“Well!” she exclaimed, her eyes brightening.
Josè waited expectantly. It was heaven to have this girl 252 before him and to drink in the naïve expressions of her active mind.
“Padre dear, when John the baptiser said, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,’ did he mean to tell the people that they must have a complete change of thought?”
Josè laughed. And then he grew serious. “Chiquita,” he answered, “I have no doubt he meant just that. For you have taught me that there can be no salvation without such a complete and radical change.”
“No,” she said with quick emphasis; “for God is mind, you know. And His thought is the only real thought there is or can be. The thoughts of mortals are the opposites of His thoughts, and so they are illusions, and, like all lies, must pass away. If people want to be immortal, they must think as God thinks, for He is immortal. They must stop thinking that there is any power but God. They must stop letting in thoughts of sickness, of sin, of wickedness, and all those things that in English you call ‘discord.’ God says in the Bible, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’ Well, God is immortal and perfect. And if we want to be like Him we must think His thoughts. For our thoughts become––things. Don’t you see?”
Josè’s face clouded. “I see, chiquita––sometimes very clearly––and then again I don’t see,” he said slowly.
“You do see!” she insisted, getting up on her knees and facing him. “And you see as God sees! And if you hold this thought always, why, it will––it will be––”
“Externalized; is that what you are trying to say?” he suggested.
“Yes, just that. Jesus said, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.’”
“But, Carmen––I–– What you say is doubtless true in essence––but I think you have not grasped it all––there are so many gaps that your simple little system of religion does not fill in––so many great questions that you do not answer. I see, in part––and then, again, I don’t see at all. And when you were stolen away from Simití I saw nothing but the evil––and it nearly killed me!”