After the boy had left the room Mrs. Mandeville turned to the Rector.
"Now I want to ask you a question, if I may, Raymond, may I?"
"Why, of course, Emmeline, you know perfectly well I shall be happy to answer any question you wish to put to me--if I can."
"It is this, Raymond: the Apostle bids us, 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.' How would you define the 'Mind' simply, that I may grasp it?"
The Rector's memory went back to a Sunday morning some months before when he had preached what he considered a very eloquent sermon from that verse in Philippians. Had his sister forgotten it?
"Do you forget, Emmeline, that I preached from that text not so very long ago? I took as the keynote of my sermon, humility--the humility of Jesus. From the context that was undoubtedly what Saint Paul meant."
"Yes, Raymond, I remember the sermon perfectly; but I cannot feel that to possess humility, even in a superlative degree, would be to possess, as the Apostle commands, the 'Mind' of Christ. Carol was thinking out this subject, in the way he has of thinking about verses in the Bible, and the thought he gave me seems nearer to it. He could see only love. The mind that was in Christ was love. Now, Raymond, if we, at this moment, possessed hearts full of love we could not criticise or condemn anyone or any sect. We could not hold up creeds or dogmas, and say, 'It is necessary to believe this or that because it is a canon of the Church.' We should just know that we and they had passed from death unto life when we love the brethren, and all are brethren who look to the Lord Jesus Christ as an elder brother."
"It seems to me, Emmeline, that even before reading the book you have imbibed some of its mischievous statements. Remember, it teaches a religion of negation. According to Christian Science we have no Heavenly Father, no personal God; nothing but a divine Principle, an eternal existence, to worship."
"Oh, Raymond, you do make a mistake. How can you infer that if you have not studied the book?"
"My authority, Emmeline, for the statement, is Dr. Hanson. He wrote a pamphlet on Christian Science, issued by the Religious Tract Society."