A Soldier's Son Part 9

--A LITTLE SERVICE.

On the following Sunday evening Carol started at the usual time for Mr. Higgs' cottage, carrying with him the little, much-valued book and with it the current Quarterly which Miss Desmond had also sent him. His surprise was great, on arriving at the cottage, to find Mrs. Burton and Eloise there. They knew the prohibition was removed, and Carol was free to read and study Science and Health.

"We thought you would come, Carol," Eloise exclaimed. "We wanted to hear you read the Lesson-Sermon. It will be quite a little service, won't it?"

"Yes, dear Carol; we thought we should like to join you this evening," Mrs. Burton said. "We are only the 'two or three gathered together,' but we are all of one mind. So it will be a little service, as Eloise says."

Presently Mr. Higgs' daughter and his little grand-daughter came in.

It was arranged for Mrs. Burton to read the Bible verses, and for Carol to read the quotations from Science and Health. At the close of the Lesson-Sermon Carol and Eloise sang together, from the Christian Science Hymnal, the hymn which both knew and loved,-- "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' G.o.d walked this earth, he was one. If he pa.s.sed down the village street, you'd see all the children run to him, cl.u.s.tering round him. When he looked at you, it didn't seem to need any words: it was just as if he said, 'G.o.d 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 G.o.d's will for them to be healed? Surely, he was a servant of G.o.d."

"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 G.o.d 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 cla.s.s. 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 G.o.d's will; but death may sometimes be a sort o' messenger from G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstance 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 G.o.d's will in heaven? If not, then it cannot be on earth. I quite see now why many pet.i.tions have failed to bring an answer. The pleading lips have besought G.o.d 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 G.o.d's will for me, I lost it."

"So the world, Mr. Higgs, must change its old belief, and realize that death is an enemy which inevitably will one day be destroyed. In G.o.d's spiritual Kingdom, sin, disease, and death find no place. Now I think we must all bid you good-night, or it will be dark before Carol reaches the Manor. The evenings draw in so quickly, now. We will walk part of the way with you, Carol," Mrs. Burton said as they left the cottage. They had not gone very far when they met Mrs. Mandeville.

"Auntie," Carol exclaimed joyfully, "were you coming to meet me?"

"Yes, dear. I found you had not returned. As I did not quite like your coming alone through the park, I came to meet you."

After a little conversation with Mrs. Burton and Eloise, Mrs. Mandeville and Carol walked home together, Carol clinging affectionately to his aunt's arm.

"It is nice to have you to walk home with me, Auntie; but I wish you would never have a thought of fear for me."

"I'll try not to another time, darling. As I walked along I remembered something, Carol. Since that day when you came to my room I have never had one of my old headaches. They used to be so painfully frequent. Did you charm them away?"

"No, Auntie; but I knew you had not learned how to 'stand porter at the door of thought.' So I just stood there for you; and error cannot creep back when the sword of Truth is raised against it."

Mrs. Mandeville's only answer was to stoop and kiss the boy's upturned face. The words, so simple, grave, and sweet, had gone straight to her heart.

CHAPTER XXVI.

--CONCLUSION.

The calendar of months named December, and before it, excited, expectant little people stood daily, counting first the weeks, then the days to that one day of all the year which the children love best.

Carol had to listen again and again to all the wonderful and mysterious things which always happened at the Manor on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Price lists and ill.u.s.trated catalogues were the only books in requisition after lessons were over. The elder children wondered how they could have bought their Christmas presents if there were no parcel post. Carol was especially the helper and confederate of the three little girls in the nursery. He a.s.sisted them in choosing their "surprises," wrote the letters, and enclosed the postal orders; and certainly, from the marvellous list of things they were able to purchase, their little acc.u.mulated heap of pennies must, in some magic way, have changed into sovereigns in his hands. The joyful excitement of the three little girls, when the parcels arrived, gave Carol the greatest pleasure he had ever known. Only Nurse was allowed to be present when the parcels were opened, and she promised to lock them securely away where no one could catch a glimpse until they were brought out on Christmas eve.

It wanted only one week to Christmas day, when Rosebud came to the school-room one morning, saying: "Mover wants 'ou, Tarol."

Carol went at once to his aunt's room. She was sitting with an open letter in her hand, a rather graver than usual expression on her face. "Carol, dear," she said, "for some little time I have been thinking I ought to let you go home for Christmas. It seems to me it is what your dear father would wish; but I could not let you take the long journey alone and there seemed no other way until this morning. I have just received a letter from a dear old friend in which she mentions that she will be travelling to Exeter in two days' time. So I could take you to London to meet her there, and you could travel with her to Exeter, where Miss Desmond might meet you. I do not like to part with you, even for a month or six weeks, my 'little porter at the door of thought.'"

"Auntie, it won't make any difference if I am here, or in Devonshire. I can still bar the door to error."

"Yes, dear; I believe you can. It is really not that only. I am thinking we shall all miss you so. You seem to be everyone's confederate for their Christmas surprises. Would you rather go, or stay, dear?"

"I should be happy to stay here, or happy to go home for Christmas, Auntie."

"Yes; I think you would, dear. So we must consider other people. Miss Desmond, I know, would rejoice to have you, and it seems the right of both tenants and servants to have the 'little master' amongst them at Christmas. So I have decided it will be right to let you go."

But when this decision was made known in the school-room and nursery there were great lamentations. No one had given a thought to the possibility of Carol not being with them for the Christmas festivities; and Mrs. Mandeville was besought again and again not to let Carol go home before Christmas.

But, having well considered the matter, she was firm. A telegram was at once despatched to Miss Desmond apprising her of the arrangement. The answer that quickly came satisfied Mrs. Mandeville that she had been led to make a right decision. Brief but expressive was Miss Desmond's wire: "Great rejoicings on receipt of news. Will gladly meet Carol at Exeter."

There was yet another little person to whom the news was not joyful. Eloise's lips quivered and her blue eyes filled with tears when she heard. Carol was so much to her, and she to him. She thought of him as a brother; and a sister of his own name could not have been more tenderly loved by the boy. The bond between them was closer and dearer than that of human relationship.

"It will be only just at first, Eloise, that we shall seem to be far apart. Then you will be able to realize there is no distance in Mind. At first, when I came here, I seemed to be so far away from Cousin Alicia; but I never feel that now. I just know her thought is with me, and thought is the only real. It will be lovely to hear her voice again, and to feel my hand clasped in hers, but still that won't make her very own self nearer to me."

"I do not quite understand--yet, Carol," Eloise answered a little sadly. Then she had some news to give him. Early in the New Year the Burtons were going to live in London. True to his promise, Dr. Burton was giving up his medical practice, and was going to join that little band of men and women whose lives are consecrated to the work of destroying the many manifestations of sin and disease, in the way the Master taught.

"And, when you come back to the Manor, Carol, we shall not be here."

Eloise in one sentence regretfully summed up the situation.

"I shall miss you, dear Eloise. But you will write to me, and I shall write very often to you, and when I go home in the summer, perhaps Mrs. Burton will let you come, too. Then Cousin Alicia will be happy to have both her children in Science with her."

"That will be lovely, Carol! I am sure Mother will like me to visit Miss Desmond again. It seems a long time to look forward to, but time really pa.s.ses very quickly. Sometimes the days are not long enough for all I want to do. I am to go to school when we live in London. All the beautiful things I have longed for are coming to me. Carol, I do wish every little girl and every little boy knew how to ask Divine Love for what they want. When I am older that is the work I want to do,--to teach other children as Miss Desmond taught me."

"And I, too, Eloise. Love is so near, but we didn't know it till we learned it in Science, did we?"

"No, Carol; I didn't know it, when I used to sit all day in my little wheel-chair, longing to walk like other children. It was like living in a dark room until some one came and opened the shutters to let the sunlight in. The sunlight was there all the time, but I did not know it. I was G.o.d's perfect child all the time, but I believed I was lame, until Miss Desmond taught me the Truth."

"When I go to bed, Eloise, thoughts come to me. I tell them to Auntie sometimes, but not to any one else. Shall I tell you what I was thinking last night?"

"Please, Carol, I should like to know."

"I began first by thinking if any one asked me, where is heaven, I should answer: Heaven is where G.o.d is. Then I remembered, G.o.d is everywhere. There is no place where G.o.d is not. Then I knew that everywhere must be heaven, and we have only to open our eyes, and just as much as we can see of good--G.o.d--just that far we shall have entered heaven. So it won't matter, Eloise, if you are in London, and I am in Devonshire, if we are both looking steadfastly all the time to see only good around us, we shall both be entering the Kingdom of Heaven. There is only one gate--a golden gate--into that Kingdom, and 'Christ in divine Science shows us the way.'"

---- The little country station seemed to be quite full of people when the train that was to carry Mrs. Mandeville and Carol to London drew up at the platform. The hour they were to leave had become known in the village, and, besides all his cousins, their nurses and Miss Markham, Mr. Higgs, his daughter and grand-daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Burton, and Eloise were there. At the last moment the Rector hurriedly stalked in.

"Almost too late, dear Raymond," Mrs. Mandeville said as he greeted them.

"So, Carol, I learn you have succeeded in planting Christian Science in this village."

The boy looked up with his quiet, fearless eyes.

"Not I, Uncle Raymond!"

"Who then?"

The boy's head was bowed as he reverently answered: "Christ. I am happy, Uncle Raymond, if I have been a little channel for Truth. I could do nothing myself."

Carol met the grave look on the Rector's face with his bright smile.

"You are glad, are you not, Uncle Raymond, that Mr. Higgs and his little grand-daughter, and dear Eloise--I, too--have found the Christ, and have been healed?"

The engine gave a shrill whistle. Mrs. Mandeville drew the boy farther into the carriage; a porter closed the door as the train began to move; the question was unanswered. Mr. Higgs waved his hat, saying fervently, "G.o.d bless 'ee, Master Carol; and bring you back to us soon."

Eloise ran along the platform, holding Rosebud by the hand, wafting kisses to be carried to Miss Desmond. When the train was out of sight and she returned to join the others, she saw the Rector was watching her with the kindly smile his face used to wear in the days when she was not able to run about. Clingingly clasping his arm, looking up to him in her winning way, and remembering the question which to Carol had been unanswered, she said: "You are glad, are you not, Rector, that I can run about, and that I have been taught the Truth that makes us free?"

"Yes, little girl, I am very glad. Perhaps I have been mistaken in my judgment. Tell me, Eloise, what is this Truth of which you speak?"

Eloise hesitated a moment; then, looking up beyond the Rector into the broad blue heavens, she said: "It is just knowing that G.o.d is All, and there is nothing beside. All the real G.o.d made; whatever He did not make is shadow. When I quite understood that G.o.d could not make an imperfect thing--that He never, never made a lame little girl--the shadow disappeared, and I could walk."

The Rector turned to Mr. Higgs who was standing near. "Is that what my nephew has been teaching you, Higgs?"

"Yes, sir; but I've been slower to grasp it. Seems to me the Truth is very simple, but we need the childlike mind to take it in."

"Maybe you are right, Higgs--maybe you are right. 'Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of G.o.d as a little child ... shall not enter therein.' The Master's words."

Thoughtfully, with bent head and downcast eyes, meditating deeply, the Rector walked back to the Rectory. Words very familiar came to him with a different meaning: "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free;" and with the words came a desire that was prayer: "Lord, teach me this Truth. Grant me the childlike mind."

---- "Carol, I have been thinking of something," Mrs. Mandeville said, as the train bore them along.

"Should you like to know of what I have been thinking?"

"Please, dear Auntie; I should very much like to know."

"Well, dear, I have been thinking if it should occur to the young Master of Willmar Court to send Rosebud and me an invitation whilst he is at home, we should accept it."

"Oh, Auntie, what a lovely thought! To have you and Rosebud, and Cousin Alicia, all together!"

"I want Miss Desmond, Carol, to teach me some of the things she has taught you."

There was a long silence. The boy's heart was too full for words. Then he said: "Auntie, I know now how the little bird felt when the King opened the cage door, and he sang and sang for joy. My heart is singing to my King. I wonder if--perhaps--He will say, some missing note has come into Carol's song."

"Indeed, my darling, I think so."

He nestled closely beside her. Looking down she saw on his face the reflection of a great joy--a great peace; and she knew that he had just crept into Love's arms.

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.... He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His Truth shall be thy shield and buckler."

PSALM 91.