Carol faithfully kept his appointment on the following Sunday. His
cousins ceased to inquire, though not to wonder, what became of him
every Sunday evening, and once appealed to Mrs. Mandeville for
information. She smilingly replied, "It is a little secret between Carol
and me. Perhaps you will be told some time, but not just yet."
As Carol entered the cottage, Mr. Higgs rose from his seat, and stood
upright.
"Master Carol," he exclaimed in a voice of suppressed excitement, "it is
the Truth, the blessed Truth you've told us. I can't say I've lost my
rheumatics entirely, for the joints are like rusty hinges that want a
lot o' oiling after being idle so long; but I've just been free from
pain all the week; and my little grand-daughter hasn't had one fit all
the week."
"No, Master Carol, she has not," Mrs. Scott added. "I won't say she has
never gone a whole week without one before, but for the last twelve
months I don't think she has, until this week."
"Try not to remember anything that has been. Think it was all a dream,
and she is awakening from it. I had a very cruel dream once, but I have
awakened from it. God's children must cling very closely to Him, then
nothing can hurt them. It is when shadowy fears come between God and
His image and likeness that dreadful things seem to happen to us."
Mr. Higgs and Mrs. Scott did not understand yet how the boy had all the
week been working for them--fighting error with the sword of Truth.
"I want to read a chapter from the New Testament this evening," Carol
said, opening the Bible. "It is always a favorite chapter, but one
verse, my cousin said, seemed never to have impressed people as
applicable to the present day. Yet the words are so simple. I will read
the chapter first, then we'll talk about that one verse."
He read the 14th chapter of St. John from the 1st verse to the last,
then asked quietly, "Do you remember that Jesus once said, 'Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away'?"
"Yes, Master Carol. I remember those words well."
"Then is there not a verse in the chapter I have just read which seems
as if Jesus' words _had_ failed?" The old man looked puzzled.
"I can't say that I know what you are alluding to, Master Carol."
"I will read it again. It is the 12th verse. 'Verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also,
and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.'
What were the works that Jesus did? Was it not healing the sick,
cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, feeding the hungry? Well, if no
one can do these works to-day, his word has failed or else no one has
sufficient faith (faith may sometimes mean understanding). Many
centuries rolled by, and the sick were not healed, nor the lepers
cleansed, in Jesus' name. But now we know his words never failed. It
was the faith or understanding of those who thought they believed in him
which failed; for the sick are being healed now, and the lepers
cleansed."
"It is very wonderful as you put it, Master Carol. I can't say it has
ever been explained like that to me before."
"Is it not very simple?" Carol asked.
"Why, yes. It has always seemed to me the Master's words were very
simple, a child could understand them. But when you come to the
Epistles, and the creeds of the Church, there's many things that I have
never been able to understand; and often the sermons I've listened to
puzzled me more than the texts."
"In the 15th verse Jesus says, 'If ye love me, keep my commandments.'
Jesus did not give many commandments to his followers. He told them
many things, but of strict commandments he gave only a few. One was, 'Go
into all the world, preach the Gospel and heal the sick.' If you had a
son, and you commanded him to do two things and he did only one, and
left the other alone, would you be pleased with him? Would he be
obedient to your commands?"
"Certainly I shouldn't be pleased with him, and I'd soon let him know
that, if he didn't do all I commanded, he needn't do anything."
"Yes, but Jesus just makes it a test of love. He says so gently, 'If ye
love me, keep my commandments.' To those who keep all his commandments
he will one day say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' I do hope
that some day he will say those words to me."
"I'm right sure he will, Master Carol. It is just wonderful the way you
are helping an old man to understand. It amazes me that a boy of your
years should have such an understanding."
"Oh, please don't think I am telling you anything of myself. It has all
been explained to me many times. I am only telling you what has been
told me. I wish my cousin could talk to you. She would help you much
better than I can. But we must not withhold what we have because some
one else has more, must we? We must hand on the good tidings as well as
we are able."
"That's it, Master Carol. Maybe I'll do a little that way myself later
on."
"Yes, I am sure you will, but don't talk about your rheumatism being
better just yet. Wait until the evil is quite cast out. When I come
next week I will explain to you how we learn in _Science and Health_
that God gave man dominion, and what God has given can never be taken
away. God says His word shall never return unto Him void. When He
decreed anything, it was forever. You could not think of the sun, moon,
or stars moving out of their appointed courses, could you? It is only
man who seems to have wandered from his native sphere. We have to learn
that this is not so; we have not really lost the dominion which God gave
His children in the beginning. St. John says, 'Now are we the sons of
God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when
He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.'
That verse helped me so much when I was ill. I learned I had not to die
to become a son of God. God is my Father here and now, and God's child
ought not to believe a lie. It was a lie that evil could have power
over me, and bind me. It is a lie that evil can have power over you,
and bind you. If you acknowledge God as your Father, God's child should
not go along believing he has rheumatism, should he?"
"Thank you, Master Carol. I'll take hold of that. I can understand it.
I wish Rector would talk to us sometimes like this. I know it is all in
the Bible, yet it never came home to me before."
Mrs. Scott listened attentively to all the boy was telling her father,
but made no remark. Her little girl was sitting in the porch nursing
her doll, crooning a lullaby. Carol left them with the promise to come
again next Sunday.