"This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same line with Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that it came to her. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted from her heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would make her disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was an incontrovertible doctrine. Now she realizes that nothing but Truth itself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burst for joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, and after 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 and wait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance and foolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, for it is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we have learned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplessly bound to error's ways.
"Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have been baptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough to answer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not know just how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weak to do the things that come to us to be done.
"'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us—'why doubt your knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence, when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is your strength?'
"As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts will fade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whose thoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we are unsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no foundation, no sense of security, to the one who is continually listening to other than the Good.
"Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws his knowledge 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 the utterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and the invisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,' sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgment faculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teach us how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read the thoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growth of his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to another while we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well to take a music lesson from a different teacher every week.
"We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of the doctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we do when we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow in knowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth that sets us free.
"Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many times the discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Work with an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you serve the only Power, are governed by the one Principle, Infinite Justice, that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Best rewards you.
"Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we ask of the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do is always with us.