Love is the high consummation and fulfillment of all Law. It casts
out fear, discord and imperfection. To minister is God-like,
Christ-like. * * * * The law of love reaches down, rules, and
overcomes adverse laws which are below itself.--_Henry Wood._
Outside, deepening twilight of a midwinter's day: inside, a bright grate
fire, soft curtains, beautiful rugs and simple but elegant adornings for
mantel and wall in this lovely room of a lovely home.
The only occupant is a young woman--young because of the real life of
which she so vividly and strongly expresses a consciousness, the only
life after all to be expressed, and which, rightly appropriated will and
must forever be clothed with the freshness and vigor of youth. The young
woman is Grace Hall Carrington.
She sits before the glowing embers in an expectant attitude. She is
evidently waiting for some one, and as she waits, her mind seems full of
pleasant musing. The three years that have passed since we saw her have
ripened her character. We can see that. The unrest and longing which
pervaded her whole being in the old days are gone. A poise and calmness
of spirit have taken their place. Even her attitude as she sits there
with the shadows flickering over her, is full of a suggestive alertness
that expresses an awakened life. The forces that had slumbered so long
in her being are fully alive to their duty and their privilege. Yes,
Grace Carrington is awake, and happy as a wife and woman should be. She
is thinking even now of the richness of effort and opportunity that
have been hers in these last years. She had been particularly fortunate
in her marriage. Few women have as much to be thankful for as she has in
this respect, but then, she waited to find her true womanhood before she
found a husband. Perhaps that had something to do with it. At any rate
she is satisfied that she waited.
The door bell rings. A moment later she is greeting two visitors. Who
but the friends we knew in the old days--Kate Turner and Mrs. Hayden?
"I really expected you sooner, Mrs. Hayden; Kate is more uncertain. One
never knows when to look for her; but never mind, we are together again,
so come up to the fire and let us get settled for the evening." And
Grace hastened to make her friends comfortable.
"Oh but it is nice to get home occasionally," cried Kate with a shrug of
pleasure as she looked around the beautiful room and then at the smiling
hostess.
"I only wish you would come oftener Kathie. It seems like the old days
to have you here," replied Grace with a loving pat.
"I suspect Kate has a bit of news for us," remarked Mrs. Hayden, as she
sat down near the fire.
"Indeed," exclaimed Grace, lifting her eyebrows, and tightening her hold
of her friend's hand. "And is the momentous question decided, dearie?
"Yes, and I am to report for duty next week," was the reply.
"Good for you, Kathie. I always knew the Truth would make your music
heard, and as Professor Beal's assistant it will be heard a long way and
to good advantage."
"She is reaping the reward of her trust in the Law," said Mrs. Hayden.
"That is the only thing that will make the working sure."
"Well Kate, you have trusted surely, and to think what a proof this is!"
"How you talk Grace! One might think you had never proven it at all, or
that your work didn't bear witness to your own trust," reproved Mrs.
Hayden, smiling.
"Oh well, girls, my work has been of the silent order altogether, or
rather it has consisted more of silence than work. There's no telling
how it will show up," was the blushing response.
It had been a standing joke with the three as to how Grace managed her
"liege lord," inasmuch as he had never been quite won over to the
Healing, protesting that he had no time for such things, persisting in a
good-natured skepticism, although strangely enough he believed a great
many things when they were presented without the name of "Healing"
attached to them.
"Perhaps that very silence is the secret of its showing, for I assure
you it shows," resumed the elder friend, who still seemed to the other
two, the incarnation of all that was noble and wise.
"Do tell us the way you manage anyway, Grace," begged Kate, with special
reasons for inquiring.
"Why my dear, there's nothing to tell unless it be that a bland silence
is a good thing to cultivate. There's no use in making so much of a
bugbear of these people who seem to oppose, and the best way to lead
them into the green pastures is to let them nibble along the outside
until they want to jump the fence and get over in spite of you. Now
Leon is really quite hungry to know some things, especially about the
practical application of thought to business, but he knows just where
and how to find what he wants, so I let him take his own time and his
own way."
"Which will end, of course, in his wanting to know all, providing you
have the patience to wait", laughed Kate.
"That is a foregone conclusion. I _can_ wait, and I will," said Grace.
"Besides," she continued more soberly, "I must consider Leon's rights.
He should not be forced to a conclusion simply because I hold it. A
hot-bed growth, produced by whatever means, will not bear the hardy,
healthy bloom of a natural development. He may be slow but he must be
true."
"There Grace, you have touched the keynote," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden
warmly. "It is freedom people need, freedom to think and act the
highest, for everybody has a highest."
"Yes, if they can only keep the channels open for the inspiration of the
highest to come to them or work through them," remarked Kate with a
gesture of doubt.
"What better way is there to give freedom or open the channel, than to
destroy prejudice, put away antagonism and--"
"Either in yourself or others," interposed Grace, "for to hold prejudice
or to believe in evil is always an obstruction."
"After all, it all hinges upon the non-resistance of evil," said Kate.
"Yes, one of the first laws of the beautiful Christlife, and yet one of
the very last to be practiced in my experience. I tell you girls, it is
the lesson of non-resistance we most need." Mrs. Hayden spoke earnestly
as she always did, and her words carried weight.
"Go on, Mrs. Hayden. If I'm asleep anywhere, I wish you would wake me
up," cried Kate, drawing the hassock upon which she sat, close up to the
elder lady, and putting one hand in her friend's lap, as she waited
expectantly for the answer.
"Well dear, I'm only talking on general principles, and what I have
discovered in myself--"
"Please tell us what you have found Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "We need
all the light we can get, and no matter how it may cut, we won't shrink
will we, Kathie?" with a loving glance at the latter.
"No, we'll only know and be glad that the hot blaze of truth is melting
some more of the dark spots in our range of vision," returned Kate.
"It is only this," began Mrs. Hayden, modestly. "I have been looking my
theory and practice squarely in the face lately, and I find them in many
things quite widely separated. For instance, I have been saying for
three years that there is no evil, while in many cases my actions have
carried the very opposite idea, and--"
"Why, what do you mean, Mrs. Hayden?" cried Kate in astonishment, "who
has been more faithful, who more loving, and who more successful in
proving the unreality of sickness and evil?"
"For one thing then, I have never put away the tendency to pronounce
judgments on people or things, and I must get beyond that before I
prove that I mean what I say, when I say there is no reality in evil."
"But surely we can't help seeing the negative side of things," was
Kate's remonstrance.
"No, but we _can_ help making it positive, and we can avoid fighting
against it if we only stick to our first statement that there is but one
Law."
"I see what you mean," said Grace quietly. "You mean that we must hold
so perfectly to the allness of Good, that no shadow of ignorance can
ever darken our vision or our consciousness."
"Yes, indeed, we all see that that is the ultimate," interposed Kate
with some warmth, "but when and how are we to reach it?"
"In the first place we must know that the ultimate is always in the Now,
and that by holding to our highest statements with that thought, we can
rest in the consciousness of the allness of Good as Grace has expressed
it. With that consciousness there is no judgment and no resistance."
Kate still looked mystified, "Please make it a little plainer," she
begged.
"Well, last summer when I was called to treat Mrs. Hart's child, as you
know, the father knew little or nothing of the Science, and when he
insisted on having a physician what did I do? Instead of calmly
realizing that all the medicine in the world could not hurt Truth, and
dealing with his ignorance as I would with his fear, I felt that it
would be a terrible thing to countenance such disloyalty, and so
withdrew from treating the case, forgetting that the father's ignorance
could not be called disloyalty; forgetting that my faithfulness to
principle would be the same regardless of any and all ignorance. In fact
my action belied my words that there is no reality in evil."
"But--why, what else could you do?" asked Kate with a puzzled frown.
"I could, or at least I ought to be able to maintain my faith and my
consciousness of Good just the same under those, as other circumstances,
and so make no resistance."
"Oh yes, I see what you mean," exclaimed Grace suddenly. "You mean that
we make _something_ of what we declare as nothing?"
"Exactly, Grace. We resist it by thinking it something antagonistic to
Truth, whereas we should remember our first statement that there is but
one Power. It is the One that heals in every instance. We know that. Why
should we stop to combat what other people think or do not think?"
"There! Now I understand you," ejaculated Kate with a brightening face.
"It is the One only which acts under all disguises, and--but what would
you have us do?" suddenly falling into doubt again. As of old Kate was
ever the questioner.
"Dear, I am not talking of persons or laying down rules of action for
anybody, but I am giving you my idea of the non-resistance of evil. The
question with me is, am I 'about my Father's business.' If I accuse
someone of being unfaithful, or if I criticise any methods, means or
persons, I still believe in something besides the Good. Even if I
accuse myself in any way no matter how slight the fault, I am
recognizing that which I have declared does not and never did exist. You
see what I mean. There is no use to multiply examples."
"Oh yes, I see, but can I live up to it? That is the all important
question," was the dreamily earnest reply.
"As for that I might say the same, but we are not to look at that side
of the question. A safe and I think the very best guide to right living,
is to measure every act by the standard of love. Would love prompt this
or that thought, or decision or action? It is very easy to decide."
A thoughtful silence fell upon the group. The evening shadows grew
deeper outside. The firelight cast long crimson shafts of light into the
corners, and flickered fitfully over the faces and forms before the
grate.
"I have been learning a lesson too." It was Kate who broke the silence.
Her voice was reverential. Her eyes were bright with an inner light. "I
have been holding strongly to the name--the name of Jesus Christ--and
realizing what it means, and it has helped me more than anything."
"What does it mean, Kate? That is something which is still a little
tainted with the old superstitious worship of a personality," said
Grace.
"Beware, Grace; that is criticism. Put it away until you know," warned
Mrs. Hayden.
"Thank you. Tell me every time," returned Grace humbly.
"Indeed, this contemplation of the name takes one farther from
personality or the recognition of mere person than anything else," Kate
went on earnestly. "Jesus Christ means God or Truth manifest. Holding
the words with that thought, all sense of person, limitation, or time,
disappears. Wisdom and power come to fill your consciousness, until the
Christ life seems not only a possibility but a real demonstration." Kate
paused. Perhaps she had said too much!
But there was no mistaking the vibration of a sympathetic thought, even
if the pressure of friendly hands had not reassured her.
"It is wonderful how many ways there are of attaining the same end,"
mused Grace. "Now I can gain the same state of mind Kate speaks of, by
holding to the idea of Law. To me everything is embodied in that,
although of course, any great word understood as to its real meaning is
an all-inclusive term. But we cannot always live in an ecstasy."
"We should not if we could," said Mrs. Hayden. "We must get beyond that
if we ever attain the mental poise that will carry us through
everything."
"But I am so weak," murmured Kate. "How shall I ever--"
"There, child, you are doing the very thing that will keep you from
growing strong. What right have you to pass judgment on Katherine Turner
anymore than on anyone else?" said Mrs. Hayden almost sternly; then
suddenly softening her tone she added, "Dear heart, we must not let self
judgment or self condemnation creep in upon us to leave their blight of
discouragement or failure. No, the only way is to keep our eyes fixed on
the mark of the high calling, resisting nothing, carrying on our lips,
success, in our hearts love, in our lives truth. By the outer we judge
nothing: by the inner we know all. Personally, that is, physically we
are only a part of all external limitation. Individually, that is,
spiritually, we are the potentiality of Infinity itself."
"And that means the possibility of true living, which is positively
necessary to perfect demonstration," added Grace.
"Yes, perfect demonstration in oneself or in others," said Mrs. Hayden
emphatically. "In fact the first, last, and only consideration is or
should be true living, or the ability _to be lived_."
"That is what it amounts to, after all," accorded Grace, "for what is
true living but the setting aside of self, so that the great, infinite
Life may be established in our action, as a manifest reality?"
Kate rose softly, and went to the piano. Then spoke the mighty Voice
through Music, and through that wondrous harmony a consciousness of the
perfect Life, with all its power and presence, burst upon these three
who were no longer three but One. For that moment they knew and lived
only as the One, and in that moment the world received a baptism of
blessed, healing tenderness.
* * * * *
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