"How shall I know if I do choose the right?"—Shakespeare.
"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 seeThe 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 intowhat 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 itspresence 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 madestatements 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 oflove 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."
"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.
"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 Realitybeside 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 isno space and no time.Weare—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—ourmethe 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 asignof 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 thetrue. 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 (fromsub, under andstare, 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 onlyrealthings.'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 evilin 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, 'wemiscreate 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, weadmit, thencommitsin, and hence suffer for sin. 'Know ye notthat 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. Tobelievethe claims of error is to be bound; toknowthe reality of truth is to be free. To believe in a mind or power separate or opposite from God, is to be subject to anysuppositions 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:
"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 Godis, 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 passjudgment 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 lovingMarion."
"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.
"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 goodreasons 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, 'norealityin 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.
"The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soulis. 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.
"The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soulis. 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 aboutwhatis, what weareand 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 individualis 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.
"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.
"Truthis. 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 tosit 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 realIis 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 gloriousrealm 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."
"Got but the truth once uttered, and 'tis likeA 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 absolutelyno 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 isthe 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 theignorance 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 dreamedthere 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 onecanbe 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 herchin, 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.