"Father it was through the reading of 'Science and Health' that I was healed of the dread disease that is even now threatening the life of my mother; and as soon as I was convinced of the truth of this teaching I called upon a pract.i.tioner, asking her for advice regarding my mother's illness and asked her to give mother treatment. I did this without your consent, as I knew how prejudiced you both were regarding this subject, but the pract.i.tioner kindly told me she would not treat mother without her consent. And I knew mother would never consent to take treatment if you were opposed to it, so I felt I must gain your consent first. The pract.i.tioner would be pleased to come and talk with you on this subject at any time."

"No doubt of it, but I will have nothing to do with Christian Science."

"Oh, father, don't say that; you must be even more prejudiced than I thought."

"Yes, I am prejudiced, against all such nonsense."

"Father, will nothing change your views?" said Walter rather coldly.

"No, nothing."

"Then father, forever hereafter, I will ascribe the death of my mother to your unreasoning prejudice against Christian Science, for the medical profession cannot cure her, but Christian Science can." As Walter finished speaking, he arose from his chair and left the room; he immediately proceeded to his own bed-chamber, as he felt he must be alone, for he was terribly hurt by his father's prejudice against something which he admitted he had never investigated.

Walter had always supposed that his father was very broad-minded, but in this instance he thought him very narrow, condemning something he knew nothing about, in fact could not be induced to investigate or try, even though his dearly beloved wife's life might be saved by a trial.

It was at least a half hour before Walter could calm himself enough to think clearly. Then like a flash he remembered one of the sayings of the pract.i.tioner when he had told her that he thought he would have trouble in persuading his father to try Christian Science. She said, "Truth has found you and Truth will lead you out of your trouble." He now bowed his head and said, "Oh, G.o.d, I had forgotten that thou art an ever-present help in time of trouble."

He then secured his "Science and Health" and after reading for some time he stopped and said: "Here is what I have been looking for." Then he slowly read, aloud, "G.o.d, Good, is not the creator of evil."

Continuing to soliloquize he said, "Of course not, G.o.d is Good, and Good could not make evil. Then evil does not exist, for G.o.d made everything that was made. Is prejudice an evil?"

"Certainly; then it does not exist in reality, but only seems to exist, because of the false report of the material senses. Then my father cannot be prejudiced. This must be what the author of 'Science and Health' called 'error,' and when the truth is declared pertaining to any error, that error ceases to exist-for an error can only exist as long as we believe the error to be the truth. When we discover the truth respecting a lie, the lie is gone, for truth has taken its place; the truth is there all the time, but we cannot see the truth because we believe the lie.

"I see my error very plainly now. I believed my father was prejudiced, and this was an error; in other words I believed a lie to be the truth.

The real truth is that G.o.d never made prejudice and it does not exist, so my father could not express it, but it only seemed so to me, just as my sickness seemed real to me until I discovered that G.o.d never made it, but I had to prove it to myself before I could believe, or understand it, and as rapidly as I understood the truth regarding the error of sickness, just in the same proportion did the sickness disappear and the truth or health appear. Health was there all the time, but I thought I was sick, and my believing what I thought made the unreal seem real to me. I see now what that pract.i.tioner meant when she said my work was before me. I have another demonstration to make, at least that is what I saw it called in that Christian Science Journal. It means that I must demonstrate the truth regarding the existence of prejudice. It is easy enough for me to say it does not exist or to believe G.o.d never made it, and this would be a step in the right direction; but to annul this error entirely, I must be able to prove to myself, its nonexistence; that means I must fully understand the nothingness of evil under the guise of prejudice, and realize the ever-presence of Good, for if G.o.d (Good) is ever present, prejudice, or evil, is never present; now I must get to work.

"I made my first demonstration with the help of the Bible and 'Science and Health,' and with their help I will make this one."

It was nearly midnight before he stopped his work. He was not afraid of his mother calling in to see him, as she had been unable to leave her bed for several days, his father had been compelled to hire a servant to do the housework, and she was coming in the morning.

The Rev. Williams did not retire until long after midnight; he also had the same evil to fight, for he had admitted that he was prejudiced and so his prejudice seemed real to him. When Walter had first quitted the room, the pastor thought of calling him back and giving him a severe reprimand; but as he thought of all the misery the boy had been through in these many years of sickness, he decided not to do it. He then began to think of all that Walter had said throughout the Bible lessons and his thoughts were as follows "I cannot help admitting that a great many things he said seemed nonsense at first, but after a careful research of the Bible I found them fully substantiated and to be the real meaning; besides some of his explanations are very plain and prove his a.s.sertions. To think he got his information out of the Christian Science text book 'Science and Health,' with key to the scriptures, which nearly every clergyman and professors of all kinds have been ridiculing for the last thirty-five or forty years! Was there really something to Christian Science? Of course not; if there had been, all these learned men who had investigated it would not have denounced it. But maybe they were like me, so prejudiced that they denounced it without investigating. I even preached a sermon opposing it, simply because some one else said it was heretical, and as like as not this person never investigated it any more than I did, but denounced it because some one spoke ill of it to him. Now that I think of it, it was not a very Christian-like act to preach a sermon condemning something I have never looked into. Maybe that is what is the matter with us all; it is the same as sentencing a man without a hearing. I believe I will investigate this thing a little. I'll go over and have a talk with Parson Jones; he is considered a very well educated and broad-minded man; perhaps Walter was right when he accused me of being unreasonable; it certainly cannot do any harm to investigate. If there is nothing in it, I can tell the boy so, and if there is, it would be wrong not to try it for my wife's illness. Let me see, what did Walter say about its not being the work of the devil?

He said the devil, or evil, could not or would not do good. This seems reasonable, and it surely would be doing good to heal any one of sickness. The Bible says Jesus Christ went about doing good, and this good that is spoken of was healing the sick and preaching the gospel.

Yes, I'll just go over to Parson Jones to-morrow morning and have a long talk with him on this subject; now I must go to bed."

CHAPTER XI

FALSE INVESTIGATION

The next morning about 9 o'clock the Rev. Williams put on his coat and hat and said, "Walter, I am going out calling and will probably be gone until lunch time."

Ten minutes later he was seated in an easy chair in Parson Jones's study. After a few commonplace remarks he said, "Rev. Jones, I came over here to ask your advice about something I do not seem able to satisfy myself on."

Rev. Jones was a short, fleshy man, with red hair and face; he was noted for being a well educated and well read man, also of being very short and sharp in his speech, always speaking directly to the point.

So he said, "Well, what is it?"

"I came to ask you if you know anything about this new cult called Christian Science?"

"Nothing to it at all."

"My boy, Walter, claims to have been healed by reading the text book, 'Science and Health.'" "A book full of rubbish, heresy, and nonsense."

"The boy is well now, and you know he has always been sick since he was a child."

"Reading that book didn't heal him."

"Still he claims it did, he stopped taking medicine, began reading the book, and soon we saw he was improving."

"Rest a.s.sured it wasn't the book."

"He does not claim it was the book, but the truth the book contained that did the work."

"Nonsense! there is no truth in that book."

"How, then, can we account for his getting well?"

"Probably the after effect of the medicine, or else he only believed himself sick."

"That is just what he claims, that he was only sick in belief and not in reality."

"Just as I thought," said the Rev. Jones.

"What do you mean, Mr. Jones?"

"He is another one of those simple-minded fellows who believed they were sick, and then claim reading that book cured them," said Rev.

Jones.

"But I employed the best physicians and specialists, and they all agreed that he had hereditary consumption and was incurable."

"Most of these physicians are numbskulls and quacks."

"Do you call Professor Chas. William Canterbury of the University of Canterbury a numbskull or quack?"

"Eh, no, of course not."

"He examined him thoroughly about a year ago and agreed with the diagnosis of the other physicians; furthermore he told me the boy could not live more than a year, and it was about this time that he began to fail very rapidly," said the Rev. Williams.

"When did he begin to mend?"

"It was just at the time when he was failing rapidly that he found a copy of 'Science and Health' on the street, and he claims that as soon as he began the reading of the book he began to get better."

"This must be the work of the devil; it never was the book. You had better be careful, Rev. Williams," said the Rev. Jones, with a startled look. "So I told the boy, and he asked me a question which I would like to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Do you consider it good that my boy is well, Rev. Jones?"