"When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to a last year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of the beliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rooted in the mental soil.
"Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnished plowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in its path. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettled and his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gently soothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure him there is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peace and assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverized and prepared for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fair truth-flowers.
"To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to dig down into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that are imbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs he may have had.
"Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously or unconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization only marks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of which the bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law for chemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without even noticing it.
"Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires the soothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhaps unconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous, rousing thoughts should be given—sharp, decisive and emphatic, as when awaking a heavy sleeper.
"When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acute condition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimes called. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting every thought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make the law—and the true word is always law—that they do not or can not reflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives, taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear for the little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, according to mortal thought, besides the near ones in the family, deny that any thought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon the child 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 little one—that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fear can touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.
"Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or rather long-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very little denial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to be applied more to the parents—the denial of fear.
"If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are not at one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treat the patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will prove itself through you. Know truth and do not tamely believe it, then you may 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 asked concerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.