The next day Mr. Hayden, with great interest, read the letter containing the first lecture, which was given the day after the reception reported in the last chapter. Pertaining to the lesson he read:
"How I wished you were with me yesterday, and could see the fifty eager faces as they gathered in the class room and waited for Mrs. Pearl.
"Some sorrowful and careworn, some filled with the marks of suffering and pain, some hopeless and despairing, some careless and gay, some merely curious, but all expectant and interested.
"It matters not with what varying motives a mass of people meet together, there is a common chord of sympathy, which, if rightly touched, will cause the many to think and feel as one, and herein lies the secret of a teacher's power. Mrs. Pearl has this faculty of gathering and holding the thoughts of her audience, and I could not help noting the calm and satisfied expression as they went out after the lecture.
"The first lesson is about The True Foundation, and while much of it is what we have known and believed, it is stated in a new and interesting way. I will give it, as nearly as possible, in her own words:
"It is necessary to have a common premise in order to sustain a harmonious argument, and the first thing is to find a base or foundation from which and upon which to build. Our doctrine is to be established by sound reasoning and scientific argument, and we must go back to the beginning and learn something about the First Cause of all things.
"In ancient times students devoted themselves to the study of pure reasoning, and they found that by putting themselves in harmony with First Cause, they attained a power, by certain lines of thought and through the speaking of words, to perform wondrous works, healing the sick, having dominion over all creation.
"They discovered the different results of speaking words of science, which are words of truth, and words of error or words contrary to reason. Right, true words brought forth right and true conditions to everyone around them, but deviation from this line of reason, would bring discord and trouble and undesirable conditions. These wise thinkers declared Mind to be the First Cause of all creation, and announced the study of Mind and the words and ways of Mind, to be the profoundest theme that could engage the attention of man.
"We find this philosophy and these conclusions corroborated by the Bible, which we shall consider and prove to contain revelations of changeless, eternal truth.
"Truth is universal, and whatever is true in one part of the universe must be true in all parts. That which has been understood and conceded to be true in all ages and climes is what we call universal truth.