"Every wrong thought we hold has to be reversed—"
"Oh! do you mean I must declare that that man is not dishonest— that he has not wronged me? That I have not been injured and do not resent that injury?" interposed the woman, looking up with flashing eyes, a scarlet spot burning on either cheek. "Child, you don't know what I have suffered. My father took that man into his business and gave him a start when he had not a dollar in the world, and it was such base ingratitude to rob his family and let them sink into poverty. Ah! the bitter tears I have shed over it!"
Then she suddenly relaxed and sank back in her chair with a deprecatory smile.
"Kathie, you did not suspect your teacher of having such a seething volcano concealed in her breast, did you?" she observed, sadly.
"What you have told me makes me think of a verse of 'The Mother's
Evening Prayer,' in 'Miscellaneous Writings,'" [Footnote: By Mary
Baker G. Eddy, page 389.] said Katherine, gently; and she repeated
in a low tone:
"Oh! make me glad for every scalding tear, For hope deferred,
ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, since God is good, and loss is gain."
"Say that again please, clear," pleaded Miss Reynolds, with a sudden catch in her breath; and Katherine went through it the second time.
"Ah! that shows how she has risen to the heights she has attained," said Miss Reynolds, in a reverent tone. "We are to be 'glad' for whatever drives us closer to God, to 'wait' and 'love' through all."
"And to know that every man is our brother—the perfect image and likeness of God, and we must not bind heavy burdens of sin and dishonesty upon him in resentful thought."
"Yes, I see; we have to 'blot it all out,'" said Miss Reynolds, wearily. "I caught something of that in my study to-day and that was what sent me down into the valley, for it seemed such an impossible thing to do. You could see what a strong grip it had on me in rehearsing it to you."