The Right Knock

by Helen Van-Anderson

  CHAPTER XXXIV.

  "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 hehanded 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 bettertogether. I am rather glad for the delay. I was afraid the first one hadmiscarried," he replied.

  The waiting had only increased their interest, and on reaching home theyat 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 howthe patient feels after such a vigorous denial of the seven evils. It isquite necessary to know what to do at this stage.

  "After the treatment for special sins, James Martin comes with bittercomplaints that he is worse instead of better. He tells a doleful storyof how he suffered all night; had chills and fever exactly as when hehad the ague long ago; how he coughed and choked and broke out withsomething like measles, and was all the while so vilely sick it seemedas 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 andvery soothingly give him the mental information that 'there is nothingto fear.'

  "When he concludes his mournful story, we assure him in quiet tones thatthere is no occasion for alarm, as we know how to deal with thesesymptoms. Then, very gently and slowly, with a most self-possessedattitude 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 noreality in sickness; you are not suffering any inharmony because of fearor remorse for sin. It can not be possible for you to reflect fear orremorse from your parents, or the race or your daily associates. Neitheris it possible for you to suffer from your own fear or remorse, normine. Remember, you are spiritual and not material, and can fearnothing. God is your intelligence, and you know that truth isall-powerful. Now, listen! You are happy, you are content, you arefilled with blessed peace, 'the peace that passeth all understanding.'You know the Lord is your shepherd. He leadeth you beside the stillwaters. 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 takenaway; you are in the gentle care of Truth, which ever whispers, 'Comeunto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give yourest.' Sh--h! Gently the arms enfold you, sweetly peace and love embraceyou, and you are at rest; sleep if you like. Softly come sweet words ofdivine love to your waiting ear, 'fear not, fear not, for I am withthee.' 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 similarto the effect produced by the union of different chemicals. Sometimesthe patient chemicalizes after the first treatment, in which case thesecond and third treatments are omitted.

  "When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to alast year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of thebeliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rootedin the mental soil.

  "Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnishedplowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in itspath. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettledand his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gentlysoothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure himthere is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peaceand assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverizedand prepared for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fairtruth-flowers.

  "To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to digdown into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that areimbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs hemay have had.

  "Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously orunconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization onlymarks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of whichthe bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law forchemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without evennoticing it.

  "Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires thesoothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhapsunconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous,rousing thoughts should be given--sharp, decisive and emphatic, as whenawaking a heavy sleeper.

  "When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acutecondition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimescalled. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting everythought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make thelaw--and the true word is always law--that they do not or can notreflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives,taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear forthe little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, accordingto mortal thought, besides the near ones in the family, deny that anythought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon thechild 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 littleone--that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fearcan touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.

  "Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or ratherlong-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very littledenial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to beapplied more to the parents--the denial of fear.

  "If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are notat one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treatthe patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will proveitself through you. _Know_ truth and do not tamely believe it, then youmay 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 askedconcerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.

  "There is always punishment so long as we are in mortal belief, but itis only in mortal belief we can suffer, for the spirit made in the imageand likeness of God can not suffer, neither know suffering.

  "The word everlasting should be translated age-lasting, to give theoriginal meaning. Fire is a symbol of purification, and in the languageof ancient times it was customary to use strong figures of speech.

  "In the fifteenth chapter of John, wherein Jesus explains about the vineand branches, what could be plainer than his illustration of the deadbranches? 'Every branch that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, andevery branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forthmore fruit.'

  "Every false belief is a branch that beareth not fruit, hence must betaken away and destroyed even as dead limbs are burned. Falsity or evil,being nothingness, can not exist because it is not of the real creationand is necessarily cast into the fire of purification, an illustrationwell understood at the time, since all the city refuse was taken toGehenna, a place outside Jerusalem, where fire was always kept for thepurpose of burning this waste matter.

  "'Every branch that beareth fruit is purged'--that is, if you are amixture of good and evil beliefs, you will have to be cleansed of theevil, before you can do much with the good. This cleansing process isquit
e properly named purging. This is what we undergo in suffering.

  "'He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' means the good in us chastensus, 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 thisexplanation, but Mrs. Pearl told her not to let the question troubleher, for if she would do the best she could with what she knew, in duetime the solution would come to her.

  "In the night it came. After she retired, the question kept pressingupon her so that she could not sleep.

  "About two o'clock it seemed as though a great flood of light came, andwith it the clearance of the whole problem. The texts on that themebecame illumined as it were, and she could see how impossible it is forthe 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 willgive you her explanation of Matt. xxv: 31, 32. 'When the Son of manshall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall hesit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered allnations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherddivideth his sheep from the goats.'

  "The Son of man, consciousness of Truth, shall come (be developed) withall glorious thoughts (angels) and judge us in all our ways (nations)and shall discriminate between the false and the true, the evil and thegood, then the good motives or good thoughts (sheep) shall coalesce orbe 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, andswallowed up in their native darkness which is nothingness.

  "This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same linewith Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that itcame to _her_. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted fromher heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would makeher disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was anincontrovertible doctrine. Now she realizes that nothing but Truthitself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burstfor joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, andafter 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 andwait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance andfoolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, forit is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we havelearned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplesslybound to error's ways.

  "Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have beenbaptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough toanswer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not knowjust how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weakto do the things that come to us to be done.

  "'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us--'why doubtyour knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence,when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is yourstrength?'

  "As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent,omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts willfade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whosethoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we areunsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no foundation, no sense ofsecurity, to the one who is continually listening to other than theGood.

  "Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws hisknowledge 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 theutterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and theinvisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,'sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into theworld,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgmentfaculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teachus how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read thethoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growthof his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to anotherwhile we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well totake a music lesson from a different teacher every week.

  "We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of thedoctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we dowhen we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow inknowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth thatsets us free.

  "Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many timesthe discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Workwith an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you servethe only Power, are governed by the one Principle, Infinite Justice,that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Bestrewards you.

  "Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we askof the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do isalways with us.

  "This is the fifth stage in the patient's progress, and we treat him forignorance and foolishness as possibly reflected from the five differentsources. Deny that he can be ignorant of the truth, or foolish inbelieving error. Affirm all strength and courage and steadfastness. Hecomes to-day with an uncertain ring in his voice. He is undecided as towhat to do; is weak and nerveless; can not tell whether he is better orworse. The treatment for strength and courage will bring him back toTruth, and he will brighten and revive under the warm influence of yoursunny faith.

  "One more lesson! I shall be glad, yet sorry, when it is over. Oh, whatan 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 inthis beautiful world.

  "Good bye,

  "MARION."