The Right Knock Part 15

"That seems quite conclusive," said Kate.

"Yes, it does. Now we will consider your problem," replied Grace, running her finger down the references, "and see if we can find anything in that. Let us bear in mind," she continued, "she does not say there is no appearance, but no reality in evil. Among the first references, I find one to the twenty-third Psalm: 'I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.' How plain that is! Of course there can be no evil where G.o.d is, and G.o.d is everywhere. G.o.d is Love. In Love there is no evil."

"But just think of the awful crimes that are committed every day, and the wicked people who commit them," demurred Kate, with an incredulous look.

"We haven't got far enough to solve everything; listen to this: 'Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked,'"

read Grace.

"That must mean that with the carnal mind we see all things opposite G.o.d, and with the mind of the spirit we discern spiritual things; that is in Romans somewhere," exclaimed Kate, with a gleam of understanding in her face.

"What word shall I look for?" asked Grace, intently pursuing her search.

"Mind, I think; shan't I look for it?"

"No; here it is in the eighth chapter and tenth verse: 'The carnal mind is at enmity against G.o.d, for it is not subject to the law of G.o.d, neither indeed can be.' That is plain enough. It means that all thoughts opposite G.o.d and G.o.d's creations are of the animal man, hence at enmity with G.o.d, and since there is nothing real but G.o.d and His creations, of course there is no reality in them. Now you are satisfied, aren't you, Kate?"

"I suppose I ought to be, for I don't see any other way to understand those pa.s.sages," she admitted, with a sigh of relief.

"Just one more, and we'll go on to the next denial, which will hit me, I'm afraid," continued Grace.

She turned to Isa. x.x.xiii: 15-16: "I declare, Kate, here is the essence of the whole lesson," and she read: "'He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly' (according to the true creation), 'he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.'"

"I really did not know there was such a pa.s.sage in the Bible, and I don't see why other people haven't found it before," said Kate, quite won over. "But how strange it seems to deny this way."

"Yes, that is the most unreasonable part of it, and yet I think Mrs.

Hayden has explained it very clearly. Now what is next?" asked Grace.

"There is no life, substance or intelligence in matter," answered Kate, glancing at the letter.

"I must confess that puzzles me," mused Grace, thoughtfully.

"Oh, that is easy enough to understand, when you remember the spirit is all, besides, when a person dies the organs of the body may be perfect, but there is no life or feeling, and according to this new understanding, no substance," explained Kate, in her turn.

"I can see it well enough as a theory, but what all this has to do with practical every-day living, is a mystery to me."

"'We haven't got far enough to solve everything,' somebody said to me once, and here it is for you," remarked Kate, with a spice of mischief in her tone.

"All right, what next?"

"No sensation or causation in matter; but I think that is answered the same way as the other. But this last one; I do wonder if the Bible corroborates it?" Kate looked troubled again, as she read: "'There is no sin, sickness nor death.'"

"The same reasoning applies to that as to all the rest. There is no reality to anything but G.o.d's creation, and that is changeless and perfect. But we will see what the Bible has to say; I. John iii: 2-10.

In the second verse it reads: 'Beloved, now are we the sons of G.o.d, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be;' that of course is an a.s.sertion of our spiritual self. Then verse nine says: 'Whosoever is born of G.o.d doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him and he can not sin, because he is born of G.o.d.' Then it seems plain there can be no sin to the spirit, neither can there be sickness nor death."

"It is wonderful," murmured Kate.

"What is next?" pursued Grace, with the concordance open before her.

"That is all, except she explains the use and necessity of denial, and suggests to Mr. Hayden the benefit of denying for hours at a time."

"Well, we can do that, too. If it is good for him, it must be for us. I mean to do it," said Grace, shutting her book with a snap and pacing back and forth excitedly.

"Oh, well, take it calmly; we can do that while we are getting supper, and I am hungry now. Do you know it is seven o'clock?" Kate exclaimed, looking at her watch.

"Two hours we have been studying," said Grace. "Really, this is as interesting as painting. I don't see one thing but what is reasonable, do you, Kate?"

"Not the way it seems now."

After everything was put away they began making earnest application of the rules. Each sat silently thinking, according to directions: "There is no reality in matter, there is no reality in matter," etc. For two hours neither spoke. Then Kate said: "I feel so light; as though there were no weight to my body. What does it mean?"

"I don't know, unless it shows you are realizing what you say."

"That is it. I can feel that there is no obstruction to spirit or thought; that spirit is limitless and G.o.d is everywhere."

She seemed lost in her new thoughts, and went to bed as though she were dreaming. Grace had experienced nothing but a sense of dullness and extreme sleepiness.

CHAPTER XVII.

"The soul is not a compensation, but a life. The soul _is_. Under all this sea of circ.u.mstance, whose waters ebb and flow with perfect balance, lies the aboriginal abyss of real Being. Existence or G.o.d is not a relation or a part, but a whole."--_Emerson._

"MARLOW, September ----.

"Dear husband: I was made very happy this morning by the messages from home, and especially Fred's and Jamie's baby efforts. They wanted to send mamma their love, and the straggling characters meant for words, convey as much meaning as though they were in good English, for they speak to me in unmistakable language. Why do I understand so well? Ah, John, I see. Because, being filled with love for them, I recognize the same quality in what they feel for me, and only need a sign to read the meaning back of it.

"As I write, new light comes to me regarding the real meaning of signs and symbols. Until we are filled with a desire and love for G.o.d, we can not perceive or understand the real meaning of the universe, can not read G.o.d's love for us. Until we have a conscious apprehension that there is a spiritual knowledge, we can not recognize spiritual truth.

"Oh, I can not help wis.h.i.+ng you had been here to-day! It was simply grand; such an uplifting, such a glimpse of the wondrous Now. We learned about what _is_, what we _are_ and how to prove ourselves G.o.d's children. Mrs. Pearl opened with a few words on the use and necessity of silence, after which we were all silent awhile, when she commenced:

"Garfield said, 'The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, the philosopher, the historian and the humble listener, there has been a divine melody running through the song, which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.'

"What has made possible this divine melody but the spirit of love and truth that ever animates the children of G.o.d? Were it not for this vein, nay this wholeness of the invisible spirit, what could we have on which to found hopes of 'halcyon days?'

"Not from the visible man of flesh and blood do all things beautiful and true emanate, nor from the material and unstable, but from the one source that is G.o.d, as apprehended and realized by His idea, the real, invisible, spiritual man. Beauty, worth, can only be in idea or understanding.

"What made Milton, Shakespeare, Emerson, truly great was their appropriation and manifestation of the invisible inheritance of spirit, mind.

"What is man without intelligence, without love, without life, without truth? The real man is spiritual because he is the idea of Spirit, Mind, G.o.d, the only Creator. All that is grand, n.o.ble, true in an individual is a manifestation of the G.o.d-power and presence. There is but one real Mind, and all real or positive thought or intelligence is the manifestation of Mind, which is G.o.d. There is but one real Intelligence, and the intelligence manifested by the individual is the Intelligence which is G.o.d.

"G.o.d is absolutely one Verity, the primordial Essence. But how shall we know this as a fact? How shall we prove it as an incontrovertible truth?

you ask.

"By persistent acknowledgement of G.o.d and His creation, we become one with Him, and to be one with G.o.d is to know absolute Truth. We are conditioned by the thoughts we think and by the words we speak. By thinking and speaking right words we manifest true conditions; by thinking and speaking wrong words we manifest false conditions. 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.' If we desire to manifest strength, justice or wisdom of G.o.d, we must 'acknowledge G.o.d in all our ways.'

"'The only salvation,' says George MacDonald, 'is being filled with the spirit of G.o.d, having the same mind as Christ.'