CHAPTER XIV.
"How shall I know if I do choose the right?"--_Shakespeare._
"Truth is one, And in all lands beneath the sun, Whoso hath eyes to see may see The tokens of its unity."
--_Whittier._
"That is a very clear statement," said Mr. Hayden, as he handed theletter to Grace when she called the next evening.
"Do you think we can get much of an idea from it?"
"O yes, indeed we can; but you take it home and read it with Kate."
Grace went straight home with her prize for she was more interested thanshe cared to admit just yet, and Kate was still reluctant and fearfulabout the possible wrong.
Grace had awakened in the night, just after Mrs. Hayden had gone andfound her crying. "What is the matter, Katie?" she asked.
"Oh, Grace, I am so worried about this Healing, and I am afraid I didwrong to even promise Mrs. Hayden I would read her letters," sobbed thepoor child.
"Why, Katie dear, we could never know anything if we did not look intoit and use the reason God has given us. Surely you are not afraid toexamine into what claims to be such wonderful truth. You do notnecessarily accept by examining it, and I am glad we can have theprivilege of reading what Mrs. Hayden says, for she has such a fair,unprejudiced mind, and will give us the matter just as nearly right asshe can; then we can judge for ourselves."
She reached over and drew Kate into her arms, but the sobbing did notcease at once. Grace was naturally kind-hearted, and respected people'sfeelings. To-night she was very gentle, as Kate gratefully realized.
"Come Kate, put away your fears. There's nothing can change the truthyou have, and if it isn't truth, the sooner you change your mind thebetter. What makes you feel so, all at once? Has some one saidanything?"
"Yes, Mr. Narrow gave me such a talking to when I asked him if it waswrong; for someway, I got so troubled that I did not know what else todo."
"Well, what of it; you don't see anything wrong in it yourself, do you?"
"N--o, not exactly."
"What are you afraid of, then?"
"I--I don't know," with a hysterical sob. She was ashamed to admit thatshe was half afraid of eternal punishment, something she had been invague terror of all her life. It had been impressed upon her so vividly,and now she was suffering from a keenly reproachful conscience, becausefor so long a time she had been indifferent and neglectful of herreligious duties.
Grace finally persuaded her it would be all right to give the matter afair investigation. Then she went to sleep, comforted, for half hermisery had been caused by her indecision and wavering.
When they read the letter together, Grace was delighted and Kate notmuch less so, though she demurred a little about some things.
"What beautiful ideas of God! It seems plainer than anything I everheard. To say God is Principle, not person, makes it easier to apprehendHis omnipresence," exclaimed Grace, laying down the letter.
"Y-e-s, in one sense," slowly assented Kate, "but in the Bible He isspoken of as Person, or at least as having personal attributes, and youknow they frequently refer to what He says and how He talked withAbraham."
"O, I think that is figurative, if it is true at all. How can a beingwith a definite or outlined form be everywhere at the same time?"
"But surely, you believe His thoughts can be everywhere, and that iswhat is meant by this omnipresence," said Kate, earnestly.
"Then do you think of Him as sitting on a great golden throne, listeningto the petitions of men below, and able to hear and to grant or refuseat the same moment every prayer that is sent to Him by the millions ofHis children on earth?"
"'God's ways are not our ways, and with Him all things are possible.'"
"But is it not much easier to say this is Principle, which is everywherewaiting for our recognition of its presence to become manifested tous?" pursued Grace.
"Yes, I don't know but it is."
"Now Kate, I am truly in earnest and mean to study this very earnestly.I know very little about the Bible, because it has been a sealed book tome every time I ever tried to read it, but during these three weeks thatMrs. Hayden is gone, I am going to put away my preconceived opinions asfar as possible and see if I can learn something, and now let us get theBible and see what it says on these questions. You have a concordance.Let us look up the word omnipresence and read some of the passages inwhich it occurs."
Kate was well pleased, not only to make the Bible the foundation of thisstudy, but to find Grace so changed, and so ready to look into sacredthings. "Perhaps she will be converted," she thought, and from thatmoment she, too, resolved to look fairly into Christian Healing. Shebrought the concordance and found there was no reference toomnipresence.
"We'll look for present or presence," suggested Grace. She glancedrapidly down the columns and found a reference to Ps. cxxxix. and turnedto that.
"Yes, in the seventh verse it says: 'Whither shall I go from thy spiritor whither shall I flee from thy presence?' and here is a marginalreference to Jer. xxiii: 24. 'Can any hide himself in secret places thatI shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?'Now it seems to me that carries the idea of a personal Being," saidKate.
"Well, let us look up the references to God," suggested Grace again."Here's one in Deut. xxxii: 4. 'He is the rock, his work is perfect; forall his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just andright is he.' Yes, there He is compared to a rock. Of course that issymbolical, but find another. Isn't there one that tells of Him asspirit?"
"Yes, 'God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him inspirit and in truth,' that is in John iv: 24, and in the first chapterof John it reads: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was withGod and the Word was God.'"
"Ah! there we have it very plain; word is not flesh and blood or person.Doesn't it say in the letter that God is Intelligence, which is onlyanother way to express the same thing?"
"Yes, and I remember when Jesus prayed for His disciples, He said:'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth;' and some place inthe Bible it speaks of God as truth," said Kate, quite willing to giveall the corroborative testimony she could.
"Truth can only be considered as principle, so we have that statementconfirmed by the Bible, and that would agree with what Pythagoraswrote," said Grace, quoting: "'There is one Universal Soul diffusedthrough all things, eternal, invisible, unchangeable; in essence liketruth, in substance resembling light; ... to be comprehended only by themind.' Now it is comparatively easy to see manifestations of the Good.By the way, I think it a volume of explanation in itself to say Goodinstead of God, don't you?"
"Well, yes, it does seem peculiarly expressive, but the old way sounds alittle better yet."
"Of course," pursued Grace, "it doesn't matter so much what we call thisomnipresent power, as whether we understand it. All humanity worship thesame Deity in the sense of recognizing an omnipotent Power. I once readsomething comparing the ideas of God among the different peoples, and itwas really wonderful how similar they were, excepting, of course, eachnation had a different name for Deity. I believe I have that book nowsomewhere;" and Grace went to look for it, but presently returnedwithout finding it. "Well, it made such a vivid impression on me that Iremember a few of the principal statements. One was that the Hindoosteach of an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent Being called Brehmwho is the creator of all things, from whom all things emanate and bywhom all things are sustained. The Persians, Egyptians, Greeks heldsimilar ideas. The Persians called God, Ormuzd, the Greeks, Orpheus, theEgyptians, Osiris."
"I did not know the Pagans held such ideas of Deity. I always thoughtthey believed in many gods," said Kate.
"They did, but as Edward Everett Hale, says: 'The innumerable Gods ofthe Pantheon are but manifestations of the One Being,' that is, they hadspecial names for the different manifestations of God, as He appeared tothem in the sun, the air, the earth, and also the different qualities ofhuman character. They all alike bel
ieved in a Supreme Being, and madestatements almost synonymous with many in the Bible. That is what may becalled universal truth, and if this philosophy is what is consistentwith fundamental truth, it will be just what I have been wishing tofind." Grace leaned back meditatively, adding, "Mythology used to have apeculiar charm for me, and many of those old stories are coming backwith a new significance."
"'There is but one foundation, other, can no man lay,'" quoted Kate,earnestly.
"Yes, my dear," and Grace rose and paced back and forth in deepabstraction. "There is but one Truth and we can not establish a falsity.But I want to carry my reflections a little further concerning thisuniversal worship. To my mind, the power inherent in everything andrecognized in some way by every individual is the supreme, perfect Powerin different phases of manifestation. The man who trusts an unseen powerto bring the seed he plants to full fruition, is believing in the trueGod, though he may not know it.
"The whole world lives on faith from one year to another, for there isnot enough food produced in one season to last more than one year, andif men did not know every succeeding season would provide, they would bedesperate indeed. What is this but believing in a supreme Power? Evenmaterialists admit that the great First Cause is beyond matter. HerbertSpencer speaks of it as the 'Universal Reality, without beginning andwithout end.'"
"All people reverence and admire the sentiments of love and justice andtruth and mercy. Let us agree they come from the same cause and areeverywhere present, and we shall come nearer to worshiping God in spiritand in truth, than we ever have before. Now let's have your opinion,Queen Katherine," concluded Grace, looking at Kate with a playful smileas she finished her long dissertation.
"There is nothing I can add to that, and it seems a very good conclusionto our first lesson. I did not know you had thought so much aboutreligious things, Grace."
"I always had a fondness for looking on the forbidden side of things,and I am afraid I was more curious than religious, but I am rather gladif there is an explanation to these things that have always puzzledme."