"Be cheerful: wipe thine eyes:
Some falls are means the happier to arise.

Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health
The fit is strongest; evils that take leave,
On their departure most of all show evil."
—Shakespeare.

For two days no letter came, and then Mr. Hayden received two, which he handed to the girls as he met them on the street the same evening.

"Can you spare them both?" said Kate, holding out her hand eagerly.

"Oh, yes; I am especially engaged to-night, and besides they are better together. I am rather glad for the delay. I was afraid the first one had miscarried," he replied.

The waiting had only increased their interest, and on reaching home they at once sat down to read the the two letters handed them by Mr. Hayden.

"Marlow, October ——.

"Dear John: I suppose you, like the rest of us, are anxious to know how the patient feels after such a vigorous denial of the seven evils. It is quite necessary to know what to do at this stage.

"After the treatment for special sins, James Martin comes with bitter complaints that he is worse instead of better. He tells a doleful story of how he suffered all night; had chills and fever exactly as when he had the ague long ago; how he coughed and choked and broke out with something like measles, and was all the while so vilely sick it seemed as though he was about to die.

"As he is telling his pitiful tale, with perhaps a gleam of hatred, disgust or helpless anguish in his eyes, we are to sit calmly by and very soothingly give him the mental information that 'there is nothing to fear.'

"When he concludes his mournful story, we assure him in quiet tones that there is no occasion for alarm, as we know how to deal with these symptoms. Then, very gently and slowly, with a most self-possessed attitude of mind, we talk to him mentally something after this fashion:

"'There! James Martin, it is all right. Oh, no; nothing has hurt you, nor can hurt you. You are not afraid of anything; you know there is no reality in sickness; you are not suffering any inharmony because of fear or remorse for sin. It can not be possible for you to reflect fear or remorse from your parents, or the race or your daily associates. Neither is it possible for you to suffer from your own fear or remorse, nor mine. Remember, you are spiritual and not material, and can fear nothing. God is your intelligence, and you know that truth is all-powerful. Now, listen! You are happy, you are content, you are filled with blessed peace, 'the peace that passeth all understanding.' You know the Lord is your shepherd. He leadeth you beside the still waters. He maketh you to lie down in green pastures now, this moment. There is no future to God's promises; they are in the eternal present. There! James Martin, a sweet ease comes to you, the burden is taken away; you are in the gentle care of Truth, which ever whispers, 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' Sh—h! Gently the arms enfold you, sweetly peace and love embrace you, and you are at rest; sleep if you like. Softly come sweet words of divine love to your waiting ear, 'fear not, fear not, for I am with thee.' Peace ... peace be with you, Amen.'

"This stage is called chemicalization, because our words of truth, dropped into the mind filled with error, produce a fermentation similar to the effect produced by the union of different chemicals. Sometimes the patient chemicalizes after the first treatment, in which case the second and third treatments are omitted.

"When the patient first comes to be treated, he might be likened to a last year's garden. His mind is filled with the roots and rubbish of the beliefs he has sown, and some of them are noxious weeds, deeply rooted in the mental soil.

"Cutting and keen are the words of Truth, and like a burnished plowshare, it enters the unsightly field and uproots everything in its path. We now do not mention sickness, because his mind is so unsettled and his active beliefs of disease all on the surface, so we gently soothe him into forgetfulness of his trouble, and quietly assure him there is no occasion for alarm of any kind. Thus, with the word of peace and assurance we smooth the rough, uneven soil, until it is pulverized and prepared for the new seeds which are to grow and blossom into fair truth-flowers.

"To deny errors for him who believes so absolutely in them, is to dig down into the unconscious mind and rake up even the memories that are imbedded, hence his symptoms of ague, or measles or whatever beliefs he may have had.

"Because mortality dislikes to be told of its faults and consciously or unconsciously resents such telling, the violence of chemicalization only marks the degree of conscious or unconscious mental opposition, of which the bodily symptoms are the picture. There is no law for chemicalization, for some patients pass through this period without even noticing it.

"Sometimes instead of an excited feverish condition, which requires the soothing quieting thought, the patient is dull and sluggish, perhaps unconscious, as in fainting, spasms or something similar; then vigorous, rousing thoughts should be given—sharp, decisive and emphatic, as when awaking a heavy sleeper.

"When called to treat any one suffering from fever or any acute condition, we give the soothing, or peace treatment as it is sometimes called. Little children may be compared to mirrors, reflecting every thought around them. In treating them it is necessary to make the law—and the true word is always law—that they do not or can not reflect fear or belief of disease from their parents or relatives, taking pains to name each person strongly holding thoughts of fear for the little one. If it is a contagious and dangerous sickness, according to mortal thought, besides the near ones in the family, deny that any thought of fear from the neighborhood or world can be reflected upon the child or manifested in this belief of sickness.

"Sometimes children are treated entirely through the parents, that is, the parents are quieted and assured of the truth concerning their little one—that it is living in the current of infinite Love, where no fear can touch it, no sickness come near it, no pain destroy it.

"Such cases require frequent or long-continued treatments, or rather long-continued thought of the Good, mostly affirmation, for very little denial is needed to cut the chains of error from a babe. Denial is to be applied more to the parents—the denial of fear.

"If we feel at all doubtful or fearful concerning our work, we are not at one with the divine Love, and must treat ourselves before we treat the patient. Be at one with omnipotent Law, and the Law will prove itself through you. Know truth and do not tamely believe it, then you may have marvelous proof of the difference between knowledge and belief, God-like understanding and blind faith.

"Mrs. Pearl very clearly answered the question which was asked concerning the meaning of Bible passages implying eternal punishment.

"There is always punishment so long as we are in mortal belief, but it is only in mortal belief we can suffer, for the spirit made in the image and likeness of God can not suffer, neither know suffering.

"The word everlasting should be translated age-lasting, to give the original meaning. Fire is a symbol of purification, and in the language of ancient times it was customary to use strong figures of speech.

"In the fifteenth chapter of John, wherein Jesus explains about the vine and branches, what could be plainer than his illustration of the dead branches? 'Every branch that beareth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.'

"Every false belief is a branch that beareth not fruit, hence must be taken away and destroyed even as dead limbs are burned. Falsity or evil, being nothingness, can not exist because it is not of the real creation and is necessarily cast into the fire of purification, an illustration well understood at the time, since all the city refuse was taken to Gehenna, a place outside Jerusalem, where fire was always kept for the purpose of burning this waste matter.

"'Every branch that beareth fruit is purged'—that is, if you are a mixture of good and evil beliefs, you will have to be cleansed of the evil, before you can do much with the good. This cleansing process is quite properly named purging. This is what we undergo in suffering.

"'He whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,' means the good in us chastens us, cleanses us for the further working of the Good. Punishment, then, there must be, just as long as we believe in, and fellowship with error.

"Mrs. McClaren, a staunch Presbyterian, did not seem satisfied with this explanation, but Mrs. Pearl told her not to let the question trouble her, for if she would do the best she could with what she knew, in due time the solution would come to her.

"In the night it came. After she retired, the question kept pressing upon her so that she could not sleep.

"About two o'clock it seemed as though a great flood of light came, and with it the clearance of the whole problem. The texts on that theme became illumined as it were, and she could see how impossible it is for the spirit to suffer or be punished when it is like God who can not 'behold evil.' She came over this morning and told me about it. I will give you her explanation of Matt. xxv: 31, 32. 'When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.'

"The Son of man, consciousness of Truth, shall come (be developed) with all glorious thoughts (angels) and judge us in all our ways (nations) and shall discriminate between the false and the true, the evil and the good, then the good motives or good thoughts (sheep) shall coalesce or be set on the right hand with Truth, and the evil or erroneous beliefs (goats) shall be relegated to the left, the negative or no-side, and swallowed up in their native darkness which is nothingness.

"This is the key to the rest of the chapter, and it is in the same line with Mrs. Pearl's explanation, but Mrs. McClaren is delighted that it came to her. Now she feels as though a mountain had been lifted from her heart, so great has been her fear that Christian Healing would make her disbelieve in eternal punishment, which she had learned was an incontrovertible doctrine. Now she realizes that nothing but Truth itself is being revealed to her, and it seems that her heart will burst for joy. This may seem extravagant, but it is just what she said, and after all, you are used to enthusiasm since your wife is an enthusiast.

"Is it not wonderful? I ask myself over and over, and echo answers 'wonderful'! But oh, how ignorant we ever will be, unless we stop and wait for the spirit to tell us what is true! It is ignorance and foolishness that we have to contend with as much as anything else, for it is one of the thickest clouds that hide knowledge. Until we have learned to turn to the hidden fountain of wisdom, we are helplessly bound to error's ways.

"Even after we go forth from a class, and feel that we have been baptized with the spirit, we are afraid we will not be wise enough to answer the world's questionings of our faith, are afraid we may not know just how to proceed with a certain problem, afraid we will be too weak to do the things that come to us to be done.

"'Oh ye of little faith,' says the rebuking Christ within us—'why doubt your knowledge, when God is your wisdom? Why doubt your intelligence, when God is your intelligence? Why doubt your strength, when God is your strength?'

"As we realize there is but one Mind, and that it is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, the influence of all other thoughts will fade quite away. It is because we recognize the carnal mind whose thoughts are frivolous, vain, wretched or miserable, that we are unsettled and dissatisfied. There can be no foundation, no sense of security, to the one who is continually listening to other than the Good.

"Know all wisdom through the universal Mind, and whoever draws his knowledge by inspiration from this source shall become as one with you, and we all shall be as one with the supreme Mind.

"There is an indelible but invisible stamp of truth marking the utterance of those through whom this Mind is expressed, and the invisible something within us, sometimes called the 'Spirit itself,' sometimes the 'light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,' will recognize and appropriate its own. If we keep this judgment faculty unbiased, it will lead us to choose the books we read and teach us how to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is best to read the thoughts of one writer until we understand the root, branch and growth of his inspiration. It is not well to go from one author to another while we are young in the thought, any more than it would be well to take a music lesson from a different teacher every week.

"We must remember that 'he that doeth the will shall know of the doctrine,' and to start out with the Divine will as our guide, as we do when we say, 'God works through me to will and to do,' is to grow in knowledge of all that pertains to the doctrine of the blessed truth that sets us free.

"Never talk of failures, or be discouraged by them, because many times the discouraging outlook is but the prelude to a bounteous harvest. Work with an undaunted faith in the mighty Invisible, knowing that you serve the only Power, are governed by the one Principle, Infinite Justice, that ever rewards according to service. Doing your best, the Best rewards you.

"Under all circumstances we declare our unfailing wisdom because we ask of the Good. We can not foolishly be led away because judgment to do is always with us.

"This is the fifth stage in the patient's progress, and we treat him for ignorance and foolishness as possibly reflected from the five different sources. Deny that he can be ignorant of the truth, or foolish in believing error. Affirm all strength and courage and steadfastness. He comes to-day with an uncertain ring in his voice. He is undecided as to what to do; is weak and nerveless; can not tell whether he is better or worse. The treatment for strength and courage will bring him back to Truth, and he will brighten and revive under the warm influence of your sunny faith.

"One more lesson! I shall be glad, yet sorry, when it is over. Oh, what an experience this has been! Surely, I shall never be such a weak, impatient woman again. Thank God! Now I know what there is for me in this beautiful world.

"Good bye,
"Marion."