"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 gla.s.sy 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. The higher our ideal, the higher our attainment. Believing in G.o.d 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 G.o.d, who is love itself.

"In proportion as we are freed from the ignorance and narrowness of primitive, ancient opinions concerning G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 G.o.d, whom they regarded as subject to anger, jealousy or any human pa.s.sion, 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 G.o.d as a G.o.d of Love, he cried out, 'I have desired mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of G.o.d more than burnt offering.' It is the knowledge of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d and being at one with G.o.d, is in reality the same. As we understand G.o.d we shall be at one with Him, and to be at one with G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d,' 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 G.o.d is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and G.o.d himself shall be with them and be their G.o.d ... and G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 att.i.tude 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, enn.o.bling 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 G.o.d'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.