good comes into every
+consciousness prepared to receive it, there is an inbreathing in
+accordance with the readiness to receive. Intelligence is like the air,
+to be breathed by every living being. Thus far, humanity has expanded
+its lungs of consciousness only enough to have inhaled fundamental
+truth, or what is recognized as such, but we are constantly receiving
+more, and in proportion as we receive, do we know what we receive.
+
+"All truth is inspired or revealed, because whatever is true is of the
+great Truth. This must be so, yet many people consider inspiration as
+confined to the authors of the Bible and that with them, inspiration
+ceased. The immortal Job said, 'There is a spirit in man and the
+inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.' The inbreathing
+of the Almighty, All-powerful Truth, giveth understanding. No truer
+words were ever uttered.
+
+"As inspiration is inhaling or breathing in Truth, we can readily
+understand that 'God, Truth, Principle, is no respecter of persons.'
+That it is a 'miraculous influence which qualifies man to receive and
+communicate divine truth,' is in a sense true, for the works of God are
+always 'wonderful,' but there can be no setting aside of divine law, as
+some erroneously suppose, for the performance of these things that seem
+unaccountable to human reason. It is a lack of understanding as to _how_
+Truth works, that has caused a belief in supernatural or miraculous
+ways. Could a fish judge according to appearances, he would regard the
+creatures that walk on land as gifted with supernatural power, because
+it would be utterly beyond his conception to know _how_ they could do
+so.
+
+"Revelation and inspiration are frequently used interchangeably, but
+that which is revealed, is the manifested result of inspiration rather
+than inspiration itself. Whenever we are ready to breathe or absorb
+Truth into our consciousness, we get a revealment--'inspiration giveth
+understanding.' This breathing-in process lifts us above ordinary
+knowledge and gives refreshing glimpses of heavenly Truth, it is like
+breathing in fresh air, after having been in a close suffocating room.
+We say this or that scene, person or object inspires us; we mean that
+some beautiful thought or conception of Truth is revealed to us, through
+or by our seeing these objects, because they hint of something better
+and higher, and the moment we get the higher thought, we are conscious
+of knowing higher Truth. This is revelation.
+
+"Revelation and inspiration are the usual terms for expressing spiritual
+processes but are necessarily inadequate to express accurate spiritual
+meanings. How ideas are born is a question of questions. Whether they
+come from without or within, they must establish the oneness of God and
+man in mind and idea. The only 'without' there can be is that which is
+without the consciousness, the only 'within' is that which is within the
+consciousness. Development, growth, unfoldment, better express spiritual
+consciousness. What is consciousness but a recognition of itself? Then
+would not 'recognition' more fully describe the birth of ideas? As we
+grow able to recognize harmony and love, harmony and love are revealed
+to us.
+
+"The more spiritual our thoughts and desires, the more spiritual our
+revelations. To think and talk of God, to desire knowledge of Him,
+creates a receptivity which sooner or later brings the revealment of
+more truth, and that of the highest quality. But it is not always by
+what we see that we are lifted into this consciousness of new knowledge.
+In various ways is the Truth expressed to us, and whether we know how or
+why it should be thus and so, matters not if we receive the message.
+
+"The wisdom of our Father has provided that none of His children should
+be without a knowledge of Him, without a power to recognize and
+appreciate Truth, and in the way or language best suited to the
+capacity of each to understand, are the revelations made. Sometimes this
+knowledge comes into our consciousness like a direct message from God,
+and so vividly are we impressed, that no other words could express the
+nearness and clearness of it, than the expression 'walking and talking
+with God.' Sometimes wonderful pictures appear before our mind's eye,
+and reading their symbolic meaning, we catch hints of higher wisdom that
+would otherwise have been hidden.
+
+"By persistently ignoring the spiritual and cultivating the intellectual
+faculties, mankind has well nigh lost the highest means of inspiration,
+but now that we again, like the prophets and apostles of old, seek for
+signs of the Infinite, we are gradually recovering the key by which they
+unlocked its mysteries.
+
+"As to the infallibility of what is thus revealed, we must remember that
+while truth is always infallible, there is a possibility of its
+recognition or conception being tinged to a greater or less degree, with
+our erroneous judgements, and as the light, pure in itself, is colored
+by the glass through which it passes, so is the divinest truth colored
+with the quality of mind through which it comes to the world. As Heber
+Newton says, 'Inspiration can not do away with the limitations of the
+human individuality.' Thus, in our discrimination of so-called inspired
+literature, language or thoughts, we must learn that whatever is
+opposite God, the universal idea of goodness, is the chaff that must be
+blown away. In other words it is the assumption of mortal thought
+instead of absolute knowledge of divine mind.
+
+"It would be an utter impossibility to describe infinite truth in finite
+language. Words are inadequate to express the grandeur of sacred
+revelation.
+
+"With this view of inspiration, we can readily see how far short we have
+come in our conceptions of the Bible, and now that we are to use and
+understand this wonderful book as never before, it is well that we
+consider it a little more closely.
+
+"There are three general views held in regard to the Bible as an
+inspired book. 1. That it is verbally inspired; _i. e._, that every word
+is direct from God. 2. That it is partially inspired; and, 3. That it is
+no more inspired than any other good book. The first two of these views
+have been and are accompanied with the idea that everything going under
+the name of inspiration, is infallible, hence the idea that every
+statement made throughout the entire book is absolute truth.
+
+"The Bible itself makes no claim to infallibility, though there are
+frequent references to inspiration and the influence of the Holy Ghost
+in moving men to speak, but the principal text on which is based this
+claim of infallibility is II. Tim. iii: 16. At the time this was
+written, there was only the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, that
+could be referred to as Scripture, so when we read Paul's assertion
+that, 'all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
+for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
+righteousness,' if we take it to be infallible, we have a reasonable
+ground for regarding the Old Testament and the Apocrypha as infallible.
+But a more literal rendering of the Greek text would be, 'all scripture
+divinely inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, for
+correction,' etc., and by simply changing the position of the little
+word _is_, we have a vastly different sentence.
+
+"Regarding the interpretation of scripture, Peter says: 'All prophecy of
+scripture is not of its own solution.' The literal Greek is, 'all
+prophecy of a writing, of its own loosing not it is,' meaning, of
+course, that sacred writings can not always be interpreted literally,
+but must be understood according to their spiritual meaning. Great
+writings are not confined to any private or local meaning, but refer
+more especially to great principles, to universal truth.
+
+"If we consider the origin of the Bible, we shall learn what
+comparatively few of us know, viz., how the Bible grew into a book. In a
+necessarily brief outline it is impossible to give anything but a
+bird's-eye view of this very interesting and important subject.
+
+"As we look back to earlier times, through the various channels, we find
+that much of what is considered history is merely legendary; that long
+before the art of writing was known, these legends and myths were handed
+down from generation to generation, and from age to age. Familiar as we
+are with human nature, we may well imagine the additions and
+subtractions and divergencies introduced by each succeeding narrator,
+copyist or editor in every age. This is a very important feature to be
+considered in interpreting ancient scriptures, but there are also
+others. History reveals the fact that the books of the Old Testament
+were not written nor arranged in the order in which they now appear in
+the Bible. For instance, while it has been generally considered that the
+first five books were written by Moses fifteen hundred years before
+Christ, the best authorities have found at least a portion of them to
+have been written, or compiled rather, in their present form 600 to 700
+B. C.
+
+"Whether Moses or some one else wrote them detracts not the least from
+the value of the truth they contain, for whatever is true, can not lose
+its value or be effected by the authorship. This is only one of the many
+facts that might be produced to show that the Old Testament came in the
+most natural way, and not at all through a miracle or by miraculous
+interposition.
+
+"Referring again to the best records we have, we find the books of the
+New Testament were written from 50 to 175 A. D., thus showing the
+liability to mistakes, and the reason for many of the discrepencies in
+the New Testament. That the time between the writing of the oldest and
+the latest parts of the Bible covered a period of more than a thousand
+years, should have much significance in our judgment of both the writers
+and their writings.
+
+"Dr. Heber Newton says: 'We are not to read the Biblical writers as
+though they were all cotemporaries. They are separated by vast tracts of
+time. The later writers stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors
+and see farther and clearer. We are not to view the institutions or
+doctrines of the Bible as though no matter in what period of development
+of the Hebrew Nation, or of the Christian Church they were found, they
+were equally authoritative to us.'
+
+"Though the prophets and apostles were inspired, we must remember that
+they necessarily had to use the language and methods of speech prevalent
+in their time in giving their divinest revelations to the people. The
+language was rich with Oriental imagery, strong figures of speech, and
+allusions to manners and customs of other nations. Unless we understand
+something of the literature and customs, the religious ceremonies and
+laws alluded to, we are very much in the dark as to the original
+meaning.
+
+"For instance, unless we know the custom that prevailed in ancient times
+of putting the sins of the people, figuratively speaking, into a white
+cloth, dipping the cloth into blood, tying it to the horns of the
+scapegoat, and turning the animal loose in the wilderness till the sun,
+air and rain had bleached it white, we can not appreciate the
+expression, 'though thy sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be washed
+white as snow.' Until we realize that the ideas and language as well as
+the customs and rites of barbarous and ignorant heathendom influence
+every page of the Bible, we shall not know how much allowance to make
+for the revelations of the Divine, and the suppositions and possible
+mistakes of the human. Until we know that the Bible has gone through
+many hands since its words were first spoken or written, we can not
+realize the possible loss of its most spiritual meanings.
+
+"Moses, Isaiah, David, John, Paul had the grandest revelations possible
+to man, experiences not 'lawful to utter,' not possible to clothe in
+words. The unspeakable can not be put into speech. To attempt it is to
+color it with finite meanings. To describe the Infinite is but to limit
+or confine God.
+
+"When we consider that no very ancient writings have reached us without
+the marks of many pens; when we consider the impossibility of exact
+translation, the difficulty of perfect copying all the years before the
+art of printing, the method of canonizing the books and formulating
+creeds, we must know that something besides God's message has come down
+to us. And yet a message is there notwithstanding.
+
+"Yes, the authors of the Bible were inspired. Whatever of Truth they
+revealed is infallible, but as men with finite conceptions and
+abilities, they could not comprehend nor reveal _all_ of God.
+
+"'God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever,' and talks to man face
+to face to-day even as with the immortal Moses.
+
+"'I know that the Bible is inspired, because it finds me at greater
+depths of my being than any other book,' said Coleridge.
+
+"All candid students of sacred Scriptures agree that there is a
+spiritual meaning back of the literal. The question with us is, how can
+we get at this spiritual or esoteric interpretation.
+
+"If you will let the spirit of Truth guide you, it will bless you with
+keener discernment, and clearer understanding, than has been possible
+for you heretofore. It is when you look for the spirit of religion that
+you find it and understand it, and the fact that so much has been said
+against our Bible as a book, does not and can not detract a particle
+from its value.
+
+"'There is a light that lighteth every man!' Every one of God's children
+has the power to distinguish truth from error, and only needs to assert
+that divine privilege of knowing and acknowledging truth in order to to
+find it.
+
+"Humanity is so under the yoke of traditional opinions that it has not
+dared think for itself, but the time has come when 'ye shall of
+yourselves know what is truth,' when each must prove his individual
+liberty by claiming it. Is not the wisdom to know and understand God's
+revelations given to every one who asks, or rather appreciates what he
+already has?
+
+"There is no reason for depending upon any but the wisdom in ourselves,
+for searching the meanings of any Scripture. Whatever is true, we shall
+understand and hold as infallible. That we have a rich storehouse of
+precious gems, even the most adverse thinkers admit, and above all else
+we should search for them, prize them, and use them. Study the Bible for
+the sake of its wonderful and sacred truth, catch the inspiration of its
+writers, and you will soon discriminate the inspired from the
+uninspired. With the statements of the true is necessarily more or less
+error; the Truth we want, the falsity we leave behind. Whatever is good
+and pure and ennobling is of God; whatever is evil, erroneous,
+degrading, is from man's misconception of Him.
+
+"Goethe, who highly valued the Bible, said: 'With reference to things in
+the Bible, the question whether they are genuine or spurious is odd
+enough. What is genuine but that which is truly excellent, which stands
+in harmony with the purest nature and reason, and which even now
+ministers to our higher development? What is spurious but the absurd and
+the hollow which brings no fruit.'
+
+"If you do not understand, wait. Do not judge hastily or allow yourself
+to be biased by the opinions of others. What may seem hard, unreasonable
+dogma, may later prove but a veil over the sweetest, spiritual truth.
+Reverence to read, patience to learn, wisdom to understand--all these we
+want, and then, more brightly than before shall shine the sacred
+diamonds that stud inspired pages.
+
+"We refer again to what Dr. Newton says in his grand essay on the Right
+Critical use of the Bible: 'Successive generations of men, struggling
+with sin, striving for purity, searching after God, have exhaled their
+spirits into the essence of religion, which is treasured in this costly
+vase.
+
+"'The moral forces of centuries devoted to righteousness are stored in
+this exhaustless reservoir of ethical energy. At such cost, my brothers,
+has Humanity issued this sacred book. From such patience of preparation
+has Providence laid this priceless gift before you. In such labor of
+articulation--spelling out the syllables of the message from on high,
+through multitudinous lives of men dutifully and devoutly walking with
+their God, does the Spirit speak to you, O, soul of man. Say thou:
+'Speak, Lord; thy servant heareth!'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Thank God, Marion has at last found the key to the Bible," murmured Mr.
+Hayden, as he finished the letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  "Not in Jerusalem alone,
+    God hears and answers prayer,
+  Nor on Samaria's mountain lone,
+    Dispenses blessings there.
+  But in the secrecy of thought,
+    Our silent souls may pray;
+  Or round the household altar brought,
+    Begin and close the day."
+
+  --_James Montgomery._
+
+
+Grace was busily engaged with "Hypatia." She felt for the first time she
+could bring out the peace and reposeful strength of character Kate had
+thought so sadly lacking, and one afternoon, a few days after the
+memorable walk, she sat down to her work with a pleasurable anticipation
+of bringing out her ideal. As she put the touches here and there that
+changed the expression, now adding to this feature, now taking from
+that, she was thinking of the changes needed in herself, and wondering
+how or by what process they would be wrought by the invisible Artist.
+
+She was mixing some paint on her palette, when a rap was heard at the
+door. Before she had time to say or do anything, in walked Mrs. Dyke
+with a timid little woman who came in like a martyr, but one resolved to
+die at her post if necessary. Grace was too astonished to speak for an
+instant, then rising, she put down her palette, wiped her hands and went
+forward with an invitation to the ladies to be seated.
+
+"Is this Miss Turner?" began Mrs. Dyke, with a critical glance about the
+apartment, and then at Grace.
+
+"No, madam, Miss Turner is not in. She generally returns about five, but
+to-day--"
+
+"Very well, we can come again, for it is very important business. Are
+you the young woman who lives with her?" asked Mrs. Dyke, as she seated
+herself with deliberate dignity. "This is Mrs. Linberger, and we have
+called as the church committee to look after Miss Turner's soul," she
+continued, waving her hand majestically toward her companion-in-arms.
+
+"Indeed," gasped Grace, bowing slightly toward Mrs. Linberger, and
+coughing a little as she put her handkerchief to her mouth to hide a
+smile.
+
+"She belongs to our church, and we have heard she is being led astray by
+this blasphemous kind of healing," pursued Mrs. Dyke, looking severely
+at Grace from under her thick grey veil which hung like a lowering cloud
+just above her eyes. "Mr. Narrow requested me and Mrs. Linberger to call
+and examine into the matter. I hope _you_ don't encourage such
+wickedness, young woman?"
+
+"Certainly I am at enmity with any kind of wickedness, but I am not
+aware of any particular wickedness in Christian Healing," replied Grace,
+bracing herself for the storm she saw brewing.
+
+"What! you don't see anything wrong in such awful heresy!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Dyke, again pushing her veil up, and looking with horrified eyes,
+first at Grace, then at Mrs. Linberger. "Perhaps you don't understand
+about it," she added, softening a little as she settled back in her
+chair.
+
+"I must confess I know but very little about it, but what I do know only
+increases my desire to know more," said Grace, flushing, as she sat down
+in the nearest chair.
+
+"Let me warn you not to read or hear another word about it then, for it
+will simply be the means of worse than death to you," continued Mrs.
+Dyke, raising her finger solemnly.
+
+"It destroys the most important doctrines in the Bible, even taking away
+the belief in the devil and hell," added Mrs. Linberger, speaking for
+the first time.
+
+"Yes; they even deny there ever was a devil or that there ever will be
+any future punishment. Just think of it," reiterated Mrs. Dyke. "I guess
+they will see, some time!" she added with a sort of steely satisfaction.
+
+"Do you really believe they lay aside all future punishment?" asked
+Grace, willing to waive the application to herself, and anxious to hear
+Mrs. Dyke's views.
+
+"Yes, they say there is no evil and no devil, so of course there is no
+need for punishment."
+
+"But do they not regard the devil as Jesus did, after all?" asked Grace,
+again pursuing her advantage.
+
+"U-m, well, Jesus recognized him and talked to him, telling him to get
+out, and he often referred to the everlasting punishment," added Mrs.
+Dyke again, with a solemn face.
+
+"But, he did not mean a literal fire, did he, when He spoke of
+everlasting punishment?"
+
+Mrs. Dyke was the catechized instead of the catechizer, and it was an
+unaccustomed _role_, but she bore it like a soldier.
+
+"Of course he did; several places in Matthew he described the lot of the
+wicked, and referred to the danger of hell-fire. Haven't you studied the
+Bible, Miss Hall?" suddenly turning to look straight at Grace with some
+severity.
+
+"I am very much interested in it, Mrs. Dyke, but when I read that 'God's
+mercy endureth forever,' and that 'Jesus came to destroy the works of
+the devil,' I am inclined to think there must be some mistake about the
+dreadful wrath that is to last forever," calmly replied Grace.
+
+"And you don't believe in eternal punishment?" cried Mrs. Dyke, in a
+shrill voice of astonishment.
+
+"Don't believe in eternal punishment?" echoed Mrs. Linberger.
+
+"I did not say that. I _do_ think there is punishment so long as there
+is sin, but when we believe Christ has destroyed or can destroy sin,
+sickness, sorrow or death, which are the devil's works, they _will be_
+destroyed. It _must_ be so if we trust the words of the gospel."
+
+"Well, I am thankful to find Miss Turner in such Christian company at
+any rate," said Mrs. Dyke, as she adjusted her veil, preparatory to her
+departure.
+
+"Yes, indeed; it is a pleasure to see such an earnest young Christian,"
+added Mrs. Linberger, with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+"But, ladies," began Grace, "I am not such a----"
+
+"We shall be pleased to have you accompany Miss Turner to our meetings
+some time, Miss Hall," interrupted Mrs. Dyke, not heeding what Grace was
+saying. "Here is a card announcing the regular weekly services, and here
+are some tracts for you to read." She dealt out a liberal supply, which
+Grace took as she again started to explain, but a sudden haste had
+seized her visitors, and they left, saying they would try and call some
+other time, when Miss Turner was at home.
+
+As Grace turned to go back to her painting, she caught a glance of her
+reflection in the glass. After looking at it a moment with a quizzical
+expression, she suddenly burst into a merry laugh, saying: "I did not
+know you had turned Bible teacher. Well, well, it _was_ funny, but I
+could not help it, that she went away with the wrong impression of me,
+for she would not listen to my explanation."
+
+When Kate came home she brought another letter from Mrs. Hayden, but
+before it was read Grace told her all about the call by the "church
+committee." Kate looked a little grave at first, but finally
+straightening up as she took off her gloves and hat, she said:
+
+"Well, Grace, it is not very pleasant to be waited upon in this fashion,
+but I suppose if they take me in hand I can't help myself, and so I will
+be resigned to fate." She smiled and spoke cheerily, but a little tremor
+of the old fear touched her, notwithstanding.
+
+"Let us read the letter now," suggested Grace, thinking that would be
+the best thing to revive Kate's dampened courage.
+
+"Yes, I am anxious to read it; Mr. Hayden told me it is on the Bible,
+and very helpful."
+
+"I am so glad!" she exclaimed, when it was finished. "Now I can
+interpret more freely myself, as I plainly see we must use our judgment
+about the Bible, as well as anything else. But what does it mean about
+the creeds?" she added suddenly, appealing to Grace with the old anxious
+look in her eyes.
+
+"It means," said Grace, "that the ordinary orthodox interpretation of
+doctrinal points was voted upon by bishops, presbyters and laity
+generally, and because the majority of votes indicated a preference for
+a certain interpretation, it was adopted and became the established
+creed, and thus we have what is called the Apostles' Creed, which is the
+basis of all orthodox churches throughout Christendom. And so with all
+creeds; they are all established by majority vote."
+
+"I should never have known anything about this," she continued, "if I
+had not been searching so eagerly for some religion that would satisfy,
+and in my rambles I came across this information."
+
+"Are you sure it is reliable?" was Kate's almost feverish question. It
+seemed that she must hold on to something or the last straw that bound
+her to the teachings of childhood, would break.
+
+"It is a matter of history, and you see Mrs. Hayden has touched upon it,
+though very lightly. But it is the grandest historical truth I ever
+read, for it gives personal liberty. I shall never forget how happy I
+was to learn that the creeds were simply man-made or man-expressed
+opinions, for in that case, I too, had liberty to read and think for
+myself, just as well as those who voted upon these various
+interpretations."
+
+Grace was handsome when filled with enthusiasm, and as Kate looked at
+her at this moment she thought her face perfectly angelic, but one more
+question she must ask of this noble friend, who knew just what she
+needed to know and could tell it when she needed it most. "Do you think
+Christian Healing does away with the creeds of the church?"
+
+"No, not necessarily. So far as I can see, it merely seeks truth, and
+whatever of truth is found anywhere is retained. It is only the husks
+that are thrown away. Indeed I can see more in the church than I ever
+could before I knew anything of Christian Healing," replied Grace,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, how is that?" asked Kate in surprise.
+
+"The fundamental oneness in their search after God. What is back of the
+creed but a desire to reverence Deity? That was the origin, no matter
+into what it has degenerated now, and we must judge according to the
+spirit, not the letter. Oh, when will the world worship in the unity of
+the spirit?" sighed Grace, longing for the time when questionings and
+controversies would be at an end.
+
+"Here is Mrs. Dyke, for instance," she resumed, presently, "what is she
+striving for but to live the true religion as she understands it? I can
+respect any honest people who live up to their belief, and the Christian
+who moans and sighs and looks doleful because he thinks it is his duty
+to do so, is much higher in my estimation than the one who believes it
+to be right, but fails to live accordingly."
+
+"The spirit of religion washes away all differences in the letter,"
+concluded Kate, with a lighter heart than she had when they began their
+conversation.
+
+The vague terror that had occasionally thrust itself upon her during
+these last few weeks had loosened its hold upon her, and she realized,
+as never before, that fear, more than anything else, had kept her back;
+fear of deviating from the traditional and accepted opinions. The Bible
+lesson was especially valuable, because it touched these very points,
+and after this little conversation with Grace on the subject she was
+like another person.
+
+When Mrs. Dyke called a few evenings later, after a similar interview to
+the one with Grace, she left the battlefield a wiser soldier than when
+she entered it, for Kate had so beautifully proven her religious
+earnestness, and more than all had shown such a Christ-like spirit, that
+the "sword was beaten into a plowshare and the spear into a pruning
+hook."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  "More things are wrought by prayer
+  Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
+  Rise like a fountain for me night and day,
+  For what are men better than sheep or goats
+  That nourish a blind life within the brain,
+  If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
+  Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
+  For so the whole round world is every way
+  Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
+
+  --_Tennyson._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September, ----.
+
+"Dear Husband:
+
+"Your letter was so full of interest. How glad, oh how rejoiced I am
+that we are privileged to know this beautiful truth. Don't you ever feel
+like stopping in the midst of your work and giving thanks that you were
+born in this age? As my eyes open more and more to God's goodness and
+love and power, I am so full of thanks, there is no room for petitions;
+indeed, I should feel as though I were begging, to ask God for what He
+has already given me, and of course He gives every child alike, being
+'no respecter of persons.' Just think of it: 'Eye hath not seen nor ear
+heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the
+things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' Negative
+thought, carnal mind _can not_ know these things, but as we are
+cleansed and purified, the new baptism 'creates in us a new heart,' the
+loving child's heart turned to its father, and love shall teach us more
+and more to read the signs of love.
+
+"Oh, divine mystery of childhood, of parenthood, that brings us into
+closer and sweeter knowledge of our Father whose love is infinite. Out
+of the deep silence around us, filled as it is with the all-abiding
+presence of God, may we ask for a manifestation of whatever gift we
+choose to have. These thoughts filled my mind as I went to class this
+afternoon, and what was my surprise and pleasure to find the lesson to
+be on the subject of prayer.
+
+"There is no theme or word so constantly in the mind and on the lips of
+the Christ follower as prayer. The oft-repeated injunction of Jesus was,
+'watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.' 'Pray without ceasing.'
+As we study more closely into the life of the Master, we find him on all
+occasions communing with the Father in prayer. Thus we find that this is
+the most sacred and necessary of all branches of our daily work.
+
+"Prayer is the natural turning of the better self to God, in the
+attitude of thankfulness, praise, supplication or voiceless desire. 'It
+must be the spontaneous and almost irrepressible outpouring of the
+thoughts and feelings of the soul into the listening ear of a present
+God,' said an earnest thinker.
+
+"To what wonderful depths and heights our prayers lead us when they are
+thus spontaneous and irrepressible! How well David has expressed the
+gratitude, the holy trust and majestic praise common to every devout
+child of God. 'The Lord is my shepherd,' is blessed affirmation of
+supreme trust, the naming of God's glorious gifts, the gratitude for
+peace, life, love, protection, friendship, all the heavenly blessings of
+God's presence in God's house. In this wonderful psalm we find, no
+doubt, no thought of waiting for future blessings, but a grand
+outpouring of thankfulness for the present. There are no petitions, no
+supplications, no reserves of praise, but simply the glad recognition
+and appreciation of the omnipresence and omnipotence of Good.
+
+"It was the same feeling, tempered with a deeper solemnity, that
+prompted Jesus to say 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,' as
+he was about to perform the mighty miracle of raising Lazarus.
+
+"Thanks signify the accomplishment of the desire. His request of the
+Father was granted before he had even preferred it, for he knew the law
+and realized it--that God is life and knows not death--but the form of
+words was observed because that makes the law a visible fact.
+
+"Father is the human naming for this divine Love that ever waits for the
+spoken word in order to be revealed. To Jesus it was the dearest and
+best name of all by which to address or speak to the one great Helper,
+Guide, Friend. 'Father, I thank thee,' was often on his lips, and it was
+to the 'Father who seeth in secret' that he bade his disciples pray.
+
+"In the secret consciousness of oneness with the Father there may be no
+reservations, no concealments, no hypocritical bigotry, no thought of
+self, only a glad going out with all our heart and soul to the Father, a
+trustful acknowledgment of the Good. This is the attitude of true
+prayer.
+
+"The devout soul is always praying, because it _consciously_ lives with
+God. There are times of praise, adoration, extolment, when thankfulness
+is more exuberant, runs over into bursting joy, and times when longing
+desire carries us into the very bosom of God. We long for comfort, for
+love, for peace, with an unutterable agony of longing, and are met with
+an unutterable joy of satisfaction, if we but turn to Him and
+acknowledge, but an indispensable preliminary to prayer is fasting. The
+power of accomplishment in fasting and prayer equals a decree.
+
+"The conditions upon which hinge our use of the divine power are,
+first,'putting away iniquity'--fasting; second, turning to God--prayer.
+Then comes the power to decree; then we see the truth of Jesus' promise:
+'All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have
+received them, and ye shall have them.' Then we look into the face of
+the Almighty and reflect the same power, are able to do a like work,
+make visible the things of His creation by speaking the word of
+acknowledgment, that they are already established.
+
+"It was this kind of prayer that enabled the disciples to heal the sick,
+cast out demons and do all the wonderful works. Failure was simply a
+sign of unfaithfulness in prayer. 'Oh, ye of little faith!' was the
+Master's explanatory exclamation.
+
+"Here was a most essential requisite--faith in the Father, who alone is
+the power; faith and trust in the invisible All. Why do we pray so much
+with no answer to even our most devout aspirations? Because, like the
+disciples, we have too little faith.
+
+"The heart-weary mother has prayed for her son, and he still goes the
+'broad way that leadeth to destruction,' as she thinks; but for her
+heart-weariness, which is but lack of faith, he might have been turned
+into 'paths of righteousness.' With her mind continually burdened with
+fear, dire forebodings and anxious doubts, she has asked, begged,
+beseeched the mighty Ruler of destinies to soften the heart of her
+wayward boy. Thankfulness that God has given to her child the common
+inheritance to all possible blessings, a pure spiritual nature, the
+reflection of the All-Good, has never entered her thought to express.
+Her mind is divided between a conception of good and a conception of its
+opposite--evil. The result is years of hopeless praying, years of
+hopeless waiting. 'A house divided against itself can not stand.'
+
+"'Pray, believing that ye have received.' Thus, 'I thank Thee, Father,
+for the perfect reflection of Thyself in my son. He is whole because he
+lives in and of Thy wholeness. I thank Thee that Thou hast already done
+more than I could ask. 'It is finished.' Into Thy hands I commend my
+all.'
+
+"In this is the simple recognition of the All-Father, His love and His
+omnipotence. And after this, what? Trust--unwavering, childlike trust.
+So the burden is truly 'cast upon the Lord,' evil is overcome, swallowed
+up in the Good.
+
+"With such mighty faith, what a cleansing there would be! what a
+sincere, glad rejoicing that the true relation between God and man were
+proven, for faith is the bond between the invisible and the visible, a
+'basis of things hoped for, a conviction of things unseen.'
+
+"With what devoutness, then, would we name the needs and aspirations?
+With what certainty would we assert that we have 'already received?' Not
+far off in the intangible somewhere, but here, there, everywhere may we
+find the Good, and 'he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
+High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.'
+
+"To dwell in the secret place, in the pure and righteous thought, is to
+be always under the protection of the Most High. To be able to say, 'He
+is my refuge and my fortress,' is the grand privilege given to the heir
+of the King, the heir that has come to the full knowledge of his
+inheritance and thankfully uses it.
+
+"'The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,' wrote
+the wise and righteous James. There is an infinite promise of the
+fulfillment of righteousness in these words. They contain the key to all
+accomplishment or all failure. The righteous man is one who 'walketh
+righteously, speaketh uprightly, stoppeth his ears from hearing of
+blood, shutteth his eyes from seeing evil' (prayer and fasting). The
+righteous man decrees magnificently and trusts infinitely. He does not
+approach God like a cringing servant, licking the dust at his master's
+feet, but like a Prince who enters his Father's presence with the simple
+statement of his wants, and knowing his Father's will takes the
+glorious gift with thanksgiving and praise.
+
+"Is it health he would have manifested for himself or his neighbor? He
+confidently acknowledges the health, even though he can not see it, the
+health with which all humanity is endowed, if it would claim its
+endowment. Is it peace, power, strength he desires, he again goes to the
+royal treasury. With the right word he climbs the stair of heaven; with
+the right faith he enters his Father's house, where all things abound.
+
+"The righteous man is of one mind, the divine Mind that works through
+him. Were all the praying world of one mind, think you a Lincoln would
+have been martyred, a Garfield sacrificed, or tender little children
+lost to our sight?
+
+"God is the same forever. There is no inharmony to come from Harmony. Be
+of one mind; let the divine Mind work through you; acknowledge only the
+divine creation, and then all beliefs in the opposite of God will be
+destroyed. The immaculate Christ (Truth) destroys the works of the evil
+(error) to-day, even as in the far away centuries of the past, 'if so be
+you let the Mind that was in Christ Jesus be in you.'
+
+"The practical naming of daily prayer is denial and affirmation, denying
+evil or undesirable conditions, and acknowledging the Good or absolute.
+
+"'Being is the vast affirmative excluding negation, self-balanced and
+swallowing up all relations, parts and times within itself. Nature,
+truth, virtue, are the influx from thence,' said Emerson, noting the
+absoluteness of that which is. To become one with this affirmative
+Allness, is to manifest the affirmative condition of Being.
+
+"Paul says in Titus: 'The grace of God hath appeared to all men,
+teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live
+soberly, righteously and godly in this present world;' and in the next
+chapter, referring to the same subject: 'This is a faithful saying, and
+these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which hath
+believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.'
+
+"There is no ceasing of this most necessary process. It is only by
+denying and affirming constantly that we fast and pray, thus fitting
+ourselves for the cleansing ministry. It is to 'be diligent in season
+and out of season,' if we would gain the true reflection from
+Omnipotence.
+
+  What the sun is to the flower,
+  Thou to us art every hour;
+  Like the dew on lily's breast
+  Fall all blessings from the Best.
+  Not alone in day would we
+  Turn our faces, Lord, to Thee,
+  But through lowering clouds of night
+  Would reflect Thy radiant light;
+  Thanking Thee for all Thy care,
+  May our lives be filled with prayer.
+
+"What an outpouring there was in the silence after this. Such a flood of
+reverence and trustfulness filled my heart, and instantly it flashed
+upon me that God requires no outward forms or ceremonies of His
+children, except they be the spontaneous and involuntary expression of
+an overflowing heart.
+
+"Kneeling in prayer was first prompted by reverence and not the servile
+form into which it has too much degenerated. A form is only a sign at
+best. If there is nothing to prompt the sign, what a mockery it is!
+Truly, 'the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.'
+
+"Exactly how these thoughts came to me I can not tell, but after the
+silence I knew by a great and sudden wave of understanding, things that
+I had never thought of before, and to attempt to tell them would be like
+trying to catch the sunshine. The hint I have tried to give seems very
+far from the reality of my experience--but what are words compared to
+thoughts, anyway!... My heart is too full. I know now what
+'inexpressible' means.
+
+  "Good bye, with love to all.
+
+  "MARION.
+
+"P. S. I had just finished my letter when Mrs. Dawn and Miss Singleton
+came in. They too, had something wonderful in the silence. It seems too
+sacred to tell, but to you three who are so earnestly seeking the way of
+Truth, I can say what might seem sacrilege to the thoughtless world.
+Miss Singleton had realized in those few moments the inexpressible
+meaning of the Lord's prayer. 'Why,' she said, 'why, if we could realize
+what it means, there would be no more sickness, sin or death. It seemed
+to me the very heavens opened, and I looked upon a broad white shining
+light like a path, only it was broadened and broadened as I looked, till
+it became wide enough to cover the whole earth. This is to be wherever
+the kingdom has come upon earth. Wherever the thoughts are heavenly and
+pure there the Father is, there heaven, wholeness, health are, and I
+could realize that the light is here, but ignorance keeps it veiled, so
+that verily the 'light shineth in darkness but the darkness
+comprehendeth it not.' Talk of sickness, trouble, sorrow, why, they are
+nothing! The _light_ is here, the kingdom of heaven _has_ come, and been
+here all the time. Jesus knew it, but he had to use language they could
+understand. He knew if they prayed faithfully in that spirit, bye and
+bye the spiritual meanings would flash upon them. Oh, how much, how much
+it means! I can never lose this, for it means unutterable things, and I
+_know_ there is no reality in sickness for I am _well_!'
+
+"Miss Singleton is, or has been troubled for years with heart disease
+and a slight curvature of the spine.
+
+"It was not very light in the room, and I had not noticed her figure
+particularly, but as she spoke, her face fairly shone with a heavenly
+light (I can think of nothing else to describe it), and she was straight
+as any one! She declared over and over that she was well, but more than
+all else she appreciated the spiritual uplifting and knowledge that had
+come.
+
+"Mrs. Dawn had no special revelation to-day, but she seems to be
+unfolding most beautifully. We talked a long time, and then sat in the
+silence. They have just gone. How I wish I could see you, but it is late
+and I must again close. Give my love to Grace and Kate. I am so glad
+Kate is getting into the light. I felt she would be all right after she
+begun. Of course, Kate, you will read this, but you will not care, I am
+sure.
+
+  "M. H."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     "Not till the soul acts with all its strength, strains its every
+     faculty, does prayer begin."--_Frances Power Cobbe._
+
+
+"I have always thought a great deal on the subject of prayer," said Mr.
+Hayden, drawing his chair up closer and bending over to look at his
+listeners, Grace and Kate, who had called to get the letter which had
+just been read, "and it appears to me," he continued, "that subject has
+been misunderstood."
+
+"Well?" interrogated Grace.
+
+"Well, we have always been taught to pray to a God who could be informed
+of our wants and needs, and be induced to change His mind about the
+method of dealing with them, or be softened in His judgments concerning
+His children. Now if God is all-wise and all-powerful, why need we so
+carefully instruct Him? If He is all Love why need we ask Him with
+piteous tears to bless our sick and afflicted? If He is everywhere
+present, and no respecter of persons, why need we ask Him to do for one
+more than for another? As God is omniscient, is He not all the knowledge
+there is?"
+
+"The great mistake has been to regard Deity as Person, instead of
+Principle," said Grace, as he paused a moment.
+
+"As God is changeless and eternal, the essence of Love and Life," he
+went on, not heeding the interruption, "how can it be otherwise than
+that we have an influx of this divine Life into ourselves as we
+acknowledge its eternal and omnipresent existence, realizing the truth
+of what we say?"
+
+"There the trouble has been," said Kate, taking up his thought, "that we
+have not realized the divine Presence which we call Truth, because we
+have not acknowledged it."
+
+"That is exactly the reason, and it needs a constant acknowledgment of
+the Good to keep us from admitting false beliefs that beset us because
+of an acknowledgment of the opposite of the Good."
+
+"What then is your idea of the true method of prayer?" asked Kate, much
+interested.
+
+"More of thanksgiving, as Mrs. Pearl teaches. I like her comparison to
+the servant and prince. We can not dwell too much on the thought that
+God is always giving us blessings. They are here, have been from the
+beginning of all knowledge, and our part is to take them. I often think
+of that comparison between the earthly and the heavenly Father, given by
+Jesus, when he said: 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
+gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in
+heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?' Here is Mabel, for
+instance. Passionately fond of flowers as she is, suppose some day I
+should bring her a rare bouquet from the florist's, and with a smile
+hold them out to her, saying: 'Here Mabel, are some roses for you!' How
+would I feel if she came with the most pathetic expression of longing
+and misery in her face, and dropping down on her knees, should beg me
+to give her one flower? But instead, like a true child that knows the
+father love, she would fly to take the beautiful gift and say, 'Oh,
+thank you, papa!' as she gives me a rapturous kiss, then runs for a vase
+to hold her treasures."
+
+"Indeed, that is like the true child we all should become, and give
+thanks for the beautiful gifts of God," said Kate, softly, as if to
+herself.
+
+"What do you think of the Lord's prayer as it was revealed to the lady?"
+asked Grace, to whom this part of the letter seemed a little hard to
+understand.
+
+"I think her revelation far exceeds mine, but I have enough to know that
+it is as she says: 'We must finally get the inner meaning, but I would
+uncover the spiritual ideas by clothing them in more spiritual
+language.'
+
+"It would be a great help if you would interpret it for us," said Kate,
+moving her chair closer in her eagerness to hear.
+
+"Wait a moment," said Mr. Hayden, as he went for the Bible. "I don't
+know very well how to word it, but the thought came to me this morning,
+and became much plainer after I had read the letter."
+
+He read the Lord's Prayer, then gave his conception of the spiritual
+meaning.
+
+"All-pervading Father-Mother Spirit, which art in all harmony, revered
+and holy is Thy name. Thy peace and love and righteousness is conceived
+and realized amid earthly environments as it is in the highest state of
+harmony.
+
+"Give to us each day the hidden manna, the living word that sustains us,
+and give us the truth for error as we in our divine likeness to Thee,
+give truth for error to those who err against us.
+
+"Leave or let us not in temptation, but preserve us from all thoughts
+that would dishonor Thee, for Thine _is_ the kingdom and power and glory
+forever."
+
+"That is wonderful. Oh, how beautiful it all is," exclaimed Kate with
+much feeling.
+
+"Isn't it?" added Grace, "and quite in accord with the passage quoted by
+Mrs. Hayden,'what things soever ye desire, that--'"
+
+"Same principle, recognizing the omnipresence of all things good, and
+acknowledging the gift as already given," interrupted Mr. Hayden,
+shutting his book and rising to put it away.
+
+"How would you construe the passage where it says, 'with prayer and
+supplication let your requests be made known to God?'" asked Kate.
+
+"Oh, but you have not quoted it all: 'With prayer and supplication, with
+thanksgiving let your requests be made known,'" replied Mr. Hayden,
+smiling. "It means, continue to ask, and expect to receive and give
+thanks, not only by word, but by proper use of what you already have.
+'If ye continue in my word,' was the condition, so it must be that we
+continue to ask and give thanks, even if our petition is not visibly
+answered at once."
+
+Mr. Hayden had some advantage in his study over the girls, for these
+things had been more or less considered by himself and Mrs. Hayden ever
+since her recovery, and it was no wonder he could explain so readily.
+
+"After all, how would you apply this way of praying to giving
+treatments?" asked Grace. "I am anxious for the practical application."
+
+"Why, it is all practical, as far as the individual is concerned, but
+the application to others we have yet to learn, though I imagine it is
+the same. It is simply being negative to false conditions, thus putting
+them off, and affirmative to true conditions, absorbing them as the
+flower does the light and heat."
+
+"Well, it is a beautiful idea of prayer at any rate," remarked Grace.
+
+They soon went home, still discussing and deeply pondering the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Grace, what do you suppose I did to-day?" cried Kate, breathlessly, as
+she rushed in the next evening.
+
+"Can't imagine, unless you cured little Tim, the newsboy," laughed
+Grace, making her guess extravagant enough.
+
+"No, but really, I treated Fannie for a dreadful headache. Of course I
+said nothing to her, but she was stumbling so over her music, I asked
+her what was the matter, and when she told me I treated her. In just a
+few moments she brightened up and said she felt better, and before we
+got through it was all gone. Wasn't that delightful?"
+
+"Very, and I am so glad. How did you do it?"
+
+"Well, I can hardly tell, but the talk we had yesterday with Mr. Hayden
+gave me a clearer idea than I had before, and I just denied the headache
+and acknowledged the truth that she was spiritually well; then waited a
+few moments and gave thanks that it was so."
+
+"How glad we ought to be for the privilege of reading Mrs. Hayden's
+letters," said Grace, thoughtfully, as she smoothed her hair and washed
+her hands.
+
+"Yes, and what a goose I was about it," Kate replied. "I would scarcely
+take the chance when it was offered, and if it had been any one but Mrs.
+Hayden, I do believe I should have refused point blank."
+
+"We know so little what is right when we judge in the old way," said
+Grace. "Now, if I actually hadn't seen that woman cured, and known
+positively how she was before, nothing would have induced me to spend my
+time on this, although, from the first, I rather liked the theory."
+
+"Where is my gingham apron?" called Kate, looking in the dark closet
+where she had hung it.
+
+"Kate, I'm thoroughly reformed, as you will know when I tell you I am
+perfectly willing to perform the culinary duties to-night, and I will be
+the cook while you discourse some music for my edification," laughed
+Grace, as she emerged from the studio with her sleeves rolled back, and
+the lost apron pinned around her.
+
+"What!" cried Kate, holding up both hands with a mock-tragic air. "Do
+you really mean it?"
+
+"Of course, and I will show you what a talent I have for poaching eggs
+and making toast."
+
+The girls were in the habit of dividing their work according to their
+personal tastes. Kate liked to prepare dainty meals and wash dishes,
+while Grace preferred to sweep and dust, and arrange things to suit her
+artistic eye. Each disliked the other's part of the work, so they were
+well content to have it so divided.
+
+"Go on, now," ordered Grace, "and play for me. I want some music; but,
+first of all, tell me where the eggs are, and how long should they
+boil?"
+
+"The eggs are in the tin pail on the third shelf in the closet. They
+should boil till they are a pretty blue white."
+
+"Very well, now I can dispense with your company."
+
+Kate laughed merrily, and sitting down to the piano, played till Grace
+called her out to dine.
+
+"It seems rather nice to come home and play lady," she remarked, as she
+went out where Grace was.
+
+"Well, really, Kate, I was thinking this afternoon that there is not so
+much difference in the kinds of work as there is in the thoughts you
+have when you work, and I resolved, that to refrain from certain duties
+because one does not like them is selfish, and makes a person one-sided.
+Then I could see no reason why I should dislike to cook, and concluded
+to try it."
+
+"I believe you are right about the one-sidedness," said Kate, soberly.
+
+"I do want to grow into a rounded character, and am just realizing the
+necessity of doing things that lie nearest us, whether it is washing
+dishes, painting or scrubbing. If I get so I can think right about
+things I'm sure I shall like them."
+
+"That is true. I have already noticed a vast difference in my patience
+in giving lessons. You know some days I would be so nervous and get so
+exasperated with Fannie Thornton and Jenny Miles, I didn't know what to
+do with myself, but the last few days I have not minded them at all, in
+fact I got along better with Fannie than ever before, and it was just
+because I kept from thinking she was contrary and stupid."
+
+"Well, that is a practical application of your lesson. I think we ought
+to apply it to everything we do," replied Grace.
+
+"One of the chief beauties of this Christianity is that it goes into
+every thought and action," said Kate, thoughtfully, adjusting her hair.
+
+"Oh!" she added a moment later, "I forgot to give you the letter that
+came to-day." She pulled it out of her pocket all crumpled and gave it
+to Grace, who glanced at her name on the envelope and then grew white
+about the mouth as she hastily put it into her pocket, remarking in an
+ordinary tone, "It will keep a little longer."
+
+Little was said by either for some time. Grace was preoccupied and Kate
+furtively watched her face, for this was an unaccountable procedure,
+although occasionally Grace had been affected the same way before.
+
+She insisted on washing the dishes, and was glad indeed that she had it
+to do, while Kate poured her thoughts into music, feeling that she could
+best show sympathy for her friend by this, to her, most expressive way.
+
+As for Grace, she waited till she had quite finished her work and then
+sat down to read the letter. She well knew it was from Leon Carrington,
+a suitor, whom she had rejected on the plea that she wished to be wedded
+solely to her art. Pride had forbidden her being frank enough to tell
+him the real reason, caused by an impeachment made against his
+character, by one whom she implicitly trusted as a friend. Her bitter
+resolve was the result, and while it was true she loved and desired to
+spend her life in pursuing her art, she had compelled herself to think
+she loved it best, and so told him it was first choice.
+
+Hers was a proud, deep nature, and rather than admit that she had loved
+or could love one whom she considered unworthy, she cut the matter short
+by a decided rejection. It had cost her a mighty effort to come to this
+decision, and when she came out of the trial, she had lost her faith in
+all men.
+
+On all other points but this, Grace was sound and sweet in her general
+disposition, but any talk on marriage she would never tolerate even with
+Kate.
+
+This was the third letter he had written in the two years since he went
+away, and as in the preceding, he fervently begged her to reconsider.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+        "Life hath its Tabor heights,
+  Its lofty mounts of heavenly recognition,
+  Whose unveiled glories flash to earth munition
+  Of love, and truth, and clearer intuition:
+        Hail! mount of all delights!"
+
+  --_I. C. Gilbert._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, September ----.
+
+"Good morning, dear ones all! I must tell you a little of yesterday
+before I go to the lesson to-day. We were not in class, and I staid in
+my room all day trying to solve the many questions that present
+themselves to us all, and to claim a little more understanding. Many
+points became very much clearer after my long meditation in the silence.
+In the evening I ran down to see Mrs. Dawn, who is several blocks away.
+We were so interested, so completely absorbed in telling our thoughts
+and experiences, that it was after eleven o'clock when I arose to go,
+and then she accompanied me home, only intending to come part way, but
+as we passed a little low house about half way home, the door suddenly
+opened and a little girl of ten or twelve years ran out sobbing, 'The
+baby is dying! the baby is dying!'
+
+"She was going up an outside stairway to inform a neighbor. We rushed
+into the house and found the frantic mother sobbing and wailing over her
+baby apparently in the last agonies of death.
+
+"'What is it? Can't we do something for you?' we asked, not knowing what
+else to say.
+
+"'Oh, my baby, my precious baby is dying! Don't you see? she is almost
+gone.'
+
+"Indeed, for an instant it seemed the little life had gone out, when,
+like a flash of lightning, the words came to my inner self, 'There is no
+death.' 'He that believeth on me shall not see death;' 'I am the way the
+truth and the life.' 'Treat,' I whispered to Mrs. Dawn, and soon the
+awful lie was denied by us in the peaceful silence of our own souls; for
+all consciousness of appearances had vanished as we denied death and its
+power, till we could _command_ the waves of mortal thought to subside
+and say, 'Peace, be still.'
+
+"It was the Master, the Christ within, who spoke for us, and we were
+filled with the mighty peace and calmness of Truth that worked through
+us and was immediately made manifest. The little face relaxed, the eyes
+lost their glassy stare, the color returned to the pale lips.
+
+"The mother ceased her mourning and gazed at the precious child in
+awesome silence. The neighbor and the little girl who had come in, stood
+by in hushed amazement. For a while all felt the presence of the great
+invisible Power that had wrought so wondrous a work in their midst,
+although no one knew but ourselves what had been done. Presently the
+mother leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief, awaiting the
+doctor, for whom her husband had gone before we entered the house. We
+waited till he came, and then quietly slipped out.
+
+"Mrs. Dawn came clear home with me, and we found our thoughts and
+feelings had been almost identical in this remarkable experience,
+showing the oneness of truth. It is something we shall never forget, for
+it was indeed from the very depths of our being we were stirred and
+thrilled with the mighty Principle.
+
+"This morning I went to see the baby, and found it quite bright and
+happy, but still breathing a little heavily. The M. D. had left
+medicine, and of course, they were giving it 'according to directions.'
+I told the mother something of the Healing, and she readily acknowledged
+that something mysterious had saved her child's life, because it
+certainly was dying as much as the child she had lost years ago.
+
+"'After you left last night, the neighbor who was here said like as not
+you were Christian healers or whatever that is, but she did not believe
+a word in it, and that it was all nonsense, but I told her I didn't
+care. I thought you saved my baby, and the doctor said it had grown much
+better since he came. 'Well,' says I, 'ef you had seen her condition
+when the ladies came in, you would say she _is_ better.'
+
+"'Oh, we won't argue about what made her better, whether medicine or
+something else; all we want now is to have the child cured,' said the
+doctor, very kind-like, and I really thought a great deal better of him
+than I had before, for most M. D.'s think they know everything,' she
+said.
+
+"I was so glad to find she acknowledged even this much, so I talked a
+little longer, and explained the necessity of perfect trust in God, and
+the consequences of distrust in Him. She seemed very responsive and
+ready to believe, but then, who would not believe after such a
+demonstration? I have felt awed and hushed all the morning, remembering
+the mighty something surging through me. It seems hard to believe that
+at last my desire to have some grand sign shown me is already fulfilled.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl talked beautifully this afternoon on understanding. I wish
+you could hear the lectures as she gives them, with all her grace and
+beauty and impressiveness. Here is the essence of the lesson:
+
+"As we evolve from material to spiritual understanding, we put ourselves
+more and more into the divine current of Life, Health, Goodness, which
+is God. The higher our ideal, the higher our attainment. Believing in
+God as supreme Love, we find it impossible to conceive of wrath,
+jealousy, revenge, as emanating from or existing in Him, Her or It. As
+we are filled with love, it becomes universal. Everybody is judged by
+its tender charity, everything is tinged with its warm radiance.
+
+"As Paul so beautifully wrote: 'Love suffereth long and is kind, love
+envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave
+itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not
+account of evil, rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth in the
+truth.... Love never faileth.' If this be a standard by which to judge
+the love of men, how much more appropriately might it judge God, who is
+love itself.
+
+"In proportion as we are freed from the ignorance and narrowness of
+primitive, ancient opinions concerning God, we shall rise to broader and
+tenderer and truer conceptions of Him. To the warm, sympathetic heart,
+that knows the deepest needs of humanity, the 'mercy that endureth
+forever' is an established fact of the universal Love. To understand
+this Love is to be at one with it, to do the works and think the
+thoughts of Love. It is essential, then, first to understand the law of
+effort, then faith, then love, then spiritual understanding, which is
+the goal toward which we all hasten--understanding of all spiritual
+things, understanding of God, who is all spirit. As we make the effort
+we receive faith, as we use faith we grow in the power and capacity of
+love, and love brings us the fullness of all things, even understanding
+of infinite wisdom. Every glimpse of truth we have ever had, every
+glorious breath of freedom, is but a hint of what will be when we have
+'awakened to righteousness.'
+
+"We gain our knowledge by and through the law of right speaking and
+consequently right acting. In the Bible, the New Testament especially,
+great stress is laid upon the power of words. Solomon wrote, 'How
+forcible are right words.' 'Life and death are in the power of the
+tongue,' and from St. Paul we hear, 'Hold fast the form of sound words;'
+and James' admonition, 'Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only,'
+show that both considered it necessary to speak the word if they would
+manifest its power.
+
+"But there is another and a holier office given to the word and that is
+the office of atonement. The original meaning of atone was to 'make
+at-one, to agree, to be in accordance, to accord.' To be at-one with a
+person is to be in such perfect sympathy that the thoughts of both are
+the thoughts and feelings of one.
+
+"Another illustration would be to say of a chip thrown into the river,
+it is at-one with the current. In this sense we should aim to be so
+at-one with the divine Principle that we may say with Jesus, 'I am one
+with the Father,' for did he not say: 'They are not of this world even
+as I am not of this world,' and 'That they may be one even we are one.'
+
+"To speak absolute Truth is to come into the true at-one-ment, to be at
+one with the divine Mind, to realize that Christ the Truth is the
+atoning power. The Christ is the impersonal Word of Truth which we are
+to speak, for 'unto us hath been committed the word of reconciliation'
+or atonement.
+
+"When we think true thoughts and catch true ideas, when we understand
+true meanings and love true knowledge, we are sustained by the living
+word which sustains all who speak and live it, because we are truly at
+one with the divine Word.
+
+"Knowing the meaning of Christ to be Truth, blood to be life or word,
+and sin to be error, we catch the spiritual meaning of the phrase 'sins
+washed away by the blood of Christ,' which is, sins or errors washed
+away by the word of Truth.
+
+"In that wonderful sermon in the sixth chapter of John, Jesus used the
+term blood as a symbol of his words, and emphatically told his
+disciples, when they persisted in taking his sayings literally, 'the
+flesh profiteth nothing, the _words_ that I speak unto you, they are
+spirit and they are life.'
+
+"That the Bible writers used the figurative language of those times,
+must be taken into account when reading points that have been made
+foundation doctrines. Owing to the ancient custom of sacrificing animals
+to appease the wrath of God, whom they regarded as subject to anger,
+jealousy or any human passion, they used figurative language when
+describing Jesus as the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world.
+
+"In one of the inspired moments of the prophet, when he apprehended God
+as a God of Love, he cried out, 'I have desired mercy and not sacrifice;
+and the knowledge of God more than burnt offering.' It is the knowledge
+of God, the word of truth, that will save, and the only sacrifice is the
+sacrifice of self which makes the atonement possible.
+
+"To fast from all selfishness is to keep the true fast, so beautifully
+described in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. 'Is it not to loose the
+bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go
+free, to break every yoke? Then shall thy light break forth as the
+morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.' Here is the
+fruit of atonement, the result of understanding, for understanding God
+and being at one with God, is in reality the same. As we understand God
+we shall be at one with Him, and to be at one with God is to be whole,
+for He is Holiness, wholeness, health. 'If thine eye be single, then
+shall thy whole body be full of light.' To be single in recognizing the
+one Mind, one Power, one Creation, is to be filled with light, which is
+life, which is health, for as the mind, consciousness, becomes
+illuminated, the body responds by recording the history of thought upon
+the visible page or body.
+
+"It is the revealment of God that we seek, and our individual relation
+to Him. What more is there for us to know after we know Him, for is not
+He all there really is? He has given many marvelous signs to His
+children, who must be taught in simple childish ways and the 'still
+small voice' is ever near, speaking to whomsoever will listen. It is the
+inner guide, the 'spirit of truth that guides us into all truth.' Then
+we are 'clothed upon,' we have returned to our Father's house and the
+feast is spread, the rejoicing has begun.
+
+"For awhile our only conception of power, is in visible manifestations
+or feelings, but there comes a time when 'to be alone with silence is to
+be alone with God,' when joy is unutterable, and love the very potency
+of silence, when we wait with bated breath and let the divine Thought
+surge through us, when we put away all material beliefs and stand
+glorified in the 'secret of His Presence.' Then indeed are we baptized
+of the spirit, and in the silent chamber of our new consciousness may we
+hear the blessed words, 'Thou art my beloved son.'
+
+"No longer 'Thou shalt and thou shalt not,' but the sweet affirmation of
+sonship, of daughtership, of the precious benediction of a Father's
+love. Then glad light rushes into every dark crevice of our mind. We see
+as we never saw before, we understand as we never understood before, we
+speak as we never spoke before, we live as we never lived before,
+because we have been lifted out of the depths of ignorance to the
+radiant heights of the Promised Land, because we hear the angel saying
+as of old, 'Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
+with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
+them and be their God ... and God shall wipe away all tears from their
+eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
+neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
+away.' Finally, oh my husband, because we have been born again, and so
+find ourselves within the royal gates, the palace doors open to receive
+us and the insignia of royalty written upon our faces, for we shall be
+stamped with the signs of understanding, and know, as Jesus did, 'it is
+not I, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.'
+
+"Then, as the beauteous sunlight bathes and blesses all the world with
+its effulgent glory, so will the light of Truth, known as understanding,
+shine through us and turn pain into peace, sadness into joy, sickness
+into health, error into truth.
+
+  'Wisdom ripens into silence,
+    And the lesson she doth teach,
+  Is, that life is more than language,
+    And that thought is more than speech.'
+
+"How I long for this ultimate experience! How I yearn for the fullness
+of this knowledge now; for the ripened wisdom that shall unlock the
+doors of my own consciousness, but I know, dear, this will come to us if
+we are faithful to the few little steps we know, no matter how we
+stumble and fall in taking them. Oh, that we may reach out to all the
+world in the sweet ministry of 'peace on earth, good will to men.'
+
+"You say 'there is a rift in the clouds for you, too, and the vague
+something which sometimes loomed up in your horizon is gone.' How glad I
+am, no words can tell. What a change there will be! The old past shall
+be sweetened and sanctified by the new present, and only the good
+memories shall remain.
+
+"What a blessed comfort in this thought, 'the Lord shall be thy rear
+ward.' We have nothing to do with the past, for it shall be utterly
+annulled. The Truth has erased it, and it is swallowed up in the good in
+proportion as we recognize only the Good. This thought is a great
+consolation to me when I recall the hasty words I used to say when my
+temper got the better of me. Oh, that old failing! I hope it is forever
+vanquished--but there, I must not forget to be scientific, and of course
+it is not scientific to talk of error in any way.
+
+"Jamie is a dear little scamp, if he _did_ try to break the rules and
+get something to eat between meals by playing prairie dog. It must have
+been very funny to see him sitting in the attitude of a begging dog,
+mutely appealing for something, and being obliged at last to suggest
+that there was candy on the top shelf. Even my heart would have softened
+for the innocent little trickster.
+
+"Well, really, we must try to give the children the liberty we older
+children desire and insist upon having in such a headstrong way. Bless
+my little darlings! They shall realize the absence of fear, the presence
+of love in their home, which we must strive more and more to make
+typical of the great Home in which we are all members.
+
+"I feel that they are dearer now than ever. My love is more unselfish,
+and I can really feel that they are truly consecrated to the Good,
+because I know how to hold them in the thought of the Good, how to annul
+the opposite influences and fill their minds with the sweet, pure,
+ennobling realizations of Love. Meekly I say this, because I know not my
+own strength, or rather I know not how much divine strength I may
+recognize and use, but this is the right path, and I earnestly desire to
+walk in it.
+
+"You know some people say (in their ignorance, of course) that this free
+thinking breaks up families. Oh, if they could only know, on the other
+hand, how it strengthens the bonds, how it clears up misunderstandings
+and falsities, how it teaches us the sacredness of family relations, and
+brings us into spiritual oneness, which is the only true marriage.
+
+"Spiritual light has come to me on this subject which can not be put
+into words, but some time you will know what I know, and we shall both
+be blessed by the knowledge.
+
+"Peace be unto all God's children.
+
+  "Your loving
+
+  "MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  "If thou art worn and hard beset,
+    With troubles that thou would'st forget,
+  If thou would'st read a lesson that will keep
+    Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep,
+  Go to the woods and hills! No tears
+    Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."
+
+  --_H. W. Longfellow._
+
+
+Grace was in deep perplexity. She pondered her problem over and over,
+and though in reality she felt more like flinging pride to the winds
+than ever before, she was not able to formulate or even consciously name
+her thoughts. A strange, unsettled feeling possessed her. She wondered
+at herself that she did not contemptuously throw this letter of Leon
+Carrington's into the fire, as she had the other two, but for some
+reason did not do so. All night she was uneasy and slept but little. The
+next morning she announced to Kate that she would spend the day at
+Rosewood, sketching.
+
+What the trouble was, Kate could only surmise, but wisely held her peace
+feeling instinctively that now was no time for questions. She was
+relieved to hear of the prospective recreation, for Grace always came
+back from these trips with so much fresh inspiration, and renewed
+enthusiasm.
+
+It was a beautiful day, one of those mild, hazy days of October that
+seem made to teach humanity some of its most sacred lessons. Nature is
+the best of teachers if we know how to read her mystic pages, her many
+and varied beauties, her wide diversities of expression, her fine
+subtlety of language, for she is the handmaid of Truth, inasmuch as she
+holds before our admiring eyes pictures of Truth and its wondrous laws.
+If we can interpret the pictures, we are wiser and better and happier.
+
+Grace was ever ready to listen to the oracles of nature, but now they
+held a sweeter message than ever before, and she keenly anticipated the
+pleasure in store for her as she seated herself in the car and disposed
+of her sketching materials for the half hour's ride to Rosewood, a
+pretty little woodland station near Hampton.
+
+She generally walked the mile and a half to the farmhouse in the edge of
+the woods, where she had made the acquaintance of a kind hearted old
+lady, who loaned her a great Newfoundland dog belonging to the house,
+for company in her rambles.
+
+Mrs. Clayland was rejoiced to see her, for it had been several weeks
+since Grace had called, and she was eager to tell her of the great tree
+up in the ravine that had been blasted by the lightning, and about the
+beautiful little waterfall caused by the Cherry Creek freshet.
+
+Grace listened patiently as she rested, and asked questions that she had
+asked many times before, because it pleased the old lady to tell of all
+the beautiful spots and dainty bits of landscape in her vicinity. That
+was next to being the artist.
+
+Prince stood by, looking with intelligent eyes, first at the visitor
+and then at his mistress, wagging his tail wistfully as though eager to
+be off, for he seemed to realize that this was his holiday too.
+
+"Are you ready to go, Prince?" asked Grace, patting the dog on the head
+as she looked into his great brown eyes.
+
+Prince licked his mouth and pushed his nose close under her hand while
+his tail wagged violently. "Yes, of course he is. I wish my old limbs
+would let me go too, but I can't even hobble to-day for the rheumatism
+has been dreadful the last week," said Mrs. Clayland, as she wiped her
+spectacles.
+
+Grace hardly knew what to say, for here was just the place for a little
+sympathy, and yet she must shut her eyes to false beliefs and
+conditions, so she wisely talked of the beautiful day, the warm air, and
+what not, while secretly resolving that Mrs. Clayland should be her
+first patient if she ever knew how to treat patients according to the
+Christ method. In the mean time, she would give her some thoughts.
+
+While Mrs. Clayland volubly rattled on, talking of all her aches and
+pains, Grace was doing her best to think of the very opposite statement,
+that she was well.
+
+At last, however, with Prince trotting gaily in front of her, she began
+her rambles in earnest. She knew of a beautiful view from one of the
+hills near by, and slowly wended her way thitherward. The hush and quiet
+of the place seemed such a relief after the troubled hours of the past
+night, and as she came to the gentle slope of the grassy hill, she threw
+herself into the soft warm grass, in the shade of a stately elm that
+stood there alone, and gave herself up to thinking--thinking of the
+deepest and most sacred problems in human experience.
+
+Prince came and laid himself at her feet. The soft autumn sunshine
+played here and there upon her form and face through the leaves, while
+the occasional note of a bird or hum of an insect were the only sounds
+that broke the stillness of the lonely place. What an exquisite pleasure
+to lie there and breathe in all this wonderful peace, for it was like a
+taste of heaven. Far away from all perplexities and cares, she could
+have lost herself in sweet forgetfulness but for this one theme that
+would persist in thrusting itself upon her. At last it had resolved
+itself into the form of a question. Should she or should she not write
+to Leon Carrington? Might it not be possible she had been misinformed,
+and that she was mistaken in her hasty conclusions?
+
+Life presented a different aspect now from what it had two years ago.
+She was more lenient in her judgments, more charitable in her opinions,
+more softened in her pride; changed more than she ever realized until
+she began the self examination on this point. To be sure she had desired
+to change in these respects, since she had seen a glimpse of the
+possibilities of Christian life. She had denied all qualities of
+character in herself that seemed undesirable, and had affirmed
+charitableness, patience, wisdom, but that she could ever have changed
+her mind on this subject seemed incredible and utterly inconsistent.
+
+And yet, what could she say to him? She had no answer, certainly no
+encouragement. The only thing she could do would be to tell him frankly
+what her thought and judgment had been, without going into details, and
+learn the truth of the matter; but that, she would never do. Whatever
+injury she had inflicted through her silent, erroneous thoughts should
+be as silently redressed by her best and most generous ones.
+
+Over an hour she lay there, no nearer the solution of her problem than
+when she began. It was getting late, and she rose hurriedly, shook the
+leaves and grass from her dress, and opening her sketch book, set to
+work.
+
+An opening to the left in the woods revealed a view of lovely meadows
+and wooded hills, clothed in all the gorgeous robes of autumn, with a
+misty blue haze enshrouding them, and gleams of a silvery river winding
+through meadow and woodland. She rapidly sketched the outlines, studied
+the beauteous blending of tints, and wondered meanwhile, what particular
+lesson she could learn or give by this beautiful picture. Again she
+looked at the scene before her. Suddenly there came into her mind some
+lines she had often admired:
+
+  "Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature,
+    Oh, the light that is not of day!
+  Why seek it afar forever,
+    When it can not be lifted away?"
+
+Ah, here was the key. "The peace of Nature," typical of divine peace,
+"The Light not of day," divine Light itself. How sweet the thought, how
+precious the lesson; and the divine Peace and Light _are_ indeed
+forever here. Could she throw such a divine message into her prospective
+painting? Could she make every form and color, every hint of light and
+shadow, tell the sweet story, as this living picture told it? Surely,
+the heart that overflows with an inbreathing of the divine, must be able
+to teach the common heart of humanity, else what is the use of
+inspiration?
+
+On her way back to the house, Grace passed the blasted tree, described
+by Mrs. Clayland, but she had no desire to study destruction or death.
+It was life, living things, that she would portray. Was there not beauty
+and grandeur everywhere, hinting of Infinity? Even the noisy and
+monotonous waterfall now had a message for her as it rushed forcefully
+on its course, regardless of any and all obstructions.
+
+It was quite late when Grace and Prince returned, much later than she
+supposed, so that she missed the train and had to wait for the next,
+several hours later. Mr. Clayland kindly volunteered to take her to the
+station, an offer she was very glad to accept.
+
+The lamps were already lighted when she entered the car. She slipped
+into the first vacant seat, but caught a glimpse of a face several seats
+in front of her that made her heart beat hurriedly and her breath come
+quick and fast for a few moments.
+
+She resolutely avoided looking anywhere but out of the window, and at
+the end of her journey quietly but quickly disappeared in the surging
+crowd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  "Let me not dwell so much within
+    My bounded heart with anxious heed,
+  Where all my searches meet with doubt,
+    And nothing satisfies my need;
+  It shuts me from the sound and sight
+    Of that pure world of life and light
+  Which has no breadth, or length, or height."
+
+  --_A. L. Waring._
+
+
+Kate had long ago become accustomed to these uncertain movements of
+Grace, and was therefore not alarmed at her prolonged absence. She sat
+in a cozy chair, reading the last letter from Mrs. Hayden, when Grace
+entered.
+
+"What makes you look so sober, Gracious?" she asked, tenderly, after the
+hat and sketch book were laid aside and they had settled themselves for
+their usual chat.
+
+"Oh, Kate, I had a lovely time to-day, with all the beautiful sights out
+in the country; I wish you could see how much more there is in nature
+since we have studied Christian Healing," was the evasive reply.
+
+"I think we see more in everything," said Kate, whose curiosity was
+rather _piqued_ by the evasiveness, though she made no sign, "because
+everything stands for something. It is like the x in algebra, and
+interesting as the unknown quantity."
+
+Grace smiled a little. She was thinking of a different kind of "unknown
+quantity."
+
+"Don't you want to hear Mrs. Hayden's letter?" asked Kate, wondering
+more and more over the _distrait_ manner and dreamy absorption of her
+friend.
+
+"The letter, why, of course; where is it?"
+
+"Here; shall I read it?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Grace grew more interested as the reading went on. "That is decidedly
+the most reasonable explanation of the atonement I have ever heard," she
+exclaimed at the close.
+
+"Yes, it is reasonable and beautiful I must admit," said Kate, "but when
+I first read the letter my old fear came back for a moment that possibly
+it was all wrong, but I remembered my right to an interpretation. That
+one thought has been more helpful to me than any other, for it has
+brought such a sense of liberty. Then I looked up the quotation about
+the 'word of reconciliation,' and I must say it is so perfectly plain I
+can not see why it has been so overlooked and neglected before."
+
+"Where is it? I did not catch that," said Grace, following Kate's finger
+as she pointed to the passage in the Bible.
+
+"There is something so sacred in these meanings," resumed Kate, "and if
+I may only get the truth, I care not what any one says about it. I see
+now wherein lies the whole misconception or misinterpretation rather. It
+is in the idea of God. If we conceive of Him as limited to human ways
+and capacities, as the ancient Hebrews did, we naturally ascribe such
+works to Him."
+
+"In other words," added Grace, "we judge God entirely by ourselves. If
+we are broad and loving in our nature and character it is easy for us to
+regard God as love. If we are vindictive and revengeful, we can readily
+see Him as angry and unrelenting."
+
+"Yes, we are so apt to judge the whole world and God, too, by our
+moods," replied Kate, thoughtfully.
+
+"As Emerson says, 'we see in others what we are ourselves,'" quoted
+Grace, removing her jacket which until now she had retained in order to
+get warm after her evening journey.
+
+"Oh! what do you think of what Mrs. Hayden says about marriage?" asked
+Kate, putting her pencil in her mouth as she held both hands out to
+assist Grace.
+
+"She doesn't say enough to give an opinion," replied Grace, "but there
+must be something in her mind or she would not write about it now."
+
+"Her ideas must be very exalted, and I hope to know what they are, for
+it is a very important question," said Kate, with a casual glance toward
+her companion, as she bit the end of the pencil.
+
+"Mrs. Hayden decidedly denies the imputation laid to Christian Healing,
+that it is opposed to marriage, or that it tends to separate families,"
+said Grace, with more interest than Kate would have thought possible a
+week ago.
+
+"I did not know any such imputation had been laid to it," rejoined Kate,
+opening her eyes in astonishment.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have heard it several times, but people will talk whether
+they know anything or not. I am glad Mrs. Hayden mentions it for that is
+enough to show there is absolutely no foundation for such statements."
+Grace moved her chair and put her elbow on the table so she might shade
+her eyes with her hand.
+
+"Why, I don't see how people can say such things; surely the tendency is
+to draw families into closer bonds of sympathy and affection," exclaimed
+Kate, in questioning innocence.
+
+"It ought to be," replied Grace, thoughtfully, "and undoubtedly is," she
+added.
+
+"What do _you_ think of this question, Grace?" Kate ventured to ask. At
+any other time she would not have dared approach the subject, but Grace
+seemed more pliable to-night for some reason.
+
+"What question?" asked Grace, rousing from her reverie. "Oh, marriage.
+Well, sometimes I have thought the query going the rounds of the press,
+'Is marriage a failure?' a very pertinent one, but of course that
+doesn't touch the principle itself. That is right and can never be
+otherwise."
+
+"Most people talk and write as seriously as though it _does_ touch the
+principle."
+
+"That is because they judge the principle by the persons representing
+it, whereas they should stop and consider that humanity is prone to
+weakness and often fails to demonstrate its high ideals."
+
+"And it is because of failure they think there is something wrong. Take
+an individual case, for instance, and there are thousands. If a girl
+marries unhappily, she thinks there must be something wrong in the
+whole system, for she judges everybody's misery by her own," said Kate,
+secretly wishing Grace would be more confidential, and not so coldly
+intellectual.
+
+"Then the way to a happy judgment of this question would be a happy
+marriage, you think?" laughed Grace, with a faint blush, looking up
+inquiringly.
+
+"Don't trifle Grace. You know I said it all earnestly, and really it is
+no matter to trifle over, any way."
+
+"Well, that is true, Kate," replied Grace more soberly. "I don't believe
+anybody takes the question seriously enough. It is certainly the most
+important of all things to consider."
+
+"Do you think it right to enter marriage for any other reason than pure
+and devoted affection?" persisted Kate.
+
+"No, I do not. Why do you ask?" demanded Grace rather sharply.
+
+"Because that is the solution of the whole problem. If they would begin
+to talk about love instead of marriage being a failure, they would get
+some light on it," a little impatiently.
+
+Grace looked up in surprise.
+
+"I know," continued Kate, "it is because people are mistaken or misled
+in their reasons for marriage, that it even has a semblance of failure."
+
+"That is one reason, certainly, and another is that they do not
+understand each other's motives, or have not the patience to bear with
+each other's faults. We can easily see how misunderstandings can be put
+away when there is true love, when we determine to see only the good,
+and learn to 'resist not evil.' That is one of the strong points in
+Jesus the Christ's teachings," said Grace with unwonted earnestness.
+
+"I am so sorry people can't see it in the right light," added Kate,
+regretfully.
+
+"You can have much charity for them, for it is just what you would have
+said or thought, if you had not studied the matter yourself. You
+remember how Mr. Narrow influenced you and biased your judgment?"
+
+"Yes, and I see as never before that the 'Truth makes us free.'
+
+  'He is a freeman whom the truth makes free.
+  And all are slaves besides,'"
+
+said Grace, as she reached for the sketch book to look over her work of
+the afternoon.
+
+"It is no use, she never will say anything, even when she might,"
+thought Kate as she reviewed the events of the past few days. She half
+reproached herself for allowing anything to take her mind from the one
+special theme in which at last she had become thoroughly interested. She
+was eager to learn, to search in all directions for the meaning of
+things. Slowly the little grain of faith was growing into the mighty
+tree.
+
+Enchanting Truth so round, so perfect, so beautiful,--no wonder we must
+reach out in every direction for the knowledge of thy fair signs that we
+may more correctly and more fully realize the perfect revealment of our
+own divinity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     "What a great power is the power of thought! And what a grand being
+     is man when he uses it aright; because after all, it is the use
+     made of it that is the important thing. Character comes out of
+     thought. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.'"--_Sir Walter
+     Raleigh._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"Dear Husband: I was just thinking of you all when the letter carrier
+came this morning and gave me a welcome surprise, for your letters
+usually come in the afternoon. It seems too wonderful to believe about
+the children, and yet I can see it is their implicit faith that makes
+their words so potent.
+
+"They are doing their part to help too, for every one in the world,
+large or small helps in greater or lesser measure to carry out the plans
+of the invisible Good.
+
+"I dreamed of being at home last night, and it seemed as though you were
+all so happy and busy. You did not see me. Even little Jem was busily
+engaged in some kind of work. I could scarcely see what it was, but a
+vague white something like an invisible net was spread between you, and
+the thought came that you and Anna were weaving something, and even the
+children had a part to fulfill for they flitted to and fro, bringing
+something to you with faces so full of light and happiness, I almost
+cried out with joy.
+
+"When I awoke I was deeply impressed that this was a symbol of united
+effort in making the seamless robe of Truth, and the family group
+represented the members of one body, each with a work to do to perfect
+the whole.
+
+"No matter how humble our part may be, no matter how childish and
+incompetent we feel, by doing the best we know, with the ability we
+have, in all joy and earnestness, we shall be serving the Master and
+weaving the marvelous robe.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl talked of the mighty power of thought in her lecture to-day.
+
+"Every individual in the universe is inseparably connected with every
+other individual, and we are, as it were, 'touching elbows' with the
+whole world.
+
+"How is it done? Simply by thinking and being susceptible to thought.
+Every thought of the individual helps to make or mar the happiness and
+health of the world. Every negative thought (and by that I mean opposite
+the good, which is positive) sent forth, goes into the miasmatic fog of
+error, and whoever believes in error or the reality of these thoughts,
+attracts to himself this quality of thought, which sooner or later,
+makes itself manifest in physical inharmony.
+
+"For instance, one who believes in the reality of sickness and the
+reality of evil is constantly attracting thoughts that make sickness
+manifest, but if a knowledge of how to throw off or counteract those
+thoughts were used, the cloud would be dispelled before it turned into
+inharmony or sickness.
+
+"This is why we are taught to deny every thought or feeling that is not
+harmonious or desirable, everything which can not be predicated of
+spirit. If this is what makes sickness and sin, truly it is not to be
+wondered at, for how many are perfectly happy, perfectly unselfish and
+kind, one single day at a time?
+
+"Suppose one gets up in the morning with a feeling of crossness and
+impatience; he goes to breakfast, impresses the whole family with his
+discomfort, and so through the entire day leaves the imprint of his dark
+forebodings on every person who sees him, besides the untold influence
+that goes forth to the unprotected world, inasmuch as thoughts go
+everywhere.
+
+"He retires at night, disgusted with himself and displeased with the
+whole world. People were unkind and unjust. Even inanimate objects were
+unusually aggravating. He wasted half an hour trying to untie a knot,
+hunted for a package of papers which were finally found in their proper
+place, had a vexing ten minutes with his office key, etc.
+
+"Every impatient thought, word or action was an expenditure, not only of
+physical force, but a loss of moral strength, and just as surely as the
+world moves, these thoughts, in their revolving circuit, constantly
+return to the thinker, 'Whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap.'
+
+"Who knows what dark trains of thought his lowering face suggested? Who
+knows what headaches and heartaches were brought on by the unconscious
+absorption of his impatience or bitterness? Who can measure the extent
+of that mysterious burden of depression, so often called 'the blues,'
+that crept into the consciousness of somebody under the influence of the
+dark thoughts sent out by this one, of whom perchance they know
+nothing?
+
+"It is this negative quality of thought that holds the world in bondage.
+To destroy it is to destroy all inharmony. On the other hand, note the
+influence of the happy-voiced individual, who comes to us so running
+over with the joy and beauty of life that we catch the thrilling
+inspiration of his mood and begin to enjoy the same sunshine, see the
+same beauty and feel the same happiness.
+
+"One look or one word may often send us off into the most delightful
+reveries, may inspire us to write a cheery letter, vibrating with love
+and hope, or prompt us to spend half an hour with one who needs the bath
+of joy our words may bring. Consciously and unconsciously we lighten the
+pathway, lift the burdens, sanctify the sorrows of the world by sending
+out and receiving this subtle thread of thought, so fine in its essence
+and quality, that any one and every one may feel its strengthening
+presence.
+
+"It is the negative or mortal thought that produces disease. See how
+grief bends and breaks the strongest constitutions, furrows the cheek,
+dims the eye, takes the appetite, impairs the mind. See how anger
+cankers everything it touches, how jealousy corrodes the thoughts with
+poisoned arrows, until the body is written over with letters of
+unmistakable meaning.
+
+"The body is what we may call the thermometer of the mind and registers
+the quality of thought. Universal beliefs in error find their common
+expression on the body. Every thought of sickness, sin or discouragement
+is recorded or bodied forth.
+
+"With all our belief in and fear of evil, sickness and death, we are
+continually subjecting ourselves to false and undesirable conditions,
+until, as Job said, 'Lo, the thing that I feared has come upon me.'
+
+"Fear is more quickly productive of disease pictures than any other kind
+of thought. Some one has aptly said, 'if the human race were freed from
+fear, it would be free from sickness,' which is verily true. Even the
+most learned doctors of medicine admit that an epidemic takes hold of
+those first who are most afraid, and frequently leaves the absolutely
+fearless unmolested.
+
+"Why is this so? Because fear weakens the power of mental control, and
+consequently weakens the body. To leave the doors unlocked, and then
+watch for the thief, is almost equal to having the thief in the house.
+
+"The material scientist says an epidemic has a material cause; the
+Christian healer says it has a mental cause. Before there is an object
+to fear there must be the sentiment of fear. Let scarlet fever appear in
+a community, and every parent will immediately send out the most
+agonizing thoughts of fear. Where will they go? Everywhere, because
+thoughts can not be restrained. Their influence goes out in every
+direction. To the tender children especially, because particularly
+directed to them. All who have left the door open to fear, though they
+may be sleeping in their unconsciousness of danger, will be liable to
+receive these uncontrolled thoughts, and some day when they least expect
+or fear sickness, it may be upon them.
+
+"So the children, to whom have been directed such thoughts, only prove
+their susceptibility to them, by picturing forth fear in the form of
+scarlet fever, or whatever may have been the naming of the error.
+Anybody manifesting sickness without consciousness of fear proves
+passive or unconscious fear, while those suffering sickness through a
+conscious recognition and fear of sickness are manifesting active or
+conscious fear.
+
+"There are two departments of mind sometimes spoken of as the conscious
+and unconscious. The conscious mind is the conscious thought, which is
+easily swayed or changed. It has an immediate or direct influence on the
+body as is shown by the blood that rushes to or recedes from the face at
+some sudden change of thought. The unconscious mind is the aggregation
+of past individual and universal conscious thought, and is the character
+formed, the second nature or instinct.
+
+"As the flesh and bones are more fixed than the ever moving blood, so
+the unconscious mind is slower to receive impressions, and slower to
+show them forth. Our bodies to-day are showing a harvest of the thoughts
+of generations or ages of the past. The person manifesting consumptive
+tendencies is not only expressing his own conscious thoughts, but is
+veritably the picture of the thoughts of his parents, ancestors and the
+entire race, concerning a belief in consumption. Year by year the
+thoughts of this error have been writing themselves in his face, his
+eyes, his chest, his very walk and talk and breath. Unless he offsets
+them with thoughts of absolute Truth, they press him out of our sight.
+He yields to the belief of death, because he never said no to sin or
+sickness, because he was at one with the world in its false beliefs.
+
+"'The last enemy to be overcome is death!' reads the inspired statement
+of Paul, confirmed and strengthened by the Master's never-dying promise,
+'If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.'
+
+"There are certain fixed beliefs inherent in every mind which we call
+universal beliefs. They are often referred to as belonging to the
+unconscious mind; as, for example, the fear of pain or suffering under
+certain circumstances will come to the surface of consciousness, proving
+that despite every feeling of confidence and fearlessness it has not
+been destroyed, but sleeps in the unconscious mind.
+
+"These unconscious beliefs and fears of sickness are ultimately
+expressed on the body in different forms of disease, sometimes given one
+name and sometimes another. The material scientist calls a certain
+outshowing on the body cancer, the Christian healer calls it the picture
+of a belief of cancer. In this way disease is always the manifestation
+of both conscious and unconscious thoughts.
+
+"Special forms of disease are born by constant attention to the thought
+of disease and their symptoms. It has been stated on good authority that
+physicians who make a specialty of certain diseases are apt to be
+afflicted with what they have especially fitted themselves to cure. In a
+medical journal a case was cited not long since of an eminent physician
+who read before a great convention of doctors, what was considered to be
+the ablest treatise on insanity ever written. 'On going home from the
+convention he killed his wife, four children, and then himself, in a fit
+of dementia.'
+
+"This reveals a startling fact, which might be corroborated by many
+others, that the body ultimately pictures forth the idea. But the
+thought is not confined to the individual. It not infrequently finds the
+most striking expression in some member of the family or in any one
+under his influence.
+
+"If one man's thoughts so influence himself, family or friend, think of
+the influence of such thoughts on those who go to him for advice or
+treatment, those who deliberately place themselves under his inspection
+and allow themselves to be guided both directly and indirectly by his
+erroneous opinions. Think of the vast stream of such thoughts going out
+from all medical colleges, students and practitioners. No wonder
+diseases increase as physicians increase, as some of the best thinkers
+of the age declare.
+
+"Not that one class of people is more to be reflected upon than another,
+for some kind or degree of erroneous thought is held by all classes.
+Physicians talk sickness and death, ministers preach evil and
+punishment, the entire race believe in and suffer for sins.
+
+"It is centuries since it was first discovered that ideas were
+transmitted without the ordinarily accepted means of communication, but,
+to-day it is positively and repeatedly, yes, continually proven that
+thought transference is not only possible or probable, but an every-day
+occurrence. To realize that
+
+      'Thoughts are things.
+  Endowed with being, breath and wings,
+  And that we send them forth to fill
+    The world with good results or ill,'
+
+is to be mightily responsible for what we think. To know that we are
+verily our brother's keeper, and that every thought makes misery or
+happiness for the whole world as well as for the individual, is
+something that should engage our deepest and most earnest consideration.
+
+"All thinking is for the weal or woe of the world that is yet in its
+infancy of knowledge. As consciousness of truth takes the place of
+consciousness of error, thoughts become light and beautiful and true
+with corresponding conditions.
+
+"Let us no longer slumber in the arms of indifference and ignorance, but
+awake to truth and righteousness. 'Better be unborn than untaught; for
+ignorance is the root of misfortune.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     "Blessed influence of one true, loving soul on another. Not
+     calculable by algebra, not deductible by logic, but mysterious,
+     effectual, mighty as the hidden process by which the tiny seed is
+     quickened, and bursts forth into tall stem and broad leaf, and
+     glowing tasseled flower."--_George Eliot._
+
+
+"Oh dear!" exclaimed Kate as she laid down the letter containing the
+lesson on Thought. "I didn't know we were so responsible for every
+little thing that comes into our mind."
+
+"Or goes out of it," said Grace, smiling, as she finished tinting a
+dainty plaque. "Now we can understand that 'where ignorance is bliss,
+'tis folly to be wise,'" she added rather absent-mindedly.
+
+"Yes, but I think I prefer the wisdom to the bliss. Do you understand
+this lecture as well as the rest?" asked Kate, again glancing at the
+letter.
+
+"Why shouldn't we? It is plainly told, and is a natural sequence to the
+others. I should think it very helpful, and if there really is so much
+power in thought, it is time people knew it."
+
+"But what of the people who do not know it? Are they utterly
+defenseless?"
+
+"As long as they believe in the reality of sin, sickness and death, they
+must suffer from them," replied Grace, picking a loose hair from her
+blender.
+
+"Then they ought to know how to learn and understand these things, but I
+could not tell anybody."
+
+"We can solve any problem by going back and reasoning from the premise.
+If any shock of sin or sickness come over us, we have simply to remember
+the spiritual, which is the only real creation."
+
+"It is not so easily done though. To-day I met the most miserable
+looking cripple sliding along without any limbs. I held my skirts aside
+as he passed, and forgot to even think of him as God's child," confessed
+Kate, in a regretful tone.
+
+"Anything takes time, and we can't expect to leap into perfection at
+once, but what did you do after he had passed?" asked Grace, with some
+curiosity.
+
+"I pitied the poor creature and wondered what made him so."
+
+"That was the very way to keep him in the same condition," said Grace,
+rapidly mixing some paint. "This last lesson very clearly explains that
+_every_ thought has an influence, and that you help to make the body
+manifest whatever you think of it. If you think the real and true, you
+help to make that show forth, if you only think of the external or
+apparent trouble or defect, and regard it as the real, you are harming
+instead of helping."
+
+"I can readily see that we may affect ourselves, but it seems hard to
+believe that we affect _everybody_," protested Kate, incredulously.
+
+"It is because we cannot realize the law of thought transference. I was
+reading just last week about that. An instance of Stuart C. Cumberland's
+mind-reading was cited. It was wonderful. And then long ago I read an
+old book written by Cornelius Agrippa about it, but I was not very much
+interested, and did not understand nor believe it at the time, so my
+memory is not worth much concerning it."
+
+"Then you really think I added another weight to that unhappy creature's
+burden of trouble?" cried Kate, in sharp surprise.
+
+"It would be best for you to deny his apparent conditions and affirm his
+real ones, and instead of thoughts of pity, which are only weakening,
+you could think of happiness and contentment. I truly believe we can
+learn to think of people this way, if we only catch ourselves for
+correction every time we think wrong."
+
+"How shall I ever learn to bridle my thoughts?" was Kate's despairing
+wail.
+
+"By learning to bridle your tongue; I found a splendid text to-day on
+that very theme. It is in James iii: 2. 'If any man offend not in word,
+the same is a perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body.'
+
+"Why, it tells in those few words the substance of all we have learned
+in these lessons," exclaimed Kate.
+
+"Only we would never have had sense enough to understand without the
+lessons," added Grace, with a smile.
+
+"They may be likened to a golden key that opens royal gates," said Kate,
+going to the piano to play while Grace was putting away her paints and
+brushes.
+
+A little later Grace went out to mail a letter. As she turned from the
+post-box, she found herself face to face with--whom but Leon
+Carrington?
+
+"Ah, an unexpected pleasure, Miss Hall!" he said, extending his hand and
+warmly grasping the one she slowly held out to him. He looked
+searchingly into her face, with clear, questioning eyes.
+
+She dropped her lashes and drew back with a touch of the old
+haughtiness, murmuring something he could not hear.
+
+"May I have the pleasure of a little walk with you?" he asked, suiting
+his step to hers and ignoring her apparent coldness.
+
+"Certainly. How long since you returned to Hampton, Mr. Carrington?"
+recovering herself as they walked.
+
+"Only a few days ago. I was called here on business for my uncle, and
+will probably be detained several weeks." He glanced at her as he spoke,
+but she gave no sign, only remarking it was a lovely season of the year
+for a visit. They walked along, talking only commonplaces, until they
+neared her home.
+
+"Did you receive my letter, Miss Gra--Miss Hall?" he asked, with some
+unsteadiness in his voice.
+
+"Yes," she replied, shortly. She did not understand herself any more
+than he did, and was vexed to find it so impossible to throw off her old
+proud ways, for she really intended to relent enough, at least, to have
+an explanation, and possibly--her thoughts could never go farther than
+this, and here she was, in the same imperious way, shutting her better
+self away from even a fair consideration of duty. These thoughts flashed
+through her mind while she walked on, apparently with the greatest
+indifference to either his words or his presence. But with a great
+effort she compelled herself to say again, with more warmth, "I received
+it, and intended to answer before this, but--" She stopped abruptly.
+
+He gratefully caught the morsel she had given, and asked if he might not
+call the next day.
+
+"Yes, you may come at three," she said, careful to set a time when Kate
+would surely be out.
+
+At the door they parted, and as she went up the stairs, she wondered
+more than ever at her hardness, for almost unconsciously she had given
+up all doubts of his honor as a gentleman. What was it all about
+anyway? Nothing but a report that he was engaged to a young lady at the
+time he proposed to her, and on the testimony of a single friend, she
+had allowed herself to be miserable, and make another miserable, through
+this foolish pride that she _would_ conquer by to-morrow afternoon.
+
+What! would she compel herself to so utterly ignore her own nature? She
+leaned against the wall half way up the stairway, startled at this
+revelation of herself. She did not know she was capable of such changes,
+and yet the last two weeks had greatly modified her opinions in many
+things.... Why should it not be so? If it were right she could be glad,
+and she reverently felt that it was right to let the Truth erase all
+errors and right all wrongs. To-night she would deny away every fault in
+her character, especially pride, deny every obstacle to understanding,
+and then earnestly ask for guidance, and wait till it came, for this was
+truly a crisis in her life.
+
+The next day she received her guest with a perceptibly softened manner.
+The hour was spent in mutual explanations, and the renewal of a more
+friendly relation on her part, much to the satisfaction of Mr.
+Carrington, whose perseverance was surely worthy this much reward, but
+Grace would go no further, although she gave him permission to call
+again. She must know herself fully before another word on the subject
+were said. Marriage was a vague and solemn theme, something to be
+pondered over days and nights and months perhaps, she thought, and said
+to him.
+
+Mr. Carrington was a man of earnest aim and high purpose, thoughtful,
+intellectual and cultured, in every way congenial to her, and she was
+glad to accept his friendship. That he had loved her through all her
+coldness and neglect, she no longer doubted, which fact was of no small
+import in his chances for her favor. Finding how absolutely false had
+been the report that had caused her misjudgment, she was anxious to
+prove herself at least, a friend.
+
+After he was gone she reviewed the situation. Had she gone too far? No.
+All was well. She was content. Even if it should end in marriage, for
+marriage was the highest symbol of perfection and--. What the symbol
+meant was yet to be revealed, but she already knew that it had a
+profound and sacred meaning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+     "The study of Heredity, _spiritual_ anatomy and physiology is
+     highest of all. The key to this study is your own soul. Study
+     yourself; gain possession and mastery of your own spirit and you
+     hold the key not only to the heights of liberty, but the key that
+     unlocks imprisoned souls."--_Mary Weeks Burnett M. D._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October----.
+
+"My dear husband: Gradually the vision broadens and we become more
+accustomed to the light. It is as though we were put into a beautiful
+room filled with all manner of lovely forms and dainty colors, flowers
+and perfumes, where we have groped blindfolded from one thing to
+another, trying to form some conception of the surpassing loveliness,
+when gradually the bandage is removed, layer by layer until the whole
+enchanting scene, radiant with light is revealed to our wondering gaze,
+showing the vast difference between supposition and reality.
+
+"The light grew clearer than ever to-day, for we had our first practical
+hint on healing, inasmuch as we were told how to take up a case for
+treatment.
+
+"We must never forget that we are, and wish to remain as little
+children, in our desire to apprehend and understand Truth. The natural
+attitude of the child-mind is one of receptivity and eager interest.
+Under the guidance of wise parents he will always be willing and anxious
+to learn more and more, continually growing in wisdom and love.
+
+"Back to the zeal and innocence of childhood we go then, to learn the
+ever mysterious but ever charming alphabet of Truth, which leads us into
+the kingdom.
+
+"As we present ourselves in the great school room of life, and take or
+recognize our appointed place beside the ever present School-master, we
+learn the letters of the grand knowledge that shall teach us how to read
+the most learned books, understand the deepest philosophy, the
+profoundest science, the divinest religion. We would learn the ministry
+of healing, that will set free the 'spirits in prison;' we would be glad
+messengers of the gospel of peace. The door to great attainments is
+faithfulness in small ones.
+
+"There are three kinds or modes of healing. The first or lowest, is the
+intellectual; the second or next higher, the intuitional; the third and
+highest, the spiritual. The first only can be taught, the other two are
+attained by individual development. The first comes by reason, the
+second by faith, the third by understanding. The first is by argument or
+a system of reasoning, the second by implicit trust or confidence in the
+Principle, the third by the realization of Truth and the speaking of the
+word or perchance, by one's very presence.
+
+"But there is nothing arbitrary about this. The person who never heard
+of Christ's teaching till yesterday may have so caught the fire of Truth
+that to-day he stands at the altar a priest instead of communicant, a
+teacher instead of pupil.
+
+"Many just beginning their study of this method of healing require
+explicit directions and explanations of details, in order to apply the
+principle, feeling that they have no intuitional leadings and can not
+depend upon the invisible power because they know so little about it.
+
+"Wait; be patient; trust. Remember that 'he who is faithful in little,
+shall be made ruler over much.' You need not learn the rule if you learn
+the principle, and only so long as you are ignorant of the principle
+will you need the rule. To use the rule, as the child uses the chair in
+learning to walk, is to grow strong, and able to dispense with it; to
+use it as spectacles are used, is to make it indispensable.
+
+"If we can not yet learn through divine ways, let us learn through human
+ways. The human is inadequate to express the divine, but many nameless
+hints and light-gleams and sudden illuminations will flash upon the
+faithful worker all along the way. Words are signs of ideas and ideas
+are signs of God. When we think or speak true words, we have begun our
+mission of healing or helpfulness, and from words we go on to the
+inexpressible thrill of realization.
+
+"We can not tell when we may thus change from the letter to the spirit,
+can not tell when we come into the exalted condition of a spiritual
+understanding, and having received the illumination, we are not to feel
+that we have grown above the use of argument, for it may be necessary to
+go back to the rule with the very next treatment.
+
+"Above all else must the student of this Truth guard against what may be
+called spiritual pride. No thought of supremacy or greater advancement
+should be harbored for a moment. All such things are clouds that obscure
+the light as much as other material beliefs.
+
+"To gauge ourselves by that inimitable thirteenth chapter of I.
+Corinthians is to maintain the perfect equilibrium of a loving,
+charitable heart, that can heal and bless all human-kind, for 'love
+never faileth.'
+
+"We become, as it were, the cleansed window pane, through which shines
+the divine light of Truth. Could we always be the cleansed pane, Truth
+would melt away all error, just as the sun melts the frostwork, but
+being still in the current of human thought we must wait patiently for
+further power to reveal the God-likeness.
+
+"Wrong thought as the real cause of disease, opens new avenues of
+information; but we continue to explore and discover. Any kind of
+thought opposite the good is sure to break forth into some form of
+disease-pictures, and the question is, what kind of thought is it which
+thus reflects itself upon the patient's body? All error will produce
+pictures of error. The world's naming of the belief in heredity is the
+naming of its greatest error, or belief in sin, because that implies all
+sins of the flesh as manifested in the body.
+
+"Back of all effect is a cause; the disease is the effect, the wrong
+thought is the cause. One of the great causes of disease is sensual
+beliefs, the appetites and passions of the carnal man.
+
+"It is error to suppose he is subject to conditions unlike God, the
+Source. 'He that is born of God, can not sin, because his seed remaineth
+in him.' Being in and controlled by the universal thought current, the
+error of supposition, he manifests it in his condition. Supposing
+consumption hereditary, he suffers from the supposition; supposing
+impurities of the blood transmitted through the flesh, he finds it even
+so. Supposition, false thinking, being at the bottom of all erroneous
+conditions, we proceed to deal with them as we do with any other errors
+or lies.
+
+"When we seek for anything with a desire to gain happiness, it is
+because we hope to gain what our previous efforts have failed to bring
+us, so the one who comes to be healed by Christian Truth, comes with a
+hope at least that this will bring the health he has sought in vain from
+other sources. He has turned in all directions in response to the advice
+received from this or that one of the friendly advisers, so ready to
+constitute themselves the body guard of the world. He has tried doctors
+of every school; he has traveled east, west, north and south; he has
+plunged into healing waters of all kinds and had all kinds of healing
+waters plunged into him; he has been burned and steamed and pounded and
+starved, till he is finally disgusted enough to want something that will
+not harm if it will not cure, so he drags himself before us with
+possibly a gleam of hope, possibly the faithlessness of despair, and
+asks for a treatment.
+
+"And now you wish to know in what a treatment consists; simply in
+silently telling the patient the truth about himself as God's child, in
+giving him the principles we have learned concerning God and man, and
+with earnest gladness assuring him of his freedom. For the benefit of
+the young practitioner, we will give a few directions or suggestive
+treatments.
+
+"We ask the patient for a statement of his belief, which he is only too
+glad to give with elaborate and vivid details. We meet every statement
+with an emphatic mental denial.
+
+"The faithful student who has fasted and prayed (denied and affirmed),
+is now the embodiment of one vast negative that should wipe out the
+positive belief of any inharmony. The patient, being in the belief of
+false conditions, is of one mind with the world, and so reflects the
+beliefs of mankind. That we may be sure of meeting all classes of false
+beliefs, we deny for him the reflection of any false conceptions of
+himself from the race, his parents and ancestors, his friends and
+associates, himself and ourself, for we are still one with humanity.
+
+"Everybody has a conscious or unconscious belief in heredity, and since
+it is one of, if not _the_ most formidable of human beliefs, we deal
+with it first as the possible cause of our patient's belief in
+suffering.
+
+"After he has finished the statement of his condition, we say to him
+mentally: 'James Martin! Hear what I say, for I tell you absolute truth.
+Not one word of all this you have told me about dyspepsia is true,
+because the carnal mind, to which you have been listening, is not
+subject to the law of God, and _you_, the spiritual, immortal you, are
+subject to the mind of the spirit which recognizes the spiritual
+creation, therefore your spiritual self can not be sick or suffer from
+any inharmony.
+
+"'This carnal mind belief named dyspepsia is not a condition of your
+real self. The belief of the race, ancestors, daily associates, yourself
+or myself in heredity and the sensual appetites can not be pictured
+forth by your body in the form of dyspepsia, because the real you is
+spiritual and not subject to material beliefs. It is utterly impossible
+for you, who are spiritual, to be influenced by any thought that is
+opposite the spiritual, as it is impossible for the light to coalesce
+with darkness.
+
+"'_You_ are God's child, made in His image and likeness, and must be
+perfect like Him, for His conditions are changeless and eternal. Listen
+to this glad message that tells you absolute Truth. Realize that as
+God's child you can not suffer, for spirit knows no suffering. You can
+not be weak, for God is your strength; you can not fear anything, for
+God is your refuge and fortress. 'God hath not given us the spirit of
+fear, but of love and of power and of sound mind.'
+
+"'Listen to me!--The 'Truth sets free.'--_Now, you are free_. You gladly
+acknowledge the truth, and prove it in every thought, word and deed.
+Like the Master, I say unto you, 'Lazarus, come forth!' Come out of the
+errors in which you have been so long entombed, throw off the grave
+clothes of mortal thought, and rise to new thoughts, new conditions, a
+new life! Rejoice that you are whole, and let the world rejoice with
+you.... It is finished. In the hands of omnipresent Good, in the name of
+immaculate Truth, I leave you.
+
+"'So may this be established, yea, it _is already_ established. I thank
+Thee, Father, that thou hast heard me.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"This lesson, John, is very hard to report. I find so many questions
+suggested to my mind, and so many if's and but's.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl desired us each to take up a case for absent treatment, some
+one we would like to help, and from whom we could hear every day or so,
+or who would be under our personal notice. I am going to treat a little
+boy in the house where I board. It is quite a severe case of catarrh.
+
+"I wish you would take a case, too. Just try this form of treatment that
+I have given. It may not seem clear to you at first, but it is not the
+words you are to remember so much as the ideas. Get the thought firmly
+fixed in your mind, and the words will come of themselves.
+
+"You readily see it is using the same principle with the patient that
+has been applied in self training. First, the denial of all error, and
+then the affirmation of truth. This treatment is for any chronic
+condition, and is given twice a day, in the morning and at night.
+
+"Now, I must say good-night. It is nearly eleven, and I really ought to
+say my denials and affirmations some more, besides giving my patient the
+treatment.
+
+"With many kisses to the dear ones,
+
+  "I am your loving MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+     "Once let friendship be given that is born of God, nor time nor
+     circumstance can change it to a lessening; it must be mutual
+     growth, increasing trust, widening faith, enduring patience,
+     forgiving love, unselfish ambition and an affection built before
+     the Throne, which will bear the test of time and trial."
+
+     --_Allen Throckmorton._
+
+
+"It seems to me, Grace, you have been touching up your complexion with
+some of the same paint as that in your roses," exclaimed Kate,
+playfully, as she inspected Grace rather critically.
+
+"Really, Kate, you must be more careful, or I shall add the sin of
+vanity to my other faults," answered Grace, looking out of the window
+and smiling pleasantly, with the least touch of absent mindedness in her
+manner.
+
+"No danger of that, you dear old Gracious, but if you should say
+secretiveness, I might be willing to stop," said Kate, boldly, yet
+hardly daring to look toward the window.
+
+Grace did not answer, but continued looking out of the window for
+several minutes. "What makes you say that, Kate?" she asked at last,
+turning around soberly, while the rosy flush crept up to her temples and
+back of her ears.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, Gracious, only it seems to me you are like a pure
+white lily bell, and I want to creep into your heart and live in its
+fragrance, but--" She stopped abruptly. It seemed as though the almost
+imperceptible veil of reserve was falling lower than ever.
+
+Oh, why could she not gain Grace's confidence? These thoughts passed
+rapidly through her mind while she stood as if transfixed, waiting for
+Grace to break the interminable silence. If she had only known it, Grace
+was nearer to her at that moment than ever before, but with her eyes
+cast down, she saw not the yearning look on the face of her friend.
+
+Grace spoke at last:
+
+"But what, Kate?" she asked, taking up Kate's words where they had
+dropped.
+
+"But the petals will not open, and I am left out," finished Kate,
+determined to be frank.
+
+Grace looked out of the window again, and was about to reply, when a rap
+at the door startled them both. It was a boy with a note. "Miss Grace
+Hall?" he said, handing it to her.
+
+Grace looked at the letter and then at the boy inquiringly. "I am to
+wait for an answer," he said.
+
+"Oh," she murmured, in a dazed way, and hastened to find pen and paper
+for reply.
+
+"More mystery! I declare, it is getting interesting," thought Kate,
+recovering herself, as she furtively watched the rosy face of Grace.
+
+"Any answer?" asked the boy as he took the note.
+
+"No." The door was shut and Grace sat down beside the picture she had
+been working upon, but presently arose and began pacing the room. Kate
+looked up at her as she passed, but said nothing. She could see that
+some deep thought was struggling for utterance, and wondered much.
+
+After a few moments Grace stopped beside her. "I wish I might speak
+freely to you, Kathie, but--" she hesitated, "but it has never been
+natural for me to be confidential, and--"
+
+She began her promenade again, but presently came back, and drawing her
+chair close up to Kate, told her the whole story, with long pauses and
+much hesitating speech.
+
+"And now he is in the city; he--wants an answer. He has invited me
+to--ride with him--to-morrow."
+
+"Surely, you will not refuse him that privilege?" cried the impetuous
+Kate, with visions of a romance unfolding in thrilling chapters before
+her very eyes.
+
+"No, of course not," in a low tone, "but how shall I answer him?" The
+last was scarcely audible. It seemed almost as though she spoke to
+herself. With her forefinger she idly traced some hieroglyphics on her
+lap.
+
+"What says your heart, my Lilybell?" asked Kate, softly, as she caressed
+the hand that was at liberty.
+
+"'The prisoned bird doth ofttimes sing, but never at the bidding of its
+jailer,'" was the low reply, with a faint smile, but tearful eyes.
+
+"Poor Lilybell; she can not bloom before her time. I can wait for her to
+open now, for I am close to her throbbing heart. Wait, dear Grace. Let
+us sit silently and ask the Father for guidance."
+
+Sweet and solemn moment, when with one accord, they waited for the
+Spirit to pour out the full vials of love and wisdom. It was a precious
+time of sweet communion, of giving and receiving the best, a
+consecration of self to better efforts, higher aims, holier living; a
+baptism of strength and peace and lovely thoughts.
+
+Grace had entered upon a new epoch. The past, with its longings and
+struggles, its loneliness and bitterness, was already fading into the
+background of memory like some dark, ill-favored picture, and in its
+place came the present, with its balmy atmosphere and dainty colorings,
+promising joy and peace. The morning looked fair. How would be the noon
+and eventide?
+
+Ah, no questioning when you ask the Father's guidance! Have you not
+asked, dear heart?
+
+Wait till the answer comes. Wait till the soundless message is delivered
+into your heart's safe keeping....
+
+The last beams of the setting sun came through the window and bathed
+them in its red-gold glory. In her exalted mood, it seemed to Kate like
+a heavenly vision. She saw Grace glorified with a divine radiance,
+baptized with a new peace. White-winged angels hovered near, like pure
+thoughts personified. Every glinting sunbeam seemed a golden shaft of
+love.
+
+The glory paled into a mellow twilight. The enchanting picture faded,
+but the essence of its beauty changed into a heart-melody of softened
+sacred joy. What but music could speak in this hallowed moment?
+
+Kate's very soul would utter itself. She went to the piano as in a
+dream. Soft, low notes, faint and sweet, breathed of tender questionings
+and tremulous doubts; then a higher, more triumphant strain of victory
+swelled the notes that lingered but a moment, ere a tone of sadness and
+regret struck the keys, whispering of sacred duty and solemn
+responsibility.... Again the music changed. Now peace and joy thrilled
+and rippled through the melodious chords....
+
+Dearer than ever was the friendship thus cemented. They had been caught
+up to heaven, as it were, and that which had been bound on earth was now
+bound in heaven.
+
+"Mystical more than magical, is the communing of soul with soul, both
+looking heavenward. Here, properly, soul first speaks with soul; for
+only in looking heavenward, take it in what sense you may, not looking
+earthward, does what we can call union, mutual love, society, begin to
+be possible."
+
+They sat till late into the night, discussing and considering all phases
+of life and its problems.
+
+Kate read Mrs. Hayden's letter, which in the agitation and excitement of
+the first part of the evening she had quite forgotten. Because of their
+deep earnestness they were well prepared to catch the healing mood. This
+experience seemed indeed the shower that most opened the blossom of
+understanding, and ere they slept, each had taken some poor suffering
+mortal into her care as a patient. The blessings they had received were
+already being passed to the waiting neighbor.
+
+It is the deep, unselfish God-love that takes the world in its embrace.
+To perceive, feel, live the divine Love, is to have broken the old shell
+of selfishness, when we may begin to send the tender rootlets of being
+into the ready soil of the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+  "The power to bind and loose to Truth is given!
+  The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of Heaven.
+  The power, which in a sense belongs to none,
+  Thus understood belongs to every one."
+
+  --_Abraham Coles._
+
+  "Thro' envy, thro' malice, thro' hating,
+    Against the world, early and late,
+  No jot of our courage abating--
+    Our part is to work and to wait."
+
+  --_Anon._
+
+
+  MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"Dear ones at home: Your letters were all received this afternoon. Am
+pleased to know that Mabel is so interested, for it will help her so
+much in her studies and work. I must begin my daily report at once, as
+there is not much time before class.
+
+"There was no lesson yesterday, and about noon Mrs. Dawn came after me
+to go with her and Mrs. Browning, her hostess, to the dentist's, as Mrs.
+Browning had to have a tooth extracted. We started, treating her all the
+way with the quieting, reassuring thoughts that allay fear. Before she
+went in we agreed to hold that thought.
+
+"When Mrs. Browning went into the office, we remained in the waiting
+room thinking as intently as possible:
+
+"'There is not a thing to fear, Lida Browning, there is no tooth-ache
+with your real self, there is no sensation in matter. You can entertain
+nothing but the One Life. The One Mind thinks, and you are His idea,
+perfect as your Creator. Good is all, Love is all, Peace is already with
+you, for you are one with the Father.'
+
+... "It was done. The dentist was so amazed that he hardly remembered to
+give his patient a glass of water.
+
+"'Well, I never knew a cuspidate to come so hard. Didn't it hurt
+terribly?' he asked sympathetically.
+
+"'Not a bit except when you first put on the forceps,' was her prompt
+reply as she rinsed out her mouth....
+
+"I need say no more. You can imagine our pleasure at this victory. We
+never know how little our faith till we see how astonished we are at the
+demonstration.
+
+"You ask if Mrs. Pearl has explained your queries. A few questions were
+handed in yesterday, but I had not time to put them in my letter. One
+that always puzzled us, was: What is the origin of evil? The questions
+are written on slips of paper and laid on the table. She answers them
+before giving the regular lesson. When she read this slip there was not
+a little stir among the fifty eager questioners. 'What is the origin of
+evil?' she repeated. 'It has no origin,' was the unsatisfactory answer,
+after a momentary silence. Oh! the blankness of those faces! 'But,' she
+resumed presently, 'if you ask how _seeming_ evil originated, I may give
+you the ideas that came to me as a solution of that mortal mind
+question.'
+
+"You know we might ask questions of each other forever, but unless our
+thoughts are tinged with same quality, or run in the same direction, the
+satisfactory answer to one may not be at all satisfactory to another. In
+other words, we will not recognize the same phase of truth, unless we
+are in the same stage of development, so if you are not willing to take
+my explanation as true, it may be that you are not yet where you can
+perceive it, or it may be, you require a different illustration to
+convey the same thought, or, there may be innumerable reasons, but of
+this one blessed fact be assured: if you hold yourself in the receptive
+attitude, and sincerely expect to be guided by the spirit of truth, some
+day the answer will come to you with such irresistible force and
+plainness that you can not forget it, or ever be in doubt upon that
+point again.
+
+"It was in this way the light came to me. That question had puzzled me
+more than all else, and I asked every healer whom I met as to the
+correct solution. For several months I pondered and fretted over it. At
+last, in despair, I let it alone, resolving I would not be further
+troubled. But one day it unfolded itself so clearly and beautifully I
+was completely satisfied.
+
+"Here it is: Taking the first account of creation, we find man made in
+the image and likeness of God, given dominion over all things. If we
+believe man to be spiritual and not material, if we know that spirit
+_can not_ change its character or quality, we must know that spiritually
+man never fell, but that he _seemed_ to fall through our misconception
+and misunderstanding of appearances.
+
+"Man now manifests what he believes in; his consciousness of truth is
+not fully developed and he mistakes appearances for realities. Having
+all possibilities of recognizing only the good, he is perfect. For every
+mistake that is made he manifests error, the fallen, or rather the
+undeveloped state. The Truth and Love that he manifests in his life, is
+the revealment of his God-like nature. In the glimpses of his true self
+he recognizes his inheritance of power, and in his mistaken conceptions
+forgets to acknowledge God. He then judges according to appearances, and
+says things are true because they appear true to the senses.
+
+"The creating principle of life is perfect, but man neglects to
+acknowledge this divine power in proportion to his selfishness. It is
+therefore his selfishness that prevents him from recognizing the Good,
+and causes him to see, name and believe in matter and its consequences;
+and he thus becomes materially minded, and is known as the 'Adam' in
+'whom all die.'
+
+"Adam signifies error, clay, unreality. Christ signifies Truth, Spirit,
+Reality. If we believe in things that appear to be the creation, we are
+believing in nothingness, which so proves itself by death and
+disintegration. If we believe appearances to be the _sign_ of the real,
+we are acknowledging the spiritual to be the all, hence it proves itself
+by making even the body its sign, manifest life, health, perfection.
+
+"If we cast out all selfishness, pure love takes its place. We must be
+purified from the beliefs of the world in selfishness and its
+consequences by recognizing that our 'sufficiency is of God.'
+
+"This was very plain to me, John, and I hope you will find it so too,
+but if you do not, wait, and as soon as you are ready for it, the answer
+will come to you.
+
+"The lesson to-day was on deception and personal influences. The whole
+world has been deceived into believing man is fleshly instead of
+spiritual, so many false thoughts and beliefs have arisen, which are the
+cause of all disease and trouble. Universally we are deceived,
+individually we are deceived, and it is not only because we are making
+our beliefs visible on the body, but because we suffer from them
+mentally and physically that it is necessary to discover what they are
+and cast them out.
+
+"The term deception will cover the mistakes believed and made in
+ignorance, and deceitfulness will include the beliefs in and expression
+of deceitfulness. On the second day the patient is treated for the
+world's next greatest beliefs, which are deception and deceitfulness,
+and as before, we set him free from this belief, as possibly reflected
+or absorbed through one or more or all of these five avenues we
+mentioned in the first treatment.
+
+"Because the world has admitted the first great lie, that the material
+creation is the true one, or synonymous with the true, we have 'yielded
+ourselves servants to sin,' hence will see the consequences of such
+false conclusion, until we deny the lie and affirm the truth.
+
+  'Oh what a tangled web we weave,
+  When first we practice to deceive,'
+
+is a couplet I remember learning long ago, when I was a child, and how
+applicable it is to this problem of deception. Truly, it is a tangled
+web, and the only way to get it untangled is to break off the thread and
+go back to the beginning where we can truly say, I am created free and
+perfect and whole in His image, and can not be influenced by anything
+different from Him.
+
+"This is _always_ spiritually true, but if we deal with the worldly
+beliefs, we find that according to appearances, we are under the
+influence of our own and every other person's wrong thought. We say of
+some people, 'how happy I am in their company, how it uplifts me to be
+in their presence.' With others we feel a nameless depression, a
+fearful, unhappy feeling, and shun their company. As Emerson so aptly
+says: 'With some I walk among the stars, whilst others pin me to the
+wall.'
+
+"Now, in reality, no good ever comes from personal influence, although
+in the first instance it might seem so. Personal, from the word
+_persona_, a mask, is only applied to the physical self or carnal mind;
+therefore we can receive no benefit from the _personal_ quality of our
+friend, but we are benefited and uplifted by his freedom from
+personality, or in other words by the divine individuality flowing
+through him and expressed by his benevolence, his love, his
+cheerfulness, his wisdom. Inasmuch as he is free from personal or
+selfish thoughts, he is filled and permeated with gifts from the divine
+Fountain of _all_ benevolence, _all_ love, _all_ cheerfulness, _all_
+wisdom.
+
+"There is a difference between personality and individuality which most
+people do not recognize. Personality only pertains to the physical,
+while individuality is the term properly applied to the spiritual self.
+'There is but one Mind, the Universal Mind, which, if we can lay hold
+on, will give us all knowledge, wisdom and power,' said Emerson.
+
+"When we can throw aside a belief in personality, or personal influence,
+we will be free. The negative thoughts sent out by the world have no
+power over one who has become filled with positive thoughts of
+righteousness. When we trust wholly to the Good, and become wholly at
+one with the Good, recognizing the supremacy of the Good, we are free
+from all belief in miseries or burdens. We breathe purer air, which is
+invisible but life-giving; we feed on heavenly manna, the true word that
+is divinely nourishing; we escape the awful bondage of fear, knowing the
+perfect love that casts out fear. We can not fear any false beliefs or
+wrong thoughts, for we are so filled with true thoughts, no such
+falsities can enter our mind.
+
+"Some people talk as though we have great cause to tremble at this awful
+counterfeit power of mortal mind, but if they would not talk of it, nor
+fear it as having power, it would vanish as mist before the morning sun.
+
+"The great sin is in admitting a lie. Admit the belief of sickness as a
+reality and you will see many witnesses to prove it. 'Agree with thine
+adversary quickly, lest he turn and rend thee,' means make haste to
+dispose of the lie that will throttle you, if you fellowship with it
+ever so little. Let us not be deceived, but let us 'awake to
+righteousness and sin not.'
+
+"Another question, and a very important one, was: 'What is the
+difference between the different teachers of Christian Healing?' I can
+best give the substance of Mrs. Pearl's reply by reference to Mrs.
+Fuller, the healer from Trenton.
+
+"You remember when she gave her parlor lecture at Mrs. Haight's, she
+said: 'Everything that did not come from her teacher was mesmerism, that
+it was altogether false, and it was so much of a power that it was
+indeed to be feared, for there was no telling what its subtlety and
+cunning would suggest and execute; that no cure effected by it was
+permanent, but that the patients would sooner or later be worse than
+before.'
+
+"Oh, dear, I must not rehearse it, for of course you remember how my old
+headache overtook me when I got home, and how wrought up I was all
+night. Now I know what caused it, and _now_ I know the difference.
+
+"In the first place, these people are taught the pure and beautiful
+foundation of pure Christian Healing, but instead of holding to their
+premise that all is good, they begin to talk about people and things
+that are _not_ good, imputing false motives, and giving false power to
+those who, as they say, are not in the truth.
+
+"If they would only remember that counterfeits can have no power except
+as it is delegated to them, that unreal thoughts must disappear in the
+presence of true thoughts, they would not be troubled and puzzled.
+Adhering to the law, they would recognize and talk about the Good only.
+
+"Ah, John, here is the secret of Jesus' words, 'Resist not evil.' If we
+resist anything, we recognize it as something. If we regard evil as an
+entity, we can not help fearing or fighting it, but if we know it is
+nothingness claiming to be something, we deal with it accordingly.
+
+"Whoever resists evil or calls evil a power, has not denied the reality
+of evil faithfully enough. To talk of anything as having power, is to
+believe in the power and become entangled in its meshes. That explains
+Mrs. Fuller's remark that she was 'actually afraid to meet one of those
+false teachers on the street, and always took pains to warn people
+against them.' I speak of Mrs. Fuller because you know so well what she
+did and said, that you will understand this explanation better.
+
+"Another remark she made was, that 'this power of mortal mind is wholly
+ignored by these false teachers, although they secretly use it so
+effectually and disastrously.' Because they do not talk so much of evil,
+she thinks they ignore it, while really they silently but earnestly and
+vigorously deny it, thereby getting a sure control over it. She was
+taught to call this seeming power of mortal thought Mesmerism, and
+Animal Magnetism, and after giving it such formidable names, and so
+mighty a place, it is most natural for her to say that it affects
+herself and family or her patients, causing them to be slow in yielding
+to treatment. Thus you can readily see how she accounts for her
+failures.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl teaches that we can deal with this influence of carnal or
+mortal mind, by denying for the patient the conscious or unconscious
+reflection of it from these five different sources. To the patient who
+is ignorant of truth, mortal thought has a power, because he has
+acknowledged it as having power, but in our silent conviction of its
+powerlessness, we speak the true word that sets him free. The whole
+secret lies in our own freedom from belief in this false power.
+
+"The name Mesmerism or Magnetism makes it seem like some awful monster,
+lurking in every corner, ready to devour us, while, as Mrs. Pearl says,
+we go our way, quietly denying all appearance of evil, proving the law
+of Good by recognizing only the Good in thought and speech.
+
+"How beautiful this teaching is! and how wonderfully the spirit leads us
+into all truth. But it can not teach us if we talk error, or
+deliberately judge others. Never till we are faithful in acknowledging
+the one Principle of Life will it prove itself the only power over us.
+
+"After the questions, Mrs. Pearl spoke of the third treatment. We treat
+for everything we might have missed in the first two treatments.
+Sometimes this is called the sin treatment, for it takes up so many
+things that belong more or less to everybody, according to the world's
+belief. A more explicit naming is selfishness.
+
+"Selfishness is the beginning, the mother of all the rest. It reminds
+one of the seven devils from which poor Mary Magdalen was freed. It is
+not unlikely these were their names: Selfishness, pride, envy, avarice,
+jealousy, malice and cruelty. This we deny for the patient through the
+five different sources, and you can see how apt it will be to touch him,
+for who is there of all earth's children that is perfectly free from
+any of these qualities. With our strong faith in the law and power of
+the word, we sturdily deny everything that might be the shadow
+obstructing his light.
+
+"As we go on in this study, we learn the meaning of these outshowings of
+disease. Every visible thing is the expression of a thought, whether
+God-given or man-supposed. We look into a patient's face and read or
+interpret the signs of his thought. Is he selfish, unkind or severe in
+his disposition, there are the lines and expressions that betray him. Is
+he lovely, gentle and kind, a nameless feeling of peace and trust steals
+over us.
+
+"In the moments or times of silence that every healer should seek, there
+may come something to hint of the truth, some word or text or
+mind-picture that will teach what no book or teacher could tell, for
+'the spirit of truth leads us into all truth,' and the ways and means
+are varied according to our capacity to receive.
+
+"A mind-picture is a symbol representing some thought. For instance:
+Suppose while I sit in the silence, there comes to my consciousness a
+fragment of landscape, a child's face, a storm, a sun. These are ideas
+symbolized. If it be a pleasant scene, it may be to me a glimpse of the
+'green pastures and still waters' that David sang about when depicting
+the life of the righteous. It would mean peace for my patient. If the
+symbol be a child's face, it may mean that I must become as a little
+child in order to be led into the kingdom. A storm may signify that my
+patient is passing through a crisis of mental commotion, in which case I
+must use the invariable rule, deny the false and affirm the true.
+
+"On the other hand I may never see a symbol, but some suggestive text
+may come into my mind. If I were depressed or discouraged, these words
+might give me new courage and hope: 'Fear not, for I am with thee;'
+'wait patiently on the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine
+heart.'
+
+"Or I might not be conscious of anything while I am sitting thus in the
+silence. The answer to my silent question may come to me in the most
+commonplace way days or weeks after it is asked. Some person may say
+something that will be the very clue I am seeking. We are not to be
+anxious or troubled if many questions perplex us, or many problems seem
+insoluble, but wait, trusting that 'he is faithful who promised.' We
+must not be wishing for the same signs or powers that others have, but
+appreciate what is given to us, for faithfulness shall receive its full
+reward in due time 'if we faint not.'
+
+"No more to-day. Love to the babies. How glad I am to know they are so
+well and happy.
+
+  "Faithfully, MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+  "Comfort our souls with love,
+    Love of all human kind;
+  Love special, close in which, like sheltered dove,
+    Each weary heart its own safe nest may find;
+  And love that turns above
+    Adoringly; contented to resign
+  All loves, if need be, for the love divine."
+
+  --_D. M. Mulock Craik._
+
+
+Grace looked very lovely, as she stepped into the carriage, when Mr.
+Carrington called for her. A suggestion of reserved feeling gave an
+added lustre to her beautiful eyes, and the faintest wild-rose tint in
+her cheeks made her a fit study for any artist.
+
+She looks like Psyche just awakened. Can it be possible, that with all
+her charms, she was sleeping, before to-day? he thought as he took his
+seat beside her, thrilled with new hope.
+
+He drove into one of the broad, quiet avenues that led out of the city
+and into a country road. "I thought you would like to visit 'The Glen,'
+and see its autumn dress," he said, as they came in view of the river
+over which lay the "Glen" road.
+
+"I have been wishing I might go there, before the leaves fell, and this
+is exactly what I enjoy," replied Grace, looking out over the scene
+before her with a keen pleasure.
+
+"Perhaps this is an answer to your wish. Sometimes I think our wishes
+are answered because of their intensity," said Mr. Carrington, looking
+meaningly into her face.
+
+"George Eliot says: 'The very intensity keeps them from being
+answered.'" What gave him the sudden, triumphant certainty that he could
+bide his time? She had lost all her haughtiness, apparently. He had
+never seen her in the mood of to-day.
+
+"_Apropos_ of wishes," he resumed, "which are properly thoughts, I have
+two friends in Boston, who can communicate with each other, no matter
+how far apart they may be. They call it the power of thought."
+
+"Yes, thought transference. I am quite interested and fully believe it,"
+said Grace, glad to have the opportunity of sounding him on this and
+kindred themes.
+
+He glanced at her in polite surprise. "Indeed," he said, "are you
+acquainted with the subject?"
+
+"Somewhat; I have seen enough to know it is founded on law," she
+replied, briefly.
+
+"What law?" he asked, wonderingly, with a slight smile of incredulity
+lighting his face.
+
+"Mental law, of course."
+
+She then went on to explain to him something of her study of mental
+healing. At first he was rather skeptical, but on seeing her
+seriousness, he very soon grew sober and gave the most respectful and
+apparently absorbed attention. By the time she finished, he was really
+interested.
+
+"I have often thought that some day there would be more light upon the
+philosophy of thought, but I was not aware it was so close upon us," he
+finally said.
+
+"It is certainly much needed now," she replied, looking dreamily at the
+white clouds floating in the bits of blue above the trees. She was
+thinking how much it had been worth to her in her trial last night. He
+noticed the far-away look and wished he might know her thoughts.
+
+What would have been his surprise, could he have been told at this
+moment how much he was already indebted to Christian Science? for had it
+not softened the cruel pride that had so encrusted her before? He knew
+nothing of this. He perceived a change in her manner and even character
+since he last saw her two years before, although even then his great
+love had been able to condone all weaknesses, or what others would call
+weaknesses. To him they were part of her lovableness.
+
+When she so coldly rejected him, unlike most men, he had determined to
+wait patiently for her indifference to turn into reciprocation. He had
+recognized but one thing, the simple, supreme fact that he loved Grace
+Hall. In regard to her, there was and never could be any other thought.
+Inspired with such love as this, such sublime patience, such infinite
+hope, is it any wonder he looked into her eyes and read a hint of
+victory?
+
+The time was drawing near. His two years of waiting surely gave him
+liberty to ask, and the right to receive.... As for that, love, such
+love as his, had royal rights and it would win its own way when the
+moment came. He would approach the subject gradually, talking about his
+coming departure, although he had mentioned that in his note, had even
+dared to tell her this must be his excuse for requesting an answer
+sooner than she wished to give it.
+
+"Oh, what a lovely group of colors!" exclaimed Grace, involuntarily,
+pointing to a tree decked in the most gorgeous foliage.
+
+"Shall I get some leaves for you?" he asked, anticipating her desire,
+and descended from the carriage.
+
+Presently he returned, with his hands full of small branches. "They are
+lovely hues. Is there not something else you would like? I saw some
+beautiful ferns over yonder," he said, pointing to the spot.
+
+"Will we have time? I _would_ like to get out," she exclaimed eagerly.
+
+"Time! 'There's time for all things,' Shakespeare says," laughed Mr.
+Carrington, as he assisted her to alight.
+
+Grace was in her element amid the speaking grandeur of Nature's hills.
+
+"Have you a sharp pencil, Mr. Carrington? I seem to have lost the one I
+always carry with me, and that grand oak tree I must have as a model."
+
+He quickly sharpened one and gave it to her.
+
+How beautiful she looked! He delighted to watch every movement of the
+deft fingers, to study every expression of the beautiful eyes and mobile
+mouth. He revelled in her beauty, because to him she was the
+personification of all that was lovely and noble and great. Her
+character he would have loved just as much had she been plain instead of
+beautiful, for his ideal was the inward, not the outward beauty, except
+as the two blended into one, as they did with her.
+
+"You seem to be partial to the oak, Miss Hall. Is there any reason for
+it?"
+
+"Yes, I am. It is a grand symbol of strength and firmness of character,"
+she replied, still sketching rapidly. "I like to paint trees, for they
+express so much. Some show such kindly benevolence, with their broad,
+spreading branches and friendly shade, some are so graceful, with their
+tall trunks and delicately veined leaves, as though showing a fine,
+tender nature; while others are stunted and rough, with coarse, thick
+foliage. I place each one as to character and station, and they teach me
+many beautiful lessons."
+
+"And they will teach me many after this, Miss Grace."
+
+He wanted to say something more, but she was so innocently unconscious
+of anything but her work that he must wait for a better opportunity.
+
+Having finished her sketch, Grace looked up. The self-consciousness that
+had scarcely left her, save these past few moments, now returned with
+painful suddenness. Her eyes met his, and a vivid flush overspread her
+face, but she said nothing.
+
+"Shall we go?" he asked, holding out his hand to assist her. His eyes
+expressed the question his lips could not frame, but she did not see
+them. They went to the carriage in silence.
+
+The road presently left the woods and turned into a broad country lane.
+Both had forgotten the proposed trip to "The Glen," but it made no
+difference. At last the undercurrent of feeling had burst through all
+reserves.
+
+Mr. Carrington awaited the final answer, and what did she say?
+
+It was the sacred page in a maiden's life that is read but once.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Grace had found in her lover a man who was broadminded and liberal
+enough to fairly consider these matters from a woman's standpoint. They
+freely discussed a married woman's rights and privileges, and both
+agreed that a wife should have an individuality after marriage as well
+as before. "I desired to express myself on this point before, my dear
+Grace," said Mr. Carrington, "because to my mind it is a mutual life,
+and should be a mutual development."
+
+"It is, indeed. I have never looked at it in the right way, till the
+last few weeks. I used to feel that marriage was degrading rather than
+elevating, because it seemed as though a woman had to give up so much
+that really belonged to her, her name, her property, her freedom as an
+individual. But now I see that true marriage should bring freedom in the
+fullest sense of the word."
+
+"In love there is no bondage," he replied, admiring her independent
+thought.
+
+"Yes, but the world has a faint conception of love, the love that saves
+to the uttermost, and endures forever," said Grace.
+
+"With such love there would be no danger of marriage degrading the
+individual, no need of divorce."
+
+He spoke strongly for he felt strongly. Any one speaking from the depths
+of a heart-conviction, speaks with authority.
+
+"The world needs to be lifted to a higher standard on these matters. The
+subject of marriage is too sacred to jest about, and people in general
+think it no harm to toy with the word and all that pertains to it with
+the utmost carelessness."
+
+Grace was more like herself now. She was very happy in the thought that
+Mr. Carrington understood this as she did, but she was not a little
+surprised to find herself giving such free expression to her opinions.
+
+"Indifference and laxity is the result of the trifling. My theory is
+that these things should be sacredly spoken of in the family, when boys
+and girls are growing up. That is the way my mother did," said Mr.
+Carrington reverently.
+
+"Yes, the family is more responsible than society, for it makes
+society," she replied, secretly touched by the allusion to his mother.
+
+She felt more and more confidence in Mr. Carrington. It seemed
+surprising to find how rapidly her love for him had increased since she
+gave it permission to grow. She did not realize that it had been a
+smothered plant before, trying to live without sunshine. Now it could
+grow in the warmth and brightness of beautiful day.
+
+It was early twilight when they returned. Kate was waiting for her. The
+joyous light in Grace's eyes, though she tried to veil it, told the
+story. Kate put her arms about her, saying, as she caressed the rosy
+cheek:
+
+"Lilybell is bloomed at last."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+  "Be cheerful: wipe thine eyes:
+  Some falls are means the happier to arise.
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Before the curing of a strong disease,
+  Even in the instant of repair and health
+  The fit is strongest; evils that take leave,
+  On their departure most of all show evil."
+
+  --_Shakespeare._
+
+
+For two days no letter came, and then Mr. Hayden received two, which he
+handed to the girls as he met them on the street the same evening.
+
+"Can you spare them both?" said Kate, holding out her hand eagerly.
+
+"Oh, yes; I am especially engaged to-night, and besides they are better
+together. I am rather glad for the delay. I was afraid the first one had
+miscarried," he replied.
+
+The waiting had only increased their interest, and on reaching home they
+at once sat down to read the the two letters handed them by Mr. Hayden.
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"Dear John: I suppose you, like the rest of us, are anxious to know how
+the patient feels after such a vigorous denial of the seven evils. It is
+quite necessary to know what to do at this stage.
+
+"After the treatment for special sins, James Martin comes with bitter
+complaints that he is worse instead of better. He tells a doleful story
+of how he suffered all night; had chills and fever exactly as when he
+had the ague long ago; how he coughed and choked and broke out with
+something like measles, and was all the while so vilely sick it seemed
+as though he was about to die.
+
+"As he is telling his pitiful tale, with perhaps a gleam of hatred,
+disgust or helpless anguish in his eyes, we are to sit calmly by and
+very soothingly give him the mental information that 'there is nothing
+to fear.'
+
+"When he concludes his mournful story, we assure him in quiet tones that
+there is no occasion for alarm, as we know how to deal with these
+symptoms. Then, very gently and slowly, with a most self-possessed
+attitude of mind, we talk to him mentally something after this fashion:
+
+"'There! James Martin, it is all right. Oh, no; nothing has hurt you,
+nor can hurt you. You are not afraid of anything; you know there is no
+reality in sickness; you are not suffering any inharmony because of fear
+or remorse for sin. It can not be possible for you to reflect fear or
+remorse from your parents, or the race or your daily associates. Neither
+is it possible for you to suffer from your own fear or remorse, nor
+mine. Remember, you are spiritual and not material, and can fear
+nothing. God is your intelligence, and you know that truth is
+all-powerful. Now, listen! You are happy, you are content, you are
+filled with blessed peace, 'the peace that passeth all understanding.'
+You know the Lord is your shepherd. He leadeth you beside the still
+waters. He maketh you to lie down in green pastures _now, this moment_.
+There is no future to God's promises; they are in the eternal present.
+There! James Martin, a sweet ease comes to you, the burden is taken
+away; you are in the gentle care of Truth, which ever whispers, 'Come
+unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
+rest.' Sh--h! Gently the arms enfold you, sweetly peace and love embrace
+you, and you are at rest; sleep if you like. Softly come sweet words of
+divine love to your waiting ear, 'fear not, fear not, for I am with
+thee.' Peace ... peace be with you, Amen.'
+
+"This stage is called chemicalization, because our words of truth,
+dropped into the mind filled with error, produce a fermentation similar
+to the effect produced by the union of different chemicals. Sometimes
+the patient chemicalizes after the first treatment, in which case the
+second and third treatments are omitted.
+
+"When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to a
+last year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of the
+beliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rooted
+in the mental soil.
+
+"Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnished
+plowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in its
+path. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettled
+and his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gently
+soothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure him
+there is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peace
+and assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverized
+and prepared for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fair
+truth-flowers.
+
+"To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to dig
+down into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that are
+imbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs he
+may have had.
+
+"Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously or
+unconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization only
+marks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of which
+the bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law for
+chemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without even
+noticing it.
+
+"Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires the
+soothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhaps
+unconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous,
+rousing thoughts should be given--sharp, decisive and emphatic, as when
+awaking a heavy sleeper.
+
+"When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acute
+condition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimes
+called. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting every
+thought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make the
+law--and the true word is always law--that they do not or can not
+reflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives,
+taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear for
+the little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, according
+to mortal thought, besides the near ones in the family, deny that any
+thought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon the
+child or manifested in this belief of sickness.
+
+"Sometimes children are treated entirely through the parents, that is,
+the parents are quieted and assured of the truth concerning their little
+one--that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fear
+can touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.
+
+"Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or rather
+long-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very little
+denial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to be
+applied more to the parents--the denial of fear.
+
+"If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are not
+at one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treat
+the patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will prove
+itself through you. _Know_ truth and do not tamely believe it, then you
+may have marvelous proof of the difference between knowledge and belief,
+God-like understanding and blind faith.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl very clearly answered the question which was asked
+concerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.
+
+"There is always punishment so long as we are in mortal belief, but it
+is only in mortal belief we can suffer, for the spirit made in the image
+and likeness of God can not suffer, neither know suffering.
+
+"The word everlasting should be translated age-lasting, to give the
+original meaning. Fire is a symbol of purification, and in the language
+of ancient times it was customary to use strong figures of speech.
+
+"In the fifteenth chapter of John, wherein Jesus explains about the vine
+and branches, what could be plainer than his illustration of the dead
+branches? 'Every branch that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and
+every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth
+more fruit.'
+
+"Every false belief is a branch that beareth not fruit, hence must be
+taken away and destroyed even as dead limbs are burned. Falsity or evil,
+being nothingness, can not exist because it is not of the real creation
+and is necessarily cast into the fire of purification, an illustration
+well understood at the time, since all the city refuse was taken to
+Gehenna, a place outside Jerusalem, where fire was always kept for the
+purpose of burning this waste matter.
+
+"'Every branch that beareth fruit is purged'--that is, if you are a
+mixture of good and evil beliefs, you will have to be cleansed of the
+evil, before you can do much with the good. This cleansing process is
+quite properly named purging. This is what we undergo in suffering.
+
+"'He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' means the good in us chastens
+us, cleanses us for the further working of the Good. Punishment, then,
+there must be, just as long as we believe in, and fellowship with error.
+
+"Mrs. McClaren, a staunch Presbyterian, did not seem satisfied with this
+explanation, but Mrs. Pearl told her not to let the question trouble
+her, for if she would do the best she could with what she knew, in due
+time the solution would come to her.
+
+"In the night it came. After she retired, the question kept pressing
+upon her so that she could not sleep.
+
+"About two o'clock it seemed as though a great flood of light came, and
+with it the clearance of the whole problem. The texts on that theme
+became illumined as it were, and she could see how impossible it is for
+the spirit to suffer or be punished when it is like God who can not
+'behold evil.' She came over this morning and told me about it. I will
+give you her explanation of Matt. xxv: 31, 32. 'When the Son of man
+shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
+sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all
+nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
+divideth his sheep from the goats.'
+
+"The Son of man, consciousness of Truth, shall come (be developed) with
+all glorious thoughts (angels) and judge us in all our ways (nations)
+and shall discriminate between the false and the true, the evil and the
+good, then the good motives or good thoughts (sheep) shall coalesce or
+be set on the right hand with Truth, and the evil or erroneous beliefs
+(goats) shall be relegated to the left, the negative or no-side, and
+swallowed up in their native darkness which is nothingness.
+
+"This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same line
+with Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that it
+came to _her_. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted from
+her heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would make
+her disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was an
+incontrovertible doctrine. Now she realizes that nothing but Truth
+itself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burst
+for joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, and
+after all, you are used to enthusiasm since your wife is an enthusiast.
+
+"Is it not wonderful? I ask myself over and over, and echo answers
+'wonderful'! But oh, how ignorant we ever will be, unless we stop and
+wait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance and
+foolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, for
+it is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we have
+learned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplessly
+bound to error's ways.
+
+"Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have been
+baptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough to
+answer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not know
+just how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weak
+to do the things that come to us to be done.
+
+"'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us--'why doubt
+your knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence,
+when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is your
+strength?'
+
+"As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent,
+omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts will
+fade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whose
+thoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we are
+unsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no foundation, no sense of
+security, to the one who is continually listening to other than the
+Good.
+
+"Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws his
+knowledge by inspiration from this source shall become as one with you,
+and we all shall be as one with the supreme Mind.
+
+"There is an indelible but invisible stamp of truth marking the
+utterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and the
+invisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,'
+sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
+world,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgment
+faculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teach
+us how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read the
+thoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growth
+of his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to another
+while we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well to
+take a music lesson from a different teacher every week.
+
+"We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of the
+doctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we do
+when we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow in
+knowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth that
+sets us free.
+
+"Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many times
+the discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Work
+with an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you serve
+the only Power, are governed by the one Principle, Infinite Justice,
+that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Best
+rewards you.
+
+"Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we ask
+of the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do is
+always with us.
+
+"This is the fifth stage in the patient's progress, and we treat him for
+ignorance and foolishness as possibly reflected from the five different
+sources. Deny that he can be ignorant of the truth, or foolish in
+believing error. Affirm all strength and courage and steadfastness. He
+comes to-day with an uncertain ring in his voice. He is undecided as to
+what to do; is weak and nerveless; can not tell whether he is better or
+worse. The treatment for strength and courage will bring him back to
+Truth, and he will brighten and revive under the warm influence of your
+sunny faith.
+
+"One more lesson! I shall be glad, yet sorry, when it is over. Oh, what
+an experience this has been! Surely, I shall never be such a weak,
+impatient woman again. Thank God! Now I know what there is for me in
+this beautiful world.
+
+  "Good bye,
+
+  "MARION."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+  "Build on resolve, and not upon regret,
+  The structure of thy future. Do not grope
+  Among the shadows of old sins, but let
+  Thine own soul's light shine on the path of hope,
+  And dissipate the darkness. Waste no tears
+  Upon the blotted record of lost years,
+  But turn the leaf, and smile, oh smile to see
+  The fair, white pages that remain for thee."
+
+  --_Ella Wheeler Wilcox._
+
+
+  "MARLOW, October ----.
+
+"I suppose this is the last letter I will write on the lessons in
+Christian Healing, but I will be faithful as ever, even though I tell it
+all over again when I see you.
+
+"Everybody looked regretful enough when they went into the class room
+to-day, but a hundred fold more so when we went out and the good-byes
+were said. It means so much to us all. We have passed through twelve
+lessons which may symbolize twelve epochs or stages through which we
+proceed from ignorance to understanding, and understanding to complete
+demonstration.
+
+"We have been together scarcely three weeks, and yet so much has been
+uncovered that we stand face to face with our real selves. All that was
+conventional has been laid aside in our intercourse, and the best and
+sweetest and most sacred phases of our lives laid bare, so that we have
+had a clear glimpse of God's children as they are, not as they usually
+appear; and indeed it gives us better courage and stronger faith to go
+forth into the world again, knowing that the possibilities of one are
+the possibilities of all, for 'God is no respecter of persons.'
+
+"I know, perhaps better than some of the rest, that we shall be walking
+in the valleys many times when our eyes are on the sun-crowned heights,
+but if we can be patient and earnest, our feet shall reach the fertile
+slopes and sunny grass lands of well attained effort. My experience of
+the past shall be only a stronger incentive to perseverance in the
+future, and while it seems human to fall, it is divine to rise, and
+knowing the divine privilege of proving divinity, I trust God to work
+through me in my daily effort. So said we all when we left the class
+room to-day, and with a holy consecration to our new-born faith, we
+trust we shall ever grow in grace and wisdom as God's children,
+according to the promise.
+
+"Mrs. Pearl spoke of our method as the science of silence, and told us
+not to be zealous without judgment, not to speak when silence would be
+golden, not to act so as to bring reproach upon our cause or ourselves,
+but remember to 'avoid even the appearance of evil.' She said many in
+their first joyous enthusiasm and overwhelming conviction would
+indiscreetly tell people 'there is no matter,' for instance, so eager
+were they to bring everybody into the sweet liberty of the spirit; but
+the world not being ready to properly consider the subject, would of
+course ridicule and argue hotly against such a statement, so that false
+opinions would spring up and most absurd practices and claims be
+attributed to Christian Healing.
+
+"Our system should have a dignified place in the world's opinion, and if
+we want to help give it that place, we should aim to be living
+representatives of the principles, maintain a dignified attitude
+regarding it, and if we can answer any questions pertaining to it, let
+our answer and manners be ennobling and Christ-like.
+
+"We never argue audibly with unbelievers. Argument kills the spirit of
+any religion, and the person who desires to prove his position by
+argument is not ready to be convinced by the spirit. If you are obliged
+to carry on a conversation with an argumentative person, silently deny
+all his statements of error, and with calm positiveness affirm for him
+intelligence, wisdom, and a desire to know truth. In other words,
+recognize his spiritual self, which is in perfect peace and harmony, and
+the outward disturbance or inharmony, which is simply nothingness
+expressed by him, is annulled. Possibly you may seem obliged to submit
+and listen to him. Never mind. Carry on your silent thoughts
+scientifically, and constantly think truth. Thus you will plant a seed
+that shall bring forth beauteous blossoms, excellent fruit.
+
+"Whenever you hear error talked, deny it. This is 'shutting your ears
+from hearing of blood, and your eyes from seeing evil.' _Any_ error must
+be denied in order to see the proof of its opposite truth.
+
+"If everybody would learn to deny all the slander or gossip they hear,
+we should soon have a new social world. Cruel tongues would cease their
+wagging, timid hearts could breathe again, and fair names bloom in every
+home.
+
+"This would be the beginning of a much needed reform in the daily press.
+Poor editors, they are obliged to fill orders, like the cooks and
+waiters serving the gentlemen and ladies in the elegant dining-room,
+ladies' _ordinary_ and ground-floor _cafe_. Alas! that the discovery
+should not be made by everybody, so they could send in different orders.
+How gladly would the bill of fare be changed!
+
+"But there is nothing more certain to change it, than the little leaven
+of truth dropped in the highways and byways of daily life. We must 'be
+diligent in season and out of season,' silently as a rule, but at times
+audibly, perchance forcibly, for some minds seem so dull and sluggish as
+to need a startling thunder-clap to awaken them from their slumber of
+ignorance. Thus some patients that come to be healed must be told
+sharply and definitely how to think or what to say, for sometimes it is
+necessary to make them say their own word of healing, they are so
+completely absorbed in material beliefs.
+
+"We grow more in wisdom and spiritual judgment as we proceed faithfully
+along our way of scientific thought and living, and thus have an
+unerring insight into what we shall do and say in order to give to each
+the healing gospel.
+
+"When we go to church we ought to acknowledge and emphasize every true
+statement made by the clergyman with our silent affirmation, and as
+emphatically deny every erroneous statement, that we may turn the tide
+of Truth into a broad stream of spiritual uplifting for the whole
+congregation.
+
+"Should the minister be inclined to speak about the awfulness and power
+of God's wrath and punishment, we can silently assure him that God is a
+God of love, not wrath, and tell him he desires to present only the
+_true_ side of religion. Some people might say this would be wrong, to
+dictate to any one how they should talk, but you will notice that it is
+not dictation of action, but rather recognition of motive--the true
+motive of the true self. We have a right to recognize the highest and
+best of every person. Indeed, we are going directly opposite God's
+commands if we acknowledge any but the good creation, which is the
+spiritual.
+
+"What can the spirit, which is perfect, made in God's image and
+likeness, have to say of God's anger or punishment, when it knows
+neither, inasmuch as it is pure as the Father in heaven? 'Shall not the
+judge of all the earth do right?'
+
+"Not only in the social circle and in the church, but in all kinds of
+work, in all affairs of business, and above all, in the home, must we
+thus live up to our principles which soon prove our sublimest theory by
+our sublimest practice. And, blessed privilege, we do not need to
+understand all, before we can begin to demonstrate our precious
+religion.
+
+"We need not worry about the burden of to-morrow and thus drop that of
+to-day, but only carry that of to-day with the strength that is given
+for the day. 'Consider the lilies of the field, _how they grow_;' daily
+appropriating their portion of sunshine and air and dew, they unfold and
+blossom, exhale their fragrance, display their matchless beauty, thus
+fulfilling their appointed mission; so we may unfold and blossom into
+rare excellence and strength of character. Refreshed by the dew of a
+pure purpose, nourished by the sunlight of true thoughts, fed by the
+all-abounding manna--the living word, we soon grow strong enough to
+withstand driving tempest or boisterous gale.
+
+"Mentally we are quickened, learning to discern the opposing force in
+ourselves, and meeting it with the sharp sword of truth, lay it low at
+once. But it requires practice to wield this spiritual weapon; it takes
+judgment faculty to discover whence comes selfishness that exhausts and
+weakens; whence comes the material or sensual thought that sickens and
+wearies, or the jealousy that poisons and embitters the life-forces.
+
+"Faithfully and diligently do we use the word of denial, that sets us
+and our patients free from these subtle enemies; faithfully and
+earnestly we affirm all truth and purity and goodness as our portion, as
+our strength, our refuge, and our defense.
+
+"By the blessed law, when we have thus cleansed ourselves, we become at
+one with the one Life. We intuitively draw to ourselves the best quality
+of friendship and give forth the best; we seek the most uplifting and
+spiritual literature, because it gives us a fresh baptism of spiritual
+light, which in turn we give to others, so there is a continual
+receiving and giving, a continual blessing and being blessed.
+
+"'Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends,' said the Master
+before his departure. Now 'the servant abideth not in the house forever,
+but the son abideth forever.' We came as servants to be taught. While in
+our ignorance, we were the servants or inferiors; knowing the Truth we
+became free, and henceforth are brothers, sisters, 'heirs of God and
+joint heirs with Christ.' We now claim our inheritance, the privilege to
+enter into the kingdom and possess the land, our royal birthright. In
+this kingdom are 'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.'
+
+"The patient who comes to us must on this day be told of the royal gift
+of health, and we may say: 'Now are ye clean through the word I have
+spoken unto you.' He, too, must now become the friend, and need no
+longer be the servant. When he first came to us he was like a little
+child that had lost his way. We could not show him the way to the velvet
+slopes of health without taking hold of his hand and leading him through
+the thickets and underbrush in which he was lost. So we graciously
+reached down to him, by talking of things with which he was familiar, of
+animal passions, of selfishness, of sin. We gently and kindly showed him
+they were not the true, proved to him that his belief in them had led
+him off the right path, and talked to him of brighter, better, truer
+thoughts that led to smiling skies of hope, to balmy airs of peace.
+
+"Each day we assured him of his true inheritance, and now we confidently
+assert that he is in full possession of it. Now he is ready to believe
+the affirmation without the denial, because he is convinced that the
+affirmations are true, and he comes to us this day with clear, clean
+eyes, and a child-like joy in his recovered health. We give him the
+final word, the benediction, the binding assurance of his birthright.
+
+"Realizing as we must ourselves the wondrous truth concerning his real
+self and all which that implies, we impressively and with the most
+thrilling conviction affirm for him that only health, strength, joy,
+courage, peace, satisfaction, can come to him as the child of God, the
+idea of Mind _in_ the power of the Thought that thinks him into being.
+We assure him that he can recognize and reflect nothing but Good, that
+he can manifest only the Father whose son he knows himself to be.
+Nothing but Mind can affect him. He is like a column of light against
+which no darkness can be thrown; like a true answer to a problem which
+any number of wrong answers can not change. Spiritual like God, he can
+only recognize and appropriate what is God-like. Henceforth he knows
+himself and his Father, knows that whatever he may ask (realize) will be
+granted unto him. Knows that he must acknowledge the Truth, and he will
+abide in the kingdom of Good.
+
+"We send him forth with all the blessings he can desire, because we have
+realized for him the possession of those blessings. Knowing that God is
+all there is, and that our patient lives, is moved and has his being in
+God, we point with unerring finger to the sunny uplands of health. He
+can never more relapse as he will ever walk in the open fields of Truth.
+We bid him God speed on his journey, and thank God that he has come
+into the consciousness of life everlasting, into health and joy without
+measure. So be it forever more.
+
+"The thought of perfection should be held steadfastly, even though the
+patient do not manifest health at once. No matter if the cure is not
+effected in one, two, three weeks, or even as many months, hold fast,
+with unwavering faith (even if you do not give regular treatments all
+the time, and it may be well to skip a week or so occasionally),
+_knowing_ that good seed _must_ bring forth good fruit; when, where or
+how, you nor no other may know. Time is unthinkable with God. We are
+dealing with Principle, not time. We plant the seed, 'God giveth the
+increase.'
+
+"Do the best you know, and work out your own problems. No one else can
+do that for you. Jesus gave us the key, showed us the way; more than
+that he could not do. We must live our lives and maintain our place by
+our own efforts. It is 'he that overcometh' who receives the supreme
+gift of eternal life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+  "May I reach
+  That purest heaven,--be to other souls
+  The cup of strength in some great agony,
+  Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
+  Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
+  Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
+  And in diffusion ever more intense--
+  So shall I join the choir invisible,
+  Whose music is the gladness of the world."
+
+  --_George Eliot._
+
+
+"Mrs. Hayden's was a joyous home-coming. No sooner was the first
+rapturous welcome from children and husband received, than in came Grace
+and Kate, who, in their eagerness to see her, had scarcely been able to
+let her have the first half hour to her family.
+
+"I think you will have to include us in your family, Mrs. Hayden, for we
+could not resist the family welcome, said Grace, smiling with happiness,
+as she grasped Mrs. Hayden's hand and drew Kate close beside her with
+the other.
+
+"You _are_ included my dears. There is but one family you know," was the
+cordial reply grasping the hand of each.
+
+"What a change in you, Grace--Kate--why, I should hardly know you,"
+exclaimed Mrs. Hayden, after the first excitement was over.
+
+"Grace has lost the cloud of perplexity and doubt, and Kate the
+expression of fear," she added, turning to Mr. Hayden with a pleased
+surprise.
+
+"Didn't I tell you they were both growing beautiful?" was his laughing
+answer. "But girls," he added, "don't you notice something different in
+Mrs. Hayden? That is quite wonderful, I think."
+
+"Really, Mrs. Hayden," exclaimed Grace, with wonder, "you are not nearly
+so fleshy are you? I can hardly define the change, if that is not it,
+but I noticed something the moment I saw you."
+
+"I have lost something in weight since I left home," she replied,
+somewhat amused at their looks of astonishment.
+
+"Your figure is so much better proportioned, too," continued Grace.
+
+"And your complexion clearer," added Kate.
+
+"Do tell us what it all means. You certainly look better than I ever saw
+you," said Grace again.
+
+"I am quite thankful she came home before all resemblance to my wife was
+lost," said Mr. Hayden, with a hearty laugh, as he looked at each in
+turn.
+
+"Well, be serious now, and I will tell you something after I have put
+the children to bed," said Mrs. Hayden, cuddling the sleepy Jem in her
+arms. Fred and Mabel stood beside her, frequently interrupting the
+conversation, for they, too, wanted to share the good time with mamma.
+When Mrs. Hayden returned, she resumed.
+
+"It may seem strange to you as it did to me at first, but I see it
+clearly now, that desiring, searching and living for right, brings the
+body into harmonious expression. If we think truth, we see it expressed
+in harmony, beauty, symmetry, because the external is the expression of
+the internal."
+
+"It was particularly by the denial of matter that I lost the superfluous
+flesh, for since I was too fleshy to be of symmetrical form, it was
+superfluous and----"
+
+"Did you know the denial of matter would have such an effect?"
+interrupted Kate.
+
+"No, not till I heard some of the rest of the class speaking of it, and
+then I could hardly believe it, but after I understood the theory
+better, of course it seemed more reasonable."
+
+"It is both wonderful and reasonable too, I think. Why didn't you write
+something about it?" asked Kate again.
+
+"Oh, there are many things that can be told better than written."
+
+"And many things that can be thought better than told," added Grace,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Another lady in the class had about the same experience," said Mrs.
+Hayden.
+
+"But tell us the scientific reason for such an effect?" continued Grace.
+
+"I will, as well as I can. Have you noticed that it is people who are
+materially minded in their tastes and habits that are apt to be fleshy?"
+
+"That depends upon what you would call materially minded," was Grace's
+smiling reply.
+
+"I mean those who like what the world calls the good things of
+life--those who think a great deal of material pleasures or
+environments, and find it comparatively difficult to think or realize
+spiritual things."
+
+"Oh!----yes, I believe that is true, although I have never thought of
+it," said Grace, slowly.
+
+"Because the denial of matter makes all these things secondary, the
+effect of the new thought is to make the body more spiritual."
+
+"Of course! Why could we not see it before?" was Kate's conclusive
+query.
+
+"What effect then, has this denial on lean people?" asked Mr. Hayden,
+more seriously, for until now he had been inclined to regard this as a
+little 'far fetched,' as he would have expressed it.
+
+"It does not effect them like the denial of evil, because material
+things are not so important to them, while they are apt to be pining and
+fretting about the evils and ills in the world, either as touching
+themselves or humanity in general. Denying evil and evil conditions
+would then have the opposite effect, and cause them to gain flesh, or
+grow into the expression of physical harmony to correspond with the
+spiritual."
+
+"This is only a higher reading of what we have already learned, and it
+is lovely to know we may go on indefinitely, ever reading something
+new," said Grace.
+
+"Now tell me something of what _you_ have all been doing?" said Mrs.
+Hayden, as she looked at Grace.
+
+"Oh, Kate has been doing some wonderful treating among her pupils, and
+the patients we took up, are all doing nicely."
+
+"Grace is very modest. She doesn't say a word of how quickly she cured
+me of neuralgia, or a horrible fit of the blues," supplemented Kate,
+looking fondly at Grace, who had become dearer than ever since their
+confidential talks.
+
+"Mr. Hayden has a good report for himself and the children, too, though
+I suppose you have heard from him," Grace remarked with a smile. He
+looked rather pleased at her thoughtfulness, but said: "I would rather
+hear more from Marion. Were there many cures in the class?"
+
+"Several. Mrs. Dexter, the lady I mentioned in my letters as having been
+a long while under the doctor's care, went home perfectly well, and Miss
+Singleton also, of whom I wrote. A gentleman who had been in a previous
+class told his experience. His right arm had been fractured in the army.
+Orders were given that it should be amputated, but by the intervention
+of a physician with whom he was acquainted, the arm was saved, though he
+had never been able to use it much. At times it was very painful. It was
+so weak he could scarcely lift a plate of bread to pass it at the table.
+After a few lessons, that arm was just as well as the other. In his joy
+he told everybody. When the doctors got hold of it, they laughed at him
+saying if that arm was as large as the other in six months, they would
+believe there was something in Christian Healing. In six weeks it was as
+large and strong and sound as the other."
+
+"That was remarkable," said Mr. Hayden, speaking for all. "Did you hear
+anything about treating animals?" he added after a momentary silence.
+
+"Oh, yes. We may think of an animal as the perfect expression of God's
+thought, as manifesting the true Life, the same as human beings."
+
+"After all," said Kate, "that is something we ought to expect, for are
+we not promised dominion over all things?"
+
+"Certainly, and we are not proving our right, till we prove the
+dominion," answered Mrs. Hayden. "It is a beautiful thought to me, and
+several of the class told of successful work in this line. One lady had
+treated a frightened horse, and made him so gentle any one could drive
+him. It is mostly fear that is reflected upon animals. They manifest
+thought, even as humanity does."
+
+"I have often noticed horses. They are apt to show the same disposition
+as their masters. This explains it," said Mr. Hayden thoughtfully. "Why
+didn't you write about all this?"
+
+"I was afraid it would be too strong meat for you, for I could scarcely
+realize it myself."
+
+"It seems as though we have had so many wonderful suggestions it will
+take a life time to understand them," remarked Kate.
+
+"There is no end to the study of Infinity," was Mrs. Hayden's reply.
+
+"How do you account for the _quick_ cures?" interposed Grace.
+
+"It all depends upon how quickly one receives the consciousness of
+Truth. That is the healing process. But there are not very many quick
+cures, comparatively, though it is the quick cures we should aim for
+and expect, for the cure is always in the degree of our realization of
+the allness of God.
+
+"Another of the older students told of some wonderful absent healing. A
+lady that had been four years an invalid, and given up to die by five
+physicians in the place, was healed in three weeks by absent treatment."
+
+"Is that considered as effectual as present treatment?"
+
+"There should be no difference, because we ought to realize that with
+Truth there is no space nor time. All is the eternal _now_ and _here_.
+Some prefer to give present treatment, especially in acute cases; with
+others absent treatment seems more effectual."
+
+"I am glad to hear that, for I feel that I can do better absently," said
+Grace, with a look of relief.
+
+"But tell me," questioned Kate, eagerly, "have all persons the same
+gifts?"
+
+"In the germ, yes; but all are not equally developed. We enter this
+study in different stages of unfoldment. Some heal quickly, others
+slowly; some teach naturally, while others find it more difficult,
+especially at first. We develop the gift we desire to use by continually
+claiming it and using it, and bye and bye we shall marvelously prove
+that we have it. In Love we recognize no partiality, no time and no
+place, and thus we can truly say all we desire is truly ours."
+
+Grace laid her hand on that of Mrs. Hayden, saying:
+
+"Words can never express our gratitude to you both for your extreme
+kindness in allowing us to read your beautiful letters, Mrs. Hayden.
+They have made life seem entirely different to us." She was deeply in
+earnest, and her quivering lip spoke more than a volume of words.
+
+"Grace speaks for us both," added Kate, huskily.
+
+"Dear friends," replied Mrs. Hayden, much touched herself, "I am glad,
+yes, more than glad, that you can speak so of my letters, of which the
+greatest merit lies in their simple earnestness--." She ceased abruptly,
+and for a few moments all were silent....
+
+It was a silence too full for words. A door had opened--a morning dawned
+for each of them. The mysterious future verged into the mighty present.
+All that was grand and noble and tender filled the measure of their
+aspirations. The world surely might enter into their joy, for their joy
+surely entered into the world.
+
+Mrs. Hayden broke the silence, saying:
+
+"'Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it
+shall be opened unto you.' Many years have I asked and sought for the
+kingdom of heaven, but never till now have I found the right knock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+     Love is the high consummation and fulfillment of all Law. It casts
+     out fear, discord and imperfection. To minister is God-like,
+     Christ-like. * * * * The law of love reaches down, rules, and
+     overcomes adverse laws which are below itself.--_Henry Wood._
+
+
+Outside, deepening twilight of a midwinter's day: inside, a bright grate
+fire, soft curtains, beautiful rugs and simple but elegant adornings for
+mantel and wall in this lovely room of a lovely home.
+
+The only occupant is a young woman--young because of the real life of
+which she so vividly and strongly expresses a consciousness, the only
+life after all to be expressed, and which, rightly appropriated will and
+must forever be clothed with the freshness and vigor of youth. The young
+woman is Grace Hall Carrington.
+
+She sits before the glowing embers in an expectant attitude. She is
+evidently waiting for some one, and as she waits, her mind seems full of
+pleasant musing. The three years that have passed since we saw her have
+ripened her character. We can see that. The unrest and longing which
+pervaded her whole being in the old days are gone. A poise and calmness
+of spirit have taken their place. Even her attitude as she sits there
+with the shadows flickering over her, is full of a suggestive alertness
+that expresses an awakened life. The forces that had slumbered so long
+in her being are fully alive to their duty and their privilege. Yes,
+Grace Carrington is awake, and happy as a wife and woman should be. She
+is thinking even now of the richness of effort and opportunity that
+have been hers in these last years. She had been particularly fortunate
+in her marriage. Few women have as much to be thankful for as she has in
+this respect, but then, she waited to find her true womanhood before she
+found a husband. Perhaps that had something to do with it. At any rate
+she is satisfied that she waited.
+
+The door bell rings. A moment later she is greeting two visitors. Who
+but the friends we knew in the old days--Kate Turner and Mrs. Hayden?
+
+"I really expected you sooner, Mrs. Hayden; Kate is more uncertain. One
+never knows when to look for her; but never mind, we are together again,
+so come up to the fire and let us get settled for the evening." And
+Grace hastened to make her friends comfortable.
+
+"Oh but it is nice to get home occasionally," cried Kate with a shrug of
+pleasure as she looked around the beautiful room and then at the smiling
+hostess.
+
+"I only wish you would come oftener Kathie. It seems like the old days
+to have you here," replied Grace with a loving pat.
+
+"I suspect Kate has a bit of news for us," remarked Mrs. Hayden, as she
+sat down near the fire.
+
+"Indeed," exclaimed Grace, lifting her eyebrows, and tightening her hold
+of her friend's hand. "And is the momentous question decided, dearie?
+
+"Yes, and I am to report for duty next week," was the reply.
+
+"Good for you, Kathie. I always knew the Truth would make your music
+heard, and as Professor Beal's assistant it will be heard a long way and
+to good advantage."
+
+"She is reaping the reward of her trust in the Law," said Mrs. Hayden.
+"That is the only thing that will make the working sure."
+
+"Well Kate, you have trusted surely, and to think what a proof this is!"
+
+"How you talk Grace! One might think you had never proven it at all, or
+that your work didn't bear witness to your own trust," reproved Mrs.
+Hayden, smiling.
+
+"Oh well, girls, my work has been of the silent order altogether, or
+rather it has consisted more of silence than work. There's no telling
+how it will show up," was the blushing response.
+
+It had been a standing joke with the three as to how Grace managed her
+"liege lord," inasmuch as he had never been quite won over to the
+Healing, protesting that he had no time for such things, persisting in a
+good-natured skepticism, although strangely enough he believed a great
+many things when they were presented without the name of "Healing"
+attached to them.
+
+"Perhaps that very silence is the secret of its showing, for I assure
+you it shows," resumed the elder friend, who still seemed to the other
+two, the incarnation of all that was noble and wise.
+
+"Do tell us the way you manage anyway, Grace," begged Kate, with special
+reasons for inquiring.
+
+"Why my dear, there's nothing to tell unless it be that a bland silence
+is a good thing to cultivate. There's no use in making so much of a
+bugbear of these people who seem to oppose, and the best way to lead
+them into the green pastures is to let them nibble along the outside
+until they want to jump the fence and get over in spite of you. Now
+Leon is really quite hungry to know some things, especially about the
+practical application of thought to business, but he knows just where
+and how to find what he wants, so I let him take his own time and his
+own way."
+
+"Which will end, of course, in his wanting to know all, providing you
+have the patience to wait", laughed Kate.
+
+"That is a foregone conclusion. I _can_ wait, and I will," said Grace.
+"Besides," she continued more soberly, "I must consider Leon's rights.
+He should not be forced to a conclusion simply because I hold it. A
+hot-bed growth, produced by whatever means, will not bear the hardy,
+healthy bloom of a natural development. He may be slow but he must be
+true."
+
+"There Grace, you have touched the keynote," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden
+warmly. "It is freedom people need, freedom to think and act the
+highest, for everybody has a highest."
+
+"Yes, if they can only keep the channels open for the inspiration of the
+highest to come to them or work through them," remarked Kate with a
+gesture of doubt.
+
+"What better way is there to give freedom or open the channel, than to
+destroy prejudice, put away antagonism and--"
+
+"Either in yourself or others," interposed Grace, "for to hold prejudice
+or to believe in evil is always an obstruction."
+
+"After all, it all hinges upon the non-resistance of evil," said Kate.
+
+"Yes, one of the first laws of the beautiful Christlife, and yet one of
+the very last to be practiced in my experience. I tell you girls, it is
+the lesson of non-resistance we most need." Mrs. Hayden spoke earnestly
+as she always did, and her words carried weight.
+
+"Go on, Mrs. Hayden. If I'm asleep anywhere, I wish you would wake me
+up," cried Kate, drawing the hassock upon which she sat, close up to the
+elder lady, and putting one hand in her friend's lap, as she waited
+expectantly for the answer.
+
+"Well dear, I'm only talking on general principles, and what I have
+discovered in myself--"
+
+"Please tell us what you have found Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "We need
+all the light we can get, and no matter how it may cut, we won't shrink
+will we, Kathie?" with a loving glance at the latter.
+
+"No, we'll only know and be glad that the hot blaze of truth is melting
+some more of the dark spots in our range of vision," returned Kate.
+
+"It is only this," began Mrs. Hayden, modestly. "I have been looking my
+theory and practice squarely in the face lately, and I find them in many
+things quite widely separated. For instance, I have been saying for
+three years that there is no evil, while in many cases my actions have
+carried the very opposite idea, and--"
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Mrs. Hayden?" cried Kate in astonishment, "who
+has been more faithful, who more loving, and who more successful in
+proving the unreality of sickness and evil?"
+
+"For one thing then, I have never put away the tendency to pronounce
+judgments on people or things, and I must get beyond that before I
+prove that I mean what I say, when I say there is no reality in evil."
+
+"But surely we can't help seeing the negative side of things," was
+Kate's remonstrance.
+
+"No, but we _can_ help making it positive, and we can avoid fighting
+against it if we only stick to our first statement that there is but one
+Law."
+
+"I see what you mean," said Grace quietly. "You mean that we must hold
+so perfectly to the allness of Good, that no shadow of ignorance can
+ever darken our vision or our consciousness."
+
+"Yes, indeed, we all see that that is the ultimate," interposed Kate
+with some warmth, "but when and how are we to reach it?"
+
+"In the first place we must know that the ultimate is always in the Now,
+and that by holding to our highest statements with that thought, we can
+rest in the consciousness of the allness of Good as Grace has expressed
+it. With that consciousness there is no judgment and no resistance."
+
+Kate still looked mystified, "Please make it a little plainer," she
+begged.
+
+"Well, last summer when I was called to treat Mrs. Hart's child, as you
+know, the father knew little or nothing of the Science, and when he
+insisted on having a physician what did I do? Instead of calmly
+realizing that all the medicine in the world could not hurt Truth, and
+dealing with his ignorance as I would with his fear, I felt that it
+would be a terrible thing to countenance such disloyalty, and so
+withdrew from treating the case, forgetting that the father's ignorance
+could not be called disloyalty; forgetting that my faithfulness to
+principle would be the same regardless of any and all ignorance. In fact
+my action belied my words that there is no reality in evil."
+
+"But--why, what else could you do?" asked Kate with a puzzled frown.
+
+"I could, or at least I ought to be able to maintain my faith and my
+consciousness of Good just the same under those, as other circumstances,
+and so make no resistance."
+
+"Oh yes, I see what you mean," exclaimed Grace suddenly. "You mean that
+we make _something_ of what we declare as nothing?"
+
+"Exactly, Grace. We resist it by thinking it something antagonistic to
+Truth, whereas we should remember our first statement that there is but
+one Power. It is the One that heals in every instance. We know that. Why
+should we stop to combat what other people think or do not think?"
+
+"There! Now I understand you," ejaculated Kate with a brightening face.
+"It is the One only which acts under all disguises, and--but what would
+you have us do?" suddenly falling into doubt again. As of old Kate was
+ever the questioner.
+
+"Dear, I am not talking of persons or laying down rules of action for
+anybody, but I am giving you my idea of the non-resistance of evil. The
+question with me is, am I 'about my Father's business.' If I accuse
+someone of being unfaithful, or if I criticise any methods, means or
+persons, I still believe in something besides the Good. Even if I
+accuse myself in any way no matter how slight the fault, I am
+recognizing that which I have declared does not and never did exist. You
+see what I mean. There is no use to multiply examples."
+
+"Oh yes, I see, but can I live up to it? That is the all important
+question," was the dreamily earnest reply.
+
+"As for that I might say the same, but we are not to look at that side
+of the question. A safe and I think the very best guide to right living,
+is to measure every act by the standard of love. Would love prompt this
+or that thought, or decision or action? It is very easy to decide."
+
+A thoughtful silence fell upon the group. The evening shadows grew
+deeper outside. The firelight cast long crimson shafts of light into the
+corners, and flickered fitfully over the faces and forms before the
+grate.
+
+"I have been learning a lesson too." It was Kate who broke the silence.
+Her voice was reverential. Her eyes were bright with an inner light. "I
+have been holding strongly to the name--the name of Jesus Christ--and
+realizing what it means, and it has helped me more than anything."
+
+"What does it mean, Kate? That is something which is still a little
+tainted with the old superstitious worship of a personality," said
+Grace.
+
+"Beware, Grace; that is criticism. Put it away until you know," warned
+Mrs. Hayden.
+
+"Thank you. Tell me every time," returned Grace humbly.
+
+"Indeed, this contemplation of the name takes one farther from
+personality or the recognition of mere person than anything else," Kate
+went on earnestly. "Jesus Christ means God or Truth manifest. Holding
+the words with that thought, all sense of person, limitation, or time,
+disappears. Wisdom and power come to fill your consciousness, until the
+Christ life seems not only a possibility but a real demonstration." Kate
+paused. Perhaps she had said too much!
+
+But there was no mistaking the vibration of a sympathetic thought, even
+if the pressure of friendly hands had not reassured her.
+
+"It is wonderful how many ways there are of attaining the same end,"
+mused Grace. "Now I can gain the same state of mind Kate speaks of, by
+holding to the idea of Law. To me everything is embodied in that,
+although of course, any great word understood as to its real meaning is
+an all-inclusive term. But we cannot always live in an ecstasy."
+
+"We should not if we could," said Mrs. Hayden. "We must get beyond that
+if we ever attain the mental poise that will carry us through
+everything."
+
+"But I am so weak," murmured Kate. "How shall I ever--"
+
+"There, child, you are doing the very thing that will keep you from
+growing strong. What right have you to pass judgment on Katherine Turner
+anymore than on anyone else?" said Mrs. Hayden almost sternly; then
+suddenly softening her tone she added, "Dear heart, we must not let self
+judgment or self condemnation creep in upon us to leave their blight of
+discouragement or failure. No, the only way is to keep our eyes fixed on
+the mark of the high calling, resisting nothing, carrying on our lips,
+success, in our hearts love, in our lives truth. By the outer we judge
+nothing: by the inner we know all. Personally, that is, physically we
+are only a part of all external limitation. Individually, that is,
+spiritually, we are the potentiality of Infinity itself."
+
+"And that means the possibility of true living, which is positively
+necessary to perfect demonstration," added Grace.
+
+"Yes, perfect demonstration in oneself or in others," said Mrs. Hayden
+emphatically. "In fact the first, last, and only consideration is or
+should be true living, or the ability _to be lived_."
+
+"That is what it amounts to, after all," accorded Grace, "for what is
+true living but the setting aside of self, so that the great, infinite
+Life may be established in our action, as a manifest reality?"
+
+Kate rose softly, and went to the piano. Then spoke the mighty Voice
+through Music, and through that wondrous harmony a consciousness of the
+perfect Life, with all its power and presence, burst upon these three
+who were no longer three but One. For that moment they knew and lived
+only as the One, and in that moment the world received a baptism of
+blessed, healing tenderness.
+
+
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+THE MYSTIC SUCCESS CLUB
+
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+
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