"Walter, where do you get that definition of the word dust?"

"I take it from what is implied in the 2d chapter of Genesis, 7th verse, where it reads, '_And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground_'; as there is no record of any dust having been made, it is very easy to see that dust must be the name given to designate something that exists only in our imagination, a false sense of the real, an illusion, and this 'Lord G.o.d' the suppositional creator of material things, is the false or material sense of G.o.d entertained by us mortals, and only exists in our imagination. I believe our prayers are unanswered for this very reason that the G.o.d we have been praying to exists in our imagination only and is a man-made G.o.d, or, as I said before, a G.o.d conceived by man."

"Not so fast, Walter; let us finish one thing at a time. Your explanation of the dust man is very reasonable, but I don't see where you get your authority for calling dust an unreality, or illusion."

"Father, I thought we had agreed that there was a hidden, or spiritual, meaning to all that was written in the Bible, and I think what I have said about this dust or material man is this meaning; take for instance, the first verse of chapter 3 of Genesis, which reads, _'Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord G.o.d had made, and he said unto the woman, yea, hath G.o.d said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.'_ Now, father, who ever heard of a talking snake. No one. It is only a myth, and I believe this snake was used to symbolize the narrator's idea of evil, tempting the children of G.o.d, Good, to do evil.

"Another ill.u.s.tration that this second narrative is metaphorically written is in Genesis 2, 9th verse, which reads: _'And out of the ground made the Lord G.o.d to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.'_ We can readily agree that there is no tree that bears fruit called good and evil, so this word 'tree' is used metaphorically, and stands for something quite different."

Here Walter stopped and looked at his father to see what effect his speech was having on him, also because he thought he had said enough for one time. But his father was leaning slightly forward and had been drinking in every word the boy was saying, as he was fully convinced that his son did not of himself know all these things about the Bible, and, consequently, it must be that he was inspired.

The mother had the same opinion, so did not care to interrupt him.

Walter continued looking from one to the other not knowing what to make of their silence and the knowing look which pa.s.sed between them, as he did not know that they thought him inspired.

At length the father, said, "Walter, do you know what is meant by the word 'tree' in that verse?"

"I think I do, father; to me it stands for the word, 'thought,' for this seems to bring out the spiritual meaning of the verse; for instance, if we would read the verse this way, 'Every thought that is pleasant to the sight, i. e., understanding, and good for food, the thought of life also in the midst of the garden and the thought or belief in good and evil'; this may not be correct, but it at least makes it plain to me. And when we remember that Adam and Eve were allowed to eat of all the trees excepting this tree of knowledge of good and evil, it seems to me that they were forbidden to believe that both good and evil were real, in other words, to believe that both spirit and matter existed; for as soon as they would eat or believed in materiality the penalty would be death, as they were believing in something that did not in reality exist. This false belief must in the end inevitably result in death or annihilation, as it is this false belief of life as existent in matter, or material body, that dies and is annihilated, for the real or spiritual man cannot die."

"What do you mean by spiritual man?"

"The Bible says: 'G.o.d is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.' Let us define this word omniscient. In a common sense way, 'omni' means all, and 'scientia' means science, then it would be proper to say, 'G.o.d is all science, and science is perfect intelligence,' for the scientific reality concerning anything, is the perfect intelligence pertaining thereto. We can now say, 'G.o.d is all intelligence,' the word 'all'

includes our intelligence, then G.o.d is the intelligence, the thinking ability, or mind, of man."

"Walter, do you wish to intimate that the brain is G.o.d?"

"No, father, the brain cannot think."

"Walter, this is nonsense, of course the brain thinks, we certainly do not think with our hands or feet."

"Just a moment, father, and we will see if the brain has the ability to think. Supposing we take it out and lay it on a platter, does it think?" "Certainly not, it is not in its proper place," said his father.

"It seems to me, that if the brain had the ability in itself to think, it could do so no matter what place it occupied."

"No, Walter, that would not be a fair ill.u.s.tration."

"All right father, we will now take another example. Say a man should drop dead on the street from apoplexy; there lies his material body, his brain occupies its accustomed place, not having been disturbed at all, yet you would not say that his brain had the ability to think?"

"But the man was dead, life had flown," said Mr. Williams.

"Then it is Life that has in itself the ability to think, for everything else is there, in its proper place, and what is the life of a man but his consciousness, his intelligence, his mind. Now we have arrived at the same point in our reasoning where we were before, that G.o.d is Mind, intelligence, the Life of man, and that brains cannot think. You see, father, the brain is also matter, the same as the rest of our material body, that is, dust, or as I explained before, nothing; an illusion, or false conception."

"Do you mean to say I have no body at all?"

"No, father, what I mean is that man has taken a false view of his body by thinking it material when in reality it is spiritual, as is all the rest of the universe; for G.o.d, Spirit could not make a material world, as matter is the opposite of spirit."

The Rev. Mr. Williams leaned his head on his hand and was thinking deeply. Could Walter's explanation be the truth? He could see when what we called death occurred the consciousness, intelligence, or what we called life, seemed to leave the body and thereafter the body was inanimate, and in time returned to dust. Reasoning from this standpoint, he could agree that life and intelligence were the same, and that the intelligence of man was his mind was also plain, but that Mind was G.o.d, was beyond his comprehension, because he had always conceived of mind and brain as being the same, consequently, that the brain had the power of thought. Yet Walter's explanation concerning the inability of the brain, in the corpse, to think, and that it was as material as the rest of the body was quite convincing that brain, in itself, did not contain the power of thought. Was the boy right regarding the word omniscient? If so, it would be very easy to agree with him when he said that G.o.d was the intelligence or mind of man; he, himself, believed in an all intelligent creator.

Walter all this while had been waiting for his father or mother to express themselves, as they did not, he said: "If we can agree that Mind is G.o.d, then it is very easy to conceive of man as the image and likeness of G.o.d, and this image would be spiritual and not material."

His father looked up at him but did not speak. His mother said: "How would that help it, Walter?"

"If we reason from the standpoint that Mind is the creative force or first cause, and as we know that like produces like, it would be impossible for the creative force, or Mind, to produce matter, for matter is the opposite of mind. Now let us see what Mind does create,--why thoughts or ideas and nothing else, so we see that man is a thought, or a number of them, or idea emanating from the one Mind or creative force and the idea or thought must be the image and likeness of the mind or intelligence that conceived it. This would give us a spiritual man, who in reality would be the image and likeness of the real G.o.d."

"Walter," said his father, "I cannot stand to hear any more to-night, I will not say that you are right or wrong, as I must have time to think, and the more I hear you say, the more in the dark I seem to be, besides it is getting quite late and it is time we were retiring."

"I hope you are not angry for my presuming to explain the Bible as I see it, for I believe I am right; in fact, I have had proof sufficient to convince me that it cannot be otherwise."

"No Walter, I am not angry, but very badly mixed up in my reasoning because of the peculiar views you entertain concerning G.o.d and man.

What proof have you had that you are right?"

"Through these peculiar views as you call them, I am being restored to health; in fact, I believe every symptom has gone forever, and that I am entirely well, besides I feel so happy, contented, and free that I can hardly wait for the day when mother will understand, and be free from her bondage."

"If understanding will make her free I pray G.o.d that He will give her such understanding, but I cannot see what connection understanding can possibly have with sickness."

"You know, father, Jesus Christ said, 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' The question is, free from what? For the men He was speaking to answered Him saying: 'We be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man, how sayest thou then, ye shall be free?' Jesus Christ answered them, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever commiteth sin, is the servant of sin.' At another time as related in Matthew 9:5, Jesus Christ intimated that sin and sickness were one and the same. He said to the _sick_ man, 'Son, be of good cheer, thy _sins_ are forgiven thee,' and certain of the scribes said, 'This man blasphemeth.' Jesus Christ, knowing what they were thinking and saying, said, 'Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, for whither is easier to say, thy sins are forgiven thee or to say, arise and walk.'

If we can now agree that sin and sickness are the same, we could say with Jesus Christ, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever commiteth (sickness) sin, is the servant of sickness,' for we certainly are the slaves of any sickness that we claim to have, and give it the power to rule us with a rod of iron, and in doing so, we sin against the first commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other G.o.ds before me,' as we are making a G.o.d or power of our sickness. And if we take medicine, we are giving the medicine power to heal, or making a G.o.d of it, and in doing so we break the same commandment. Now, father, good-night, and I hope by a careful perusal of the Bible on this subject you will be able to agree with me. Good-night, mother."

"Good-night, Walter," said both his father and mother, as he turned to leave the room.

As soon as he was gone Mrs. Williams turned to the pastor and said: "To-night you must surely agree with me that the boy is inspired."

The pastor looked up at her and said, "That is the only way I can account for the wonderful things he says. I must admit he has gone far beyond me, in his understanding of the Bible. I intend to put in the next few days in verifying his explanations."

"James, do you think the boy can be right in regard to sickness and sin being the same?"

"There is hardly any other conclusion to arrive at, if we believe the words of Jesus Christ. Now let us go to bed, as it is quite late."

CHAPTER IX

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL

Bright and early the next morning Walter was up and reading in "Science and Health." After reading some little time, he heard his mother calling him to breakfast. He laid his book down and said: "This is the most wonderful book I ever read; no matter how many times I read it over, it seems like a new book, and sometimes I wonder if I had not skipped some of it when I read it before, as there are many things I see in it now that I did not see before. I suppose it is because I did not understand it all the first time."

Shortly after breakfast, his mother asked Walter to do an errand for her down town. On the way he began to wonder if Christian Scientists had a church or meeting-place, he also wished he knew of some one who was a Scientist, as he desired very much to ask some questions, particularly in regard to his mother's illness.

On his return from town, he was compelled to wait several moments at a railroad crossing near the depot, and as he stepped inside his eye caught sight of a little bracket nailed to the wall. In the bracket was a book, and on the cover in large print were the words, "Christian Science Journal." Walter hastily walked over to the wall, took the book, and began to examine it. He saw it was published monthly in Boston. Opening the book, he saw the first part was reading matter, and as he turned page after page, he came to where he saw, "List of organized churches of Christ, Scientist." Immediately he began looking if there was a church in his town. He noticed that the names of the towns and cities were arranged alphabetically. After searching for a moment he said, "Yes, here it is, 'Mapelton, Vermont. First church of Christ, Scientist, First Reader, John J. Sivad; Services 10:45 A. M., Sunday School 12 M., Wednesday 7:45 P. M., Number 52 Squirrel Ave., on Island. Reading-room same address, 2 to 4 P. M.' Why, that is only five or six blocks from my home; I wish I could go to their service.

I may some day. They seem to have a great many churches; there are eight in Chicago alone; three in Cleveland, Ohio; three in Kansas City; three in London, England; six in New York City; two in New Orleans, La.; three in Portland; one in Paris, France; one in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. "Why, they seem to be in every city in the world."

He continued to read and turned the pages until he came to a page where he saw printed, "Addresses of Christian Science Pract.i.tioners." "I wonder what they mean by pract.i.tioner; it must mean those who practice Christian Science, but I should think every Christian Scientist would practice what he knows. I wonder if there are any in Mapelton; let me see, they are all cla.s.sified in states and cities; yes, there is Mapelton. There are three of them here.

"Mrs. F. S. White, C. S., 281 N. Grant St.

"Mrs. M. J. Sivad, C. S., 742 Upland Court.

"Mrs. L. S. Poor, C. S., 45 Napoleon Ave.