"Yes, I am sure you will, but don't talk about your rheumatism being better just yet. Wait until the evil is quite cast out. When I come next week I will explain to you how we learn in Science and Health that God gave man dominion, and what God has given can never be taken away. God says His word shall never return unto Him void. When He decreed anything, it was forever. You could not think of the sun, moon, or stars moving out of their appointed courses, could you? It is only man who seems to have wandered from his native sphere. We have to learn that this is not so; we have not really lost the dominion which God gave His children in the beginning. St. John says, 'Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' That verse helped me so much when I was ill. I learned I had not to die to become a son of God. God is my Father here and now, and God's child ought not to believe a lie. It was a lie that evil could have power over me, and bind me. It is a lie that evil can have power over you, and bind you. If you acknowledge God as your Father, God's child should not go along believing he has rheumatism, should he?"
"Thank you, Master Carol. I'll take hold of that. I can understand it. I wish Rector would talk to us sometimes like this. I know it is all in the Bible, yet it never came home to me before."
Mrs. Scott listened attentively to all the boy was telling her father, but made no remark. Her little girl was sitting in the porch nursing her doll, crooning a lullaby. Carol left them with the promise to come again next Sunday.
[CHAPTER X.--AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER.]
With thoughts so joyous and uplifted, Carol's feet scarcely seemed to touch the springy turf of the park as he returned to the Manor. The uplifting joy, unlike anything that earth can give, which comes from the consciousness that work done for, and in the Master's name, is accepted of him, was his; the promised signs following.
He did not see Mrs. Mandeville until she paid her usual visit to his bedroom.
His young face was radiant with joy and happiness. "Auntie," he said, "Mr. Higgs is beginning to understand; and he is losing his rheumatism."
Mrs. Mandeville smiled. There was so much love and tenderness in her smile the incredulity was not apparent. She put a loving arm around him, drawing the boy closer to her.
"Is that what you have been thinking to-night, dear?"
"Not altogether, Auntie. I have been thinking of what it means by the words, 'The mind that was in Christ.' That was what I was reading when I came to bed. If we are to have that Mind, we should understand what it is. But, Auntie, I can't get any farther than love: the mind that was in Christ was love. God is Love, and Jesus said, 'I and my Father are one.' So, Auntie, when our hearts are filled with love for the poor and afflicted and sorrowing, it is the Christ mind that comes to us. Because Jesus loved all who came to him, he was able to heal them. He said, 'I can of myself do nothing, it is the Father that worketh in me. He doeth the works.' Jesus was a perfect mirror, reflecting the love which is God. That is why he said, 'They that have seen me have seen my Father also.' Cousin Alicia explained this once to me, but I did not quite understand it at the time. I see so clearly now. When we reflect love as Jesus did, we shall be able to do the works that he did. I often wonder, Auntie, why Uncle Raymond and all the clergy who preach the Gospel don't help people when they are ill. It is not being obedient, is it?"