The Right Knock Part 37

"That is a foregone conclusion. I _can_ wait, and I will," said Grace.

"Besides," she continued more soberly, "I must consider Leon's rights.

He should not be forced to a conclusion simply because I hold it. A hot-bed growth, produced by whatever means, will not bear the hardy, healthy bloom of a natural development. He may be slow but he must be true."

"There Grace, you have touched the keynote," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden warmly. "It is freedom people need, freedom to think and act the highest, for everybody has a highest."

"Yes, if they can only keep the channels open for the inspiration of the highest to come to them or work through them," remarked Kate with a gesture of doubt.

"What better way is there to give freedom or open the channel, than to destroy prejudice, put away antagonism and--"

"Either in yourself or others," interposed Grace, "for to hold prejudice or to believe in evil is always an obstruction."

"After all, it all hinges upon the non-resistance of evil," said Kate.

"Yes, one of the first laws of the beautiful Christlife, and yet one of the very last to be practiced in my experience. I tell you girls, it is the lesson of non-resistance we most need." Mrs. Hayden spoke earnestly as she always did, and her words carried weight.

"Go on, Mrs. Hayden. If I'm asleep anywhere, I wish you would wake me up," cried Kate, drawing the ha.s.sock upon which she sat, close up to the elder lady, and putting one hand in her friend's lap, as she waited expectantly for the answer.

"Well dear, I'm only talking on general principles, and what I have discovered in myself--"

"Please tell us what you have found Mrs. Hayden," said Grace. "We need all the light we can get, and no matter how it may cut, we won't shrink will we, Kathie?" with a loving glance at the latter.

"No, we'll only know and be glad that the hot blaze of truth is melting some more of the dark spots in our range of vision," returned Kate.

"It is only this," began Mrs. Hayden, modestly. "I have been looking my theory and practice squarely in the face lately, and I find them in many things quite widely separated. For instance, I have been saying for three years that there is no evil, while in many cases my actions have carried the very opposite idea, and--"

"Why, what do you mean, Mrs. Hayden?" cried Kate in astonishment, "who has been more faithful, who more loving, and who more successful in proving the unreality of sickness and evil?"

"For one thing then, I have never put away the tendency to p.r.o.nounce judgments on people or things, and I must get beyond that before I prove that I mean what I say, when I say there is no reality in evil."

"But surely we can't help seeing the negative side of things," was Kate's remonstrance.

"No, but we _can_ help making it positive, and we can avoid fighting against it if we only stick to our first statement that there is but one Law."

"I see what you mean," said Grace quietly. "You mean that we must hold so perfectly to the allness of Good, that no shadow of ignorance can ever darken our vision or our consciousness."

"Yes, indeed, we all see that that is the ultimate," interposed Kate with some warmth, "but when and how are we to reach it?"

"In the first place we must know that the ultimate is always in the Now, and that by holding to our highest statements with that thought, we can rest in the consciousness of the allness of Good as Grace has expressed it. With that consciousness there is no judgment and no resistance."

Kate still looked mystified, "Please make it a little plainer," she begged.

"Well, last summer when I was called to treat Mrs. Hart's child, as you know, the father knew little or nothing of the Science, and when he insisted on having a physician what did I do? Instead of calmly realizing that all the medicine in the world could not hurt Truth, and dealing with his ignorance as I would with his fear, I felt that it would be a terrible thing to countenance such disloyalty, and so withdrew from treating the case, forgetting that the father's ignorance could not be called disloyalty; forgetting that my faithfulness to principle would be the same regardless of any and all ignorance. In fact my action belied my words that there is no reality in evil."

"But--why, what else could you do?" asked Kate with a puzzled frown.

"I could, or at least I ought to be able to maintain my faith and my consciousness of Good just the same under those, as other circ.u.mstances, and so make no resistance."

"Oh yes, I see what you mean," exclaimed Grace suddenly. "You mean that we make _something_ of what we declare as nothing?"

"Exactly, Grace. We resist it by thinking it something antagonistic to Truth, whereas we should remember our first statement that there is but one Power. It is the One that heals in every instance. We know that. Why should we stop to combat what other people think or do not think?"

"There! Now I understand you," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Kate with a brightening face.

"It is the One only which acts under all disguises, and--but what would you have us do?" suddenly falling into doubt again. As of old Kate was ever the questioner.

"Dear, I am not talking of persons or laying down rules of action for anybody, but I am giving you my idea of the non-resistance of evil. The question with me is, am I 'about my Father's business.' If I accuse someone of being unfaithful, or if I criticise any methods, means or persons, I still believe in something besides the Good. Even if I accuse myself in any way no matter how slight the fault, I am recognizing that which I have declared does not and never did exist. You see what I mean. There is no use to multiply examples."

"Oh yes, I see, but can I live up to it? That is the all important question," was the dreamily earnest reply.

"As for that I might say the same, but we are not to look at that side of the question. A safe and I think the very best guide to right living, is to measure every act by the standard of love. Would love prompt this or that thought, or decision or action? It is very easy to decide."

A thoughtful silence fell upon the group. The evening shadows grew deeper outside. The firelight cast long crimson shafts of light into the corners, and flickered fitfully over the faces and forms before the grate.

"I have been learning a lesson too." It was Kate who broke the silence.

Her voice was reverential. Her eyes were bright with an inner light. "I have been holding strongly to the name--the name of Jesus Christ--and realizing what it means, and it has helped me more than anything."

"What does it mean, Kate? That is something which is still a little tainted with the old superst.i.tious worship of a personality," said Grace.

"Beware, Grace; that is criticism. Put it away until you know," warned Mrs. Hayden.

"Thank you. Tell me every time," returned Grace humbly.

"Indeed, this contemplation of the name takes one farther from personality or the recognition of mere person than anything else," Kate went on earnestly. "Jesus Christ means G.o.d or Truth manifest. Holding the words with that thought, all sense of person, limitation, or time, disappears. Wisdom and power come to fill your consciousness, until the Christ life seems not only a possibility but a real demonstration." Kate paused. Perhaps she had said too much!

But there was no mistaking the vibration of a sympathetic thought, even if the pressure of friendly hands had not rea.s.sured her.

"It is wonderful how many ways there are of attaining the same end,"

mused Grace. "Now I can gain the same state of mind Kate speaks of, by holding to the idea of Law. To me everything is embodied in that, although of course, any great word understood as to its real meaning is an all-inclusive term. But we cannot always live in an ecstasy."

"We should not if we could," said Mrs. Hayden. "We must get beyond that if we ever attain the mental poise that will carry us through everything."

"But I am so weak," murmured Kate. "How shall I ever--"

"There, child, you are doing the very thing that will keep you from growing strong. What right have you to pa.s.s judgment on Katherine Turner anymore than on anyone else?" said Mrs. Hayden almost sternly; then suddenly softening her tone she added, "Dear heart, we must not let self judgment or self condemnation creep in upon us to leave their blight of discouragement or failure. No, the only way is to keep our eyes fixed on the mark of the high calling, resisting nothing, carrying on our lips, success, in our hearts love, in our lives truth. By the outer we judge nothing: by the inner we know all. Personally, that is, physically we are only a part of all external limitation. Individually, that is, spiritually, we are the potentiality of Infinity itself."

"And that means the possibility of true living, which is positively necessary to perfect demonstration," added Grace.

"Yes, perfect demonstration in oneself or in others," said Mrs. Hayden emphatically. "In fact the first, last, and only consideration is or should be true living, or the ability _to be lived_."

"That is what it amounts to, after all," accorded Grace, "for what is true living but the setting aside of self, so that the great, infinite Life may be established in our action, as a manifest reality?"

Kate rose softly, and went to the piano. Then spoke the mighty Voice through Music, and through that wondrous harmony a consciousness of the perfect Life, with all its power and presence, burst upon these three who were no longer three but One. For that moment they knew and lived only as the One, and in that moment the world received a baptism of blessed, healing tenderness.