"Be cheerful: wipe thine eyes:
Some falls are means the happier to arise.
* * * * *
Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health
The fit is strongest; evils that take leave,
On their departure most of all show evil."
--_Shakespeare._
For two days no letter came, and then Mr. Hayden received two, which he
handed to the girls as he met them on the street the same evening.
"Can you spare them both?" said Kate, holding out her hand eagerly.
"Oh, yes; I am especially engaged to-night, and besides they are better
together. I am rather glad for the delay. I was afraid the first one had
miscarried," he replied.
The waiting had only increased their interest, and on reaching home they
at once sat down to read the the two letters handed them by Mr. Hayden.
"MARLOW, October ----.
"Dear John: I suppose you, like the rest of us, are anxious to know how
the patient feels after such a vigorous denial of the seven evils. It is
quite necessary to know what to do at this stage.
"After the treatment for special sins, James Martin comes with bitter
complaints that he is worse instead of better. He tells a doleful story
of how he suffered all night; had chills and fever exactly as when he
had the ague long ago; how he coughed and choked and broke out with
something like measles, and was all the while so vilely sick it seemed
as though he was about to die.
"As he is telling his pitiful tale, with perhaps a gleam of hatred,
disgust or helpless anguish in his eyes, we are to sit calmly by and
very soothingly give him the mental information that 'there is nothing
to fear.'
"When he concludes his mournful story, we assure him in quiet tones that
there is no occasion for alarm, as we know how to deal with these
symptoms. Then, very gently and slowly, with a most self-possessed
attitude of mind, we talk to him mentally something after this fashion:
"'There! James Martin, it is all right. Oh, no; nothing has hurt you,
nor can hurt you. You are not afraid of anything; you know there is no
reality in sickness; you are not suffering any inharmony because of fear
or remorse for sin. It can not be possible for you to reflect fear or
remorse from your parents, or the race or your daily associates. Neither
is it possible for you to suffer from your own fear or remorse, nor
mine. Remember, you are spiritual and not material, and can fear
nothing. God is your intelligence, and you know that truth is
all-powerful. Now, listen! You are happy, you are content, you are
filled with blessed peace, 'the peace that passeth all understanding.'
You know the Lord is your shepherd. He leadeth you beside the still
waters. He maketh you to lie down in green pastures _now, this moment_.
There is no future to God's promises; they are in the eternal present.
There! James Martin, a sweet ease comes to you, the burden is taken
away; you are in the gentle care of Truth, which ever whispers, 'Come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.' Sh--h! Gently the arms enfold you, sweetly peace and love embrace
you, and you are at rest; sleep if you like. Softly come sweet words of
divine love to your waiting ear, 'fear not, fear not, for I am with
thee.' Peace ... peace be with you, Amen.'
"This stage is called chemicalization, because our words of truth,
dropped into the mind filled with error, produce a fermentation similar
to the effect produced by the union of different chemicals. Sometimes
the patient chemicalizes after the first treatment, in which case the
second and third treatments are omitted.
"When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to a
last year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of the
beliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rooted
in the mental soil.
"Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnished
plowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in its
path. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettled
and his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gently
soothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure him
there is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peace
and assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverized
and prepared for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fair
truth-flowers.
"To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to dig
down into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that are
imbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs he
may have had.
"Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously or
unconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization only
marks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of which
the bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law for
chemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without even
noticing it.
"Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires the
soothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhaps
unconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous,
rousing thoughts should be given--sharp, decisive and emphatic, as when
awaking a heavy sleeper.
"When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acute
condition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimes
called. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting every
thought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make the
law--and the true word is always law--that they do not or can not
reflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives,
taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear for
the little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, according
to mortal thought, besides the near ones in the family, deny that any
thought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon the
child or manifested in this belief of sickness.
"Sometimes children are treated entirely through the parents, that is,
the parents are quieted and assured of the truth concerning their little
one--that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fear
can touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.
"Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or rather
long-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very little
denial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to be
applied more to the parents--the denial of fear.
"If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are not
at one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treat
the patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will prove
itself through you. _Know_ truth and do not tamely believe it, then you
may have marvelous proof of the difference between knowledge and belief,
God-like understanding and blind faith.
"Mrs. Pearl very clearly answered the question which was asked
concerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.
"There is always punishment so long as we are in mortal belief, but it
is only in mortal belief we can suffer, for the spirit made in the image
and likeness of God can not suffer, neither know suffering.
"The word everlasting should be translated age-lasting, to give the
original meaning. Fire is a symbol of purification, and in the language
of ancient times it was customary to use strong figures of speech.
"In the fifteenth chapter of John, wherein Jesus explains about the vine
and branches, what could be plainer than his illustration of the dead
branches? 'Every branch that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and
every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth
more fruit.'
"Every false belief is a branch that beareth not fruit, hence must be
taken away and destroyed even as dead limbs are burned. Falsity or evil,
being nothingness, can not exist because it is not of the real creation
and is necessarily cast into the fire of purification, an illustration
well understood at the time, since all the city refuse was taken to
Gehenna, a place outside Jerusalem, where fire was always kept for the
purpose of burning this waste matter.
"'Every branch that beareth fruit is purged'--that is, if you are a
mixture of good and evil beliefs, you will have to be cleansed of the
evil, before you can do much with the good. This cleansing process is
quite properly named purging. This is what we undergo in suffering.
"'He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' means the good in us chastens
us, cleanses us for the further working of the Good. Punishment, then,
there must be, just as long as we believe in, and fellowship with error.
"Mrs. McClaren, a staunch Presbyterian, did not seem satisfied with this
explanation, but Mrs. Pearl told her not to let the question trouble
her, for if she would do the best she could with what she knew, in due
time the solution would come to her.
"In the night it came. After she retired, the question kept pressing
upon her so that she could not sleep.
"About two o'clock it seemed as though a great flood of light came, and
with it the clearance of the whole problem. The texts on that theme
became illumined as it were, and she could see how impossible it is for
the spirit to suffer or be punished when it is like God who can not
'behold evil.' She came over this morning and told me about it. I will
give you her explanation of Matt. xxv: 31, 32. 'When the Son of man
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all
nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats.'
"The Son of man, consciousness of Truth, shall come (be developed) with
all glorious thoughts (angels) and judge us in all our ways (nations)
and shall discriminate between the false and the true, the evil and the
good, then the good motives or good thoughts (sheep) shall coalesce or
be set on the right hand with Truth, and the evil or erroneous beliefs
(goats) shall be relegated to the left, the negative or no-side, and
swallowed up in their native darkness which is nothingness.
"This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same line
with Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that it
came to _her_. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted from
her heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would make
her disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was an
incontrovertible doctrine. Now she realizes that nothing but Truth
itself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burst
for joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, and
after all, you are used to enthusiasm since your wife is an enthusiast.
"Is it not wonderful? I ask myself over and over, and echo answers
'wonderful'! But oh, how ignorant we ever will be, unless we stop and
wait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance and
foolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, for
it is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we have
learned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplessly
bound to error's ways.
"Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have been
baptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough to
answer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not know
just how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weak
to do the things that come to us to be done.
"'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us--'why doubt
your knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence,
when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is your
strength?'
"As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent,
omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts will
fade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whose
thoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we are
unsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no foundation, no sense of
security, to the one who is continually listening to other than the
Good.
"Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws his
knowledge by inspiration from this source shall become as one with you,
and we all shall be as one with the supreme Mind.
"There is an indelible but invisible stamp of truth marking the
utterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and the
invisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,'
sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
world,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgment
faculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teach
us how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read the
thoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growth
of his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to another
while we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well to
take a music lesson from a different teacher every week.
"We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of the
doctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we do
when we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow in
knowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth that
sets us free.
"Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many times
the discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Work
with an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you serve
the only Power, are governed by the one Principle, Infinite Justice,
that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Best
rewards you.
"Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we ask
of the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do is
always with us.
"This is the fifth stage in the patient's progress, and we treat him for
ignorance and foolishness as possibly reflected from the five different
sources. Deny that he can be ignorant of the truth, or foolish in
believing error. Affirm all strength and courage and steadfastness. He
comes to-day with an uncertain ring in his voice. He is undecided as to
what to do; is weak and nerveless; can not tell whether he is better or
worse. The treatment for strength and courage will bring him back to
Truth, and he will brighten and revive under the warm influence of your
sunny faith.
"One more lesson! I shall be glad, yet sorry, when it is over. Oh, what
an experience this has been! Surely, I shall never be such a weak,
impatient woman again. Thank God! Now I know what there is for me in
this beautiful world.
"Good bye,
"MARION."