human
This is my daughter, Mrs. Scott, Master Carol, and her little girl, he said to Carol.
gpt
We thought, maybe, you wouldn’t object if she listened to the reading too. She cannot often go to church, because the little girl has been subject to epilepsy since she was two years old. She’s just turned eight now. I told her mother what you told me last Sunday, and she’ll be right glad to hear more.
human
That I shall, Master Carol. I know something of hip-disease, and if you could be cured of that, I’m sure my little girl could be cured of the fits.
gpt
Why, of course she could. You will be able to help her ever so much only by knowing that God never created fits; they belong to the mist which we read about in the second chapter of Genesis. I am going to read that chapter to Mr. Higgs to-night. Then you’ll understand. I will begin at the fourth verse, because the first three verses belong really to the first chapter, which is an account of the first creation, when God made everything that was made and it was spiritual and perfect. No one could ever alter or undo God’s perfect work; it remains, and always will remain, perfect. When we understand this, and realize it, the mist will disappear, and all the things which belong to the mist--sin, disease, and death.
human
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. He continued to the end of the chapter.
gpt
Now do you see how different this account of creation is from the first? he asked.
human
Who was the Lord God who took the dust of the ground and formed man over again, after God had already created him, and pronounced His work very good?
gpt
I can only say, as I said last Sunday, Master Carol, in all the sermons I’ve listened to that has never been explained to me. I don’t think I should have let it slip, if it had. It’s just the first time I’ve ever known there were two creations.
human
There were not really two creations, though it reads as if there were, because there are not two creators. The sixth verse explains it, ’There went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.’ That mist covered everything which God-Spirit had created--all the host of them; birds, beasts, and flowers, mountains, seas, lakes, rivers, even man: God’s own image and likeness. Because the mist is over everything we do not see the world and man as they really exist. So people have come to believe that God made man from the dust; for the mist that is spoken of is not a mist like we see rising from the sea, or in the fields of an evening. It means false belief, misunderstanding of God and His spiritual creation. But, my cousin has told me, there is a woman in America who once caught a glimpse of God’s real creation as she was passing through the death valley. And that one glimpse restored her to health. Then she devoted her whole life to learn more of the truth that she might teach others how to see through the mist, and to shake off their old beliefs. She has written a book called _Science and Health_ with _Key to the Scriptures_, which explains all that she has discovered. Simply reading and studying that book has made hundreds of people well.
gpt
Where could we get a copy of it, Master Carol? I’d like to know for my little girl’s sake,
human
I do not quite know, but there are Christian Science churches in London. If you were to write there perhaps someone would tell you. I wish I had a copy to lend you. I have written the Scientific Statement of Being from memory. I am sure it will help you. I am trying to realize it for you, and for the little girl. Think always of that first chapter of the Bible. In the beginning God created everything that was created, and it was very good. None of the things we want to get rid of could be included in God’s _very good_, could they? Jesus came to teach men to understand God better, and he said, ’that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ So all that came from God and all that still comes is spiritual. If you could quite realize this, Mr. Higgs, you would soon lose your rheumatism. I am only telling you what has been told me so many times; and I know it is true, because I was very ill when my cousin used to teach me, and I grew better as I began to understand. She helped me, because she saw me always as God’s perfect child, and knew that He had never created hip-disease, therefore it never was created; it belonged to the mist, and it would disappear under the light of Truth as hoar frost disappears when the sun shines upon it.
gpt
It is wonderful and strange what you are telling us, Master Carol, I’ve never heard the like before, but somehow I can’t doubt it. I call to mind what the Bible says, ’Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God ordains strength.’ I’d dearly love the girl to be free from those dreadful fits. My rheumatiz is very bad, but I’m an old man, and can’t expect to ’scape one o’ the signs of old age.
human
But you must not expect. You must know that it is not a sign of old age in God’s man. You must always remember the man whom God created in His own image and likeness.
gpt
I’ve heard those words many times before, Master Carol, but somehow they never seemed to come home to me as you put it. Why, of course I ought not to suffer with rheumatiz if I _am_ God’s image and likeness. But what about all the poor dwarfed and stunted creatures that are crippled from infancy? There’s a little hunchback in the village. He was dropped when he was a baby, and his back grew crooked, so that it’s a hump now. How can he be God’s image and likeness?
human
The hunchback is not the likeness of God, but the real child--the spiritual child is, and God sees His child as He created it.
gpt
Suppose a great sculptor carved a beautiful statue out of a block of marble. Before he began his work, he would have in his mind the form he wished the marble to take. Gradually, as he worked at it, the marble would become what his thought of it was. Then one day he would see it finished and perfect--just what he intended it to be. Then he would work no more at it. Afterwards, suppose some one came by, and took clay and mixed it with water into a paste, and then daubed the beautiful statue all over, till the limbs looked crooked, and the beauty of the face was spoiled. But it wouldn’t be really spoiled, would it? The statue would still be the work of the great sculptor, finished and perfect; the clay and the marble would be quite separate and distinct. Nothing could make them one. So when we read the chapter I have just read to you--the Lord God took the dust of the ground and made man--God’s man was already made, finished and perfect, and the dust, like the clay, could only seem to hide the perfect creation. But we have to know this and to realize it, if we are to get rid of the dust, and the clay, and the mist. When my cousin was explaining all this to me one day, she said, ’It is not known how or when the belief in a Lord God who made man of dust arose; but from that false belief came sin, sorrow, disease, and death. Jesus came to teach us the way back to God; to teach us to see ourselves as the children of God, not of the dust; and he said all who believed in him, in what he taught, would never see death.’ The day will come, my cousin said, when all men will so believe in Jesus the Christ, and will so understand and realize that God is their Father, that death will be overcome. Every case of sin and disease which is healed by this knowledge--by the Truth--is bringing that day nearer.
human
We’ll think over what you’ve told us, Master Carol--me and my daughter. It sort o’ goes to me that it’s true.
gpt
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.
human
The time has gone so quickly. I must not stay longer now. I will come again next Sunday, and all the week will you try to know that God’s work was finished and perfect in the beginning, and everything that seems to have been added to it--rheumatism and fits--has no right to be?
gpt
We will, Master Carol, we’ll just think of the marble statue and the clay. It will help us.
human
I will hold the right thought for you and the little girl, and I know that soon you will find that both the afflictions, which seem so real, belong to the mist.
gpt
IT IS THE TRUTH.
human
It is a little secret between Carol and me. Perhaps you will be told some time, but not just yet.
gpt
Master Carol, he exclaimed in a voice of suppressed excitement,
human
No, Master Carol, she has not, Mrs. Scott added.
gpt
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.
human
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.
gpt
I want to read a chapter from the New Testament this evening, Carol said, opening the Bible.
human
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.
gpt
Do you remember that Jesus once said, ’Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away’?
human
Yes, Master Carol. I remember those words well.
gpt
Then is there not a verse in the chapter I have just read which seems as if Jesus’ words _had_ failed?
human
I can’t say that I know what you are alluding to, Master Carol.
gpt
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.
human
It is very wonderful as you put it, Master Carol. I can’t say it has ever been explained like that to me before.
gpt
Is it not very simple?
human
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.
gpt
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?
human
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.
gpt
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.
human
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.
gpt
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.
human
That’s it, Master Carol. Maybe I’ll do a little that way myself later on.
gpt
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?
human
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.