_ CHAPTER XXXVI
"May I reach
That purest heaven,--be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense--
So shall I join the choir invisible,
Whose music is the gladness of the world."
--
George Eliot. "Mrs. Hayden's was a joyous home-coming. No sooner was the first rapturous welcome from children and husband received, than in came Grace and Kate, who, in their eagerness to see her, had scarcely been able to let her have the first half hour to her family.
"I think you will have to include us in your family, Mrs. Hayden, for we could not resist the family welcome, said Grace, smiling with happiness, as she grasped Mrs. Hayden's hand and drew Kate close beside her with the other.
"You
are included my dears. There is but one family you know," was the cordial reply grasping the hand of each.
"What a change in you, Grace--Kate--why, I should hardly know you," exclaimed Mrs. Hayden, after the first excitement was over.
"Grace has lost the cloud of perplexity and doubt, and Kate the expression of fear," she added, turning to Mr. Hayden with a pleased surprise.
"Didn't I tell you they were both growing beautiful?" was his laughing answer. "But girls," he added, "don't you notice something different in Mrs. Hayden? That is quite wonderful, I think."
"Really, Mrs. Hayden," exclaimed Grace, with wonder, "you are not nearly so fleshy are you? I can hardly define the change, if that is not it, but I noticed something the moment I saw you."
"I have lost something in weight since I left home," she replied, somewhat amused at their looks of astonishment.
"Your figure is so much better proportioned, too," continued Grace.
"And your complexion clearer," added Kate.
"Do tell us what it all means. You certainly look better than I ever saw you," said Grace again.
"I am quite thankful she came home before all resemblance to my wife was lost," said Mr. Hayden, with a hearty laugh, as he looked at each in turn.
"Well, be serious now, and I will tell you something after I have put the children to bed," said Mrs. Hayden, cuddling the sleepy Jem in her arms. Fred and Mabel stood beside her, frequently interrupting the conversation, for they, too, wanted to share the good time with mamma. When Mrs. Hayden returned, she resumed.
"It may seem strange to you as it did to me at first, but I see it clearly now, that desiring, searching and living for right, brings the body into harmonious expression. If we think truth, we see it expressed in harmony, beauty, symmetry, because the external is the expression of the internal."
"It was particularly by the denial of matter that I lost the superfluous flesh, for since I was too fleshy to be of symmetrical form, it was superfluous and----"
"Did you know the denial of matter would have such an effect?" interrupted Kate.
"No, not till I heard some of the rest of the class speaking of it, and then I could hardly believe it, but after I understood the theory better, of course it seemed more reasonable."
"It is both wonderful and reasonable too, I think. Why didn't you write something about it?" asked Kate again.
"Oh, there are many things that can be told better than written."
"And many things that can be thought better than told," added Grace, thoughtfully.
"Another lady in the class had about the same experience," said Mrs. Hayden.
"But tell us the scientific reason for such an effect?" continued Grace.
"I will, as well as I can. Have you noticed that it is people who are materially minded in their tastes and habits that are apt to be fleshy?"
"That depends upon what you would call materially minded," was Grace's smiling reply.
"I mean those who like what the world calls the good things of life--those who think a great deal of material pleasures or environments, and find it comparatively difficult to think or realize spiritual things."
"Oh!----yes, I believe that is true, although I have never thought of it," said Grace, slowly.
"Because the denial of matter makes all these things secondary, the effect of the new thought is to make the body more spiritual."
"Of course! Why could we not see it before?" was Kate's conclusive query.
"What effect then, has this denial on lean people?" asked Mr. Hayden, more seriously, for until now he had been inclined to regard this as a little 'far fetched,' as he would have expressed it.
"It does not effect them like the denial of evil, because material things are not so important to them, while they are apt to be pining and fretting about the evils and ills in the world, either as touching themselves or humanity in general. Denying evil and evil conditions would then have the opposite effect, and cause them to gain flesh, or grow into the expression of physical harmony to correspond with the spiritual."
"This is only a higher reading of what we have already learned, and it is lovely to know we may go on indefinitely, ever reading something new," said Grace.
"Now tell me something of what
you have all been doing?" said Mrs. Hayden, as she looked at Grace.
"Oh, Kate has been doing some wonderful treating among her pupils, and the patients we took up, are all doing nicely."
"Grace is very modest. She doesn't say a word of how quickly she cured me of neuralgia, or a horrible fit of the blues," supplemented Kate, looking fondly at Grace, who had become dearer than ever since their confidential talks.
"Mr. Hayden has a good report for himself and the children, too, though I suppose you have heard from him," Grace remarked with a smile. He looked rather pleased at her thoughtfulness, but said: "I would rather hear more from Marion. Were there many cures in the class?"
"Several. Mrs. Dexter, the lady I mentioned in my letters as having been a long while under the doctor's care, went home perfectly well, and Miss Singleton also, of whom I wrote. A gentleman who had been in a previous class told his experience. His right arm had been fractured in the army. Orders were given that it should be amputated, but by the intervention of a physician with whom he was acquainted, the arm was saved, though he had never been able to use it much. At times it was very painful. It was so weak he could scarcely lift a plate of bread to pass it at the table. After a few lessons, that arm was just as well as the other. In his joy he told everybody. When the doctors got hold of it, they laughed at him saying if that arm was as large as the other in six months, they would believe there was something in Christian Healing. In six weeks it was as large and strong and sound as the other."
"That was remarkable," said Mr. Hayden, speaking for all. "Did you hear anything about treating animals?" he added after a momentary silence.
"Oh, yes. We may think of an animal as the perfect expression of God's thought, as manifesting the true Life, the same as human beings."
"After all," said Kate, "that is something we ought to expect, for are we not promised dominion over all things?"
"Certainly, and we are not proving our right, till we prove the dominion," answered Mrs. Hayden. "It is a beautiful thought to me, and several of the class told of successful work in this line. One lady had treated a frightened horse, and made him so gentle any one could drive him. It is mostly fear that is reflected upon animals. They manifest thought, even as humanity does."
"I have often noticed horses. They are apt to show the same disposition as their masters. This explains it," said Mr. Hayden thoughtfully. "Why didn't you write about all this?"
"I was afraid it would be too strong meat for you, for I could scarcely realize it myself."
"It seems as though we have had so many wonderful suggestions it will take a life time to understand them," remarked Kate.
"There is no end to the study of Infinity," was Mrs. Hayden's reply.
"How do you account for the
quick cures?" interposed Grace.
"It all depends upon how quickly one receives the consciousness of Truth. That is the healing process. But there are not very many quick cures, comparatively, though it is the quick cures we should aim for and expect, for the cure is always in the degree of our realization of the allness of God.
"Another of the older students told of some wonderful absent healing. A lady that had been four years an invalid, and given up to die by five physicians in the place, was healed in three weeks by absent treatment."
"Is that considered as effectual as present treatment?"
"There should be no difference, because we ought to realize that with Truth there is no space nor time. All is the eternal
now and
here. Some prefer to give present treatment, especially in acute cases; with others absent treatment seems more effectual."
"I am glad to hear that, for I feel that I can do better absently," said Grace, with a look of relief.
"But tell me," questioned Kate, eagerly, "have all persons the same gifts?"
"In the germ, yes; but all are not equally developed. We enter this study in different stages of unfoldment. Some heal quickly, others slowly; some teach naturally, while others find it more difficult, especially at first. We develop the gift we desire to use by continually claiming it and using it, and bye and bye we shall marvelously prove that we have it. In Love we recognize no partiality, no time and no place, and thus we can truly say all we desire is truly ours."
Grace laid her hand on that of Mrs. Hayden, saying:
"Words can never express our gratitude to you both for your extreme kindness in allowing us to read your beautiful letters, Mrs. Hayden. They have made life seem entirely different to us." She was deeply in earnest, and her quivering lip spoke more than a volume of words.
"Grace speaks for us both," added Kate, huskily.
"Dear friends," replied Mrs. Hayden, much touched herself, "I am glad, yes, more than glad, that you can speak so of my letters, of which the greatest merit lies in their simple earnestness--." She ceased abruptly, and for a few moments all were silent....
It was a silence too full for words. A door had opened--a morning dawned for each of them. The mysterious future verged into the mighty present. All that was grand and noble and tender filled the measure of their aspirations. The world surely might enter into their joy, for their joy surely entered into the world.
Mrs. Hayden broke the silence, saying:
"'Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.' Many years have I asked and sought for the kingdom of heaven, but never till now have I found the right knock." _