"Shepherd, show me how to go."
The beauty of the words, and the young voices blending in perfect harmony, brought tears of emotion to the old man's eyes.
"Aye, ma'am," he said to Mrs. Burton afterwards, "who but the Shepherd himself, is leading us into those green pastures where the fetters that bound us are loosed? There's a many things I can't pretend to understand, and the old beliefs grip hard, but I just hold on, and know it must be the Truth which the Master promised should make us free. It's the tree that is known by its fruits. I'm sorry Rector's so set up against it. But there, it was the priests and scribes who persecuted the Master himself. Seems to me it would not be the Truth if the world received it gladly."
"I believe you are right in thinking that, Mr. Higgs. In whatever period of the world's history Truth has been recognized, and demonstrated, its adherents were always persecuted and stoned. Jesus reminded his persecutors that they stoned the prophets which were before him."
"Yes, ma'am, I know it is the glorious Truth which has loosed my rheumatiz, and made me free, and I am just ashamed to confess to you and Master Carol that just lately thoughts I can't get rid of come tormenting me. In this way: I go sometimes to church, but I feel no pleasure in the service. It has lost its hold o' me. Then I think o' Father and Mother, o' blessed memory. They lived and died with no thought o' beyond what the Rector could give them. It sort o' troubles me to think I am going away from what they trusted to. The Rector then was an old man. Why, ma'am, if ever a saint o' God walked this earth, he was one. If he passed down the village street, you'd see all the children run to him, clustering round him. When he looked at you, it didn't seem to need any words: it was just as if he said, 'God bless you.' His smile was a blessing. So I just ask myself, Why wasn't the sick healed when he prayed for them, if it was right and God's will for them to be healed? Surely, he was a servant of God."
"I propounded a similar question, Mr. Higgs, to the lady I have been staying with in Devonshire, Carol's cousin, Miss Desmond. It has been my great privilege to know many saintly characters, whose lives testified to their faith. My own mother was such a one. Yet, for many years, she was a great sufferer. I asked Miss Desmond why such loving faith in God and Jesus the Christ, had not always brought physical healing. What we call the orthodox church, also Non-conformity, has nurtured souls for heaven. We cannot, therefore, condemn its teaching. Miss Desmond said it is not for us to judge or to criticise either individuals or other churches. We all, individually and collectively, can only grasp the truth as far as we apprehend it, and we must not harbor a troubled thought that in becoming Christian Scientists we are leaving any church to which we once belonged. We are simply moving forward--stepping upward to a higher platform. It is the law of progression. A child at school does not regret being moved to a higher class. Neither have we anything to regret, even if we entirely sever our connection with the church of our childhood. Even now, for the most advanced Christian Scientists there is yet a higher platform to be reached, since Mrs. Eddy says, in Science and Health, 'All of Truth is not understood.' All we have to do at the present is to live up to--to demonstrate, the highest that we know. You in your walk of life, I in mine; and these dear children, who, spiritually, have touched the hem of Christ's garment and have been healed, in theirs."
"Thank you, ma'am, I'll try to think of it, as you've kindly explained it. There's another old belief I can't see clearly to get rid o' yet, though Master Carol tried to make me see it's wrong, and that is 'Thy will be done,' on the tombstones in the churchyard. I can see that sin and disease can never be God's will; but death may sometimes be a sort o' messenger from God to call us home."
Mrs. Burton smiled.
"Yes; many poets have eulogized death as a 'bright messenger.' But in the light of Christian Science we know it cannot be: evil can never under any circumstance change into good--an enemy--the last enemy--into a friend. Think for one moment how Jesus taught us to pray 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Then ask yourself: Is death God's will in heaven? If not, then it cannot be on earth. I quite see now why many petitions have failed to bring an answer. The pleading lips have besought God to reverse 'His decree,' the decree that never was His. We learned that, Eloise, darling, did we not, in Devonshire?"
"Yes, Mother; and when we quite understood why my lameness was never God's will for me, I lost it."