_ CHAPTER XII
"Our weary years of wandering o'er,
We greet with joy this radiant shore;
The promised land of liberty,
The dawn of freedom's morn we see.
O promised land, we enter in,
With 'peace on earth, good will to men,'
The 'Golden age' now comes again,
And breaking every bond and chain;
While every sect, and race and clime,
Shall equal share in this glad time."
--
E. B. Harbert. Mrs. Hayden immediately sent a few words to her husband informing him of her safe arrival, but said nothing concerning her plans until later in the week, she wrote:
"I attended a reception last night that gave me a good idea of the great interest manifested in this new subject by people from all parts of the country as well as this great city. Many who have been attending a convention of truth seekers this week were there, and I met, among others, Mrs. Harmon. She is lovely, with such a sweet pleasant face and clear mild eyes. I do not wonder Miss Greening was charmed with her. We had quite a chat about mental healing. She gave me an interesting account of how she came into the work and what she is doing. I also met many others. One thing noticeable about these people that seems peculiarly characteristic, was the bright, happy faces so full of repose and trustfulness contrasted with the dull, sluggish care-worn expression of people in general. It really rests and cheers wonderfully to look upon countenances that carry the gospel of healing with them.
"After a pleasant social time, Mrs. Pearl, in whose honor the reception was given, was called upon for an address, the substance of which is about as follows:
"It is an unexpected pleasure as well as privilege to thus meet face to face so large a body of people who are working or desire to work for the uplifting and healing of humanity by this new yet old Christ-method.
"While there are so many thousands of the world's best workers engaged in lifting the burdens of sickness, sorrow and sin, there are none who accomplish more marvelous or speedy results than Christian healers. Indeed they have already demonstrated this philosophy to be a most powerful means of reclaiming the sinful and adjusting social relations as well as healing the sick.
"It already promises a better method of dealing with intemperance than that of any other class of reformers. Why? Not because earnest, devoted women do not give time, labor and hearts' blood to the temperance cause; not because wise, honest men are not doing their best with tongue and pen, in legislative halls and political conventions, but because neither women nor men have learned the true principle of moral reform.
"The wise mother knows that the best way to keep her child from mischief is not to talk about his temptation but cause him to forget it by thinking of other and better things. She encourages him to do better by recognizing his higher nature and showing him a better way. She 'overcomes the evil with the good.' Thus his moral nature gradually gains ascendency over the lower. This, and this only is the true reform; but the same mother fails to carry out the same principle with larger children. She must learn that the same management which corrects and improves the child will correct and improve the sinner, for a sinner is only a child of larger growth.
"Thus far, the world has been most attracted to the healing of bodily ills, and all discomforts of the flesh, but the material demand is only a forerunner or symbol of the spiritual, and the signs of the times are even now ready for the keenest readers. People are beginning to enquire if this wonderful power for healing the body can not be used for the healing of vicious minds, the curing of depraved appetites.
"Since religious teachings and ethical lectures seem to be so inadequate to meet the crying need, why not try this new method which claims to be a panacea for all ills, ask the moral philosophers.
"'The world moves slowly,' it is said, but the world awakes slowly, it should be. We are ministering angels to one another, in our process of awakening. If we have not enough realization of truth to keep ourselves awake, some one comes along and wakes us up, by telling us more and we, in turn, wake some slumbering neighbor.
"Invisible and silent are the workings of Truth, and none may judge what best teaches the law. None may know what has given this or that insight into a broader truth, but all at once some one has the new light, and hastens to impart the knowledge.
"All effort for truth points to one end--Truth. All reforms, all religions point to a higher standard of living, a clearer realization of the highest and best, a broader vision of truth, a breaking away from the false and a bringing about of the true.
"Mankind is conservative and must needs consider many things in many ways. Old opinions are not easily relinquished because they are 'bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh' and not till we awake to spiritual as well as intellectual knowledge, shall we realize that we are free--free to listen, learn and live.
"As in the history of every reform, we find opposition and persecution facing the Christian healers, but as time goes on, even the unbelieving and conservative shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth. Many things unaccepted and unestablished to-day shall be proverbial platitudes of to-morrow.
"We who have a clearer vision of the better way, who are demonstrating our position with such wondrous signs, must realize more and more the importance of the first and only law--the law of love. Judge not. Be a unit in Truth.
"We come together as many, but should go away as one. We now have thousands of Christian healers all over the country who are striving as never before to live a higher life, to work for humanity according to the Master's teachings, and it becomes us, as true disciples of such a leader to so live that we shall see the fulfillment of that blessed promise: 'Greater works than I, shall ye do.'
"Let us recognize the use and beauty of unity. Let us be as one, and then, like the brave and faithful Joshua, we shall be able to break down the walls of any Jericho.
"Christ followers, truth seekers, friends! Make use of the golden privileges of to-day, use every moment for the furtherance of good, make every silent thought or uttered word a stream of influence that shall cause the desert to blossom like the rose. Send your thoughts out to the grand reformers, the women workers and the men workers, the tired mothers and the anxious fathers, the faithful teachers and the innocent children. Sow the seed diligently, no matter what the soil. Never mind the coldness, the indifference, the slighting disparagements, for bye-and-bye will come the harvest. Do in all ways as you would be done by.
'Thou must be true thyself if thou the truth wouldst teach,
Thy soul must overflow with truth, the true results to reach.'" _