BEFORE Grace and I were up this morning, Aunt Joy came into our room with her hands full of blossoms. She kissed us and said: "Well, Trixie, you were right when you told us those little seeds were balsam seeds, for see what I've found where we planted them."
"Why, of course, Aunt Joy; anybody could have told you that," said I.
"Then you are not surprised to find balsam flowers where you planted balsam seeds?" said Aunt Joy.
"How could I be? What else could I find?" I asked.
"That's true; how could you find anything but what you had planted? When you know your seed you know your harvest, and in knowledge there is no room for surprise," said Aunt Joy.
"Little seed never torgets, do he, Aunt Joy?" said Grace.
"No, dear; 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap' (Gal. 6:7). Do you know why the little seed never forgets?" asked Aunt Joy.
"'Cause he hasn't got any torget in 'im," said Grace. "That's just the truth of it, 'Wee Wisdom.' It knows
only likeness. But suppose it were possible to get something else into it. What then?"
Grace looked so distressed that I laughed.
So Aunt Joy asked me if I hadn't seen "torgets" and doubts enough to know how they work.
"I never saw them in a seed," I said.
"No; the wisdom of the seed forbids anything but singleness of heart. But have you not in mind some other likeness, not so well and wisely kept?"
I felt ashamed, because I knew she meant my heart. But Grace said, "Aunt Joy, I's left out 'e torgots and Ned's left out 'e torgots, 'cause way in 'e night-time I dreamed he got 'at way and God made 'im all over."
Grace was in Aunt Joy's arms, and her face had that strange, sunshiny look on it. Aunt Joy looked mysterious, too. I just couldn't stand it any longer, so I jumped right up and fairly screamed, for I was sure that Aunt Joy knew something about Ned. I was so excited! I wanted to know if Grace's vision of Ned was really true. Then Aunt Joy held me off and looked at me and said: "I thought a few minutes ago, Trixie, that you were a very wise little girl, to have such unwavering faith in the little balsam seed that you were not at all surprised at these beautiful blossoms from it. But here you are all excitement over the possible blossom of Ned's faith. Tell me, Trixie, is that little seed alone to be trusted with the Divine Promise of unfailing fulfillment?"
"But, Aunt Joy," I cried, "I have seen so many seeds grow!"
"Dear child," said Aunt Joy, "have you found the yield
of your own thought any less faithful to its kind?"
"I 'member 'bout finks," said Grace, " 'cause when I finks bug'oos I get scared, and when I finks God, I's un-scared."
"That's it, darling; our thought is just as sure to bring forth of its kind as the little balsam seed. So if our thoughts were faithful to our words of last night, what must they yield?"
"Oh, Aunt Joy," said Grace, with that shiny look again, "Ned would be all straight'ed up and a'walkin'."
"And would there be anything unnatural or surprising in that, Trixie?"
I hid my face; it did seem plain, yet how could it be really so?
"What were the words you repeated?" asked Aunt Joy.
"'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always,' (John 11:42)" I said.
"Who said these words first?" asked Aunt Joy.
"Jesus Christ," I answered.
"And what followed them?"
"Lazarus came out of his grave."
"What Father did Jesus speak of?"
"God."
"Is God any farther away now than he was then, when Jesus said, 'I know that thou hearest me always'?"
"No, Aunt Joy."
"How do you know?"
"'Cause everybody says so."
"Does everybody prove it, like Jesus did?"
"Why, of course not."
"Then how do they know, and how do you know He 'always hears' without he answers?"
"Because the Bible says so."
"Does your little balsam depend upon a record 1,900 years old to prove its blossoms?"
"Of course not. How funny!"
"Yes, extremely funny, since God is 'God of the living and not of the dead.' (Mark 12:27). Trixie, does it occur to you that you put yourself in that same 'funny' position when you say that you believe God 'hears always,' because the Bible says so?"
"Well, everybody does the same."
"Yes, if there's any comfort in that; so they did in Jesus' time, although he proved to them differently by his works, and tried to lead them into understanding that God, their Father, was ever-present, ever-helpful Spirit, and to know him thus and his Son, Jesus Christ (his spirit in themselves), was to have power over all flesh and to have life eternal. Now, Trixie, which shall satisfy you, to know and prove these things of your heavenly Father, or to hold to that dead faith which keeps its God away from all practical life, locked up in bibles and forms, as useless as the ornaments upon its altar?"
Aunt Joy seemed to grow so big while she was speaking, I felt as if God had filled the room with himself.
We sat awhile and I seemed to "know." I said, "Don't you think, Aunt Joy, we must tell folks this about God?"
Aunt Joy smiled and said: "Can you prove it to them?"
"I feel so in here," I said.
"But you know spiritual things must be spiritually discerned;
'folks' will be just like you were awhile ago, back in the letter of life. Better finish dressing now."
So when we were all dressed Aunt Joy went out, telling us to wait for her. Soon she came back with Ned, and he was walking alone, and it didn't seem at all strange to me then. Grace and I kissed him, and oh, we were so happy we couldn't talk. So Aunt Joy said we would "be still and know," and then go up and see mamma.
Mamma expected us, but she just cried when Ned walked up to her without his crutches. We all wanted to know what was the matter, and she said God had dealt so wonderfully with Ned that she almost feared he was going to take him. Ned laughed right out, and put his arms right around our dear mamma, and told her God had already taken him, and that was why he could walk.
Then mamma kissed us all, and we told her God had taken all of us, and we were going to have him take her, too. She smiled and asked where we were going to have him take her to? Ned said, "Out of bed." Then we all laughed again and said, "Out of doors, too." Mamma said that would be delightful, almost like heaven.
Ned whispered to Aunt Joy and she asked us if we felt our Father near enough to hear us ask health for mamma. We knew he was.
Then we went downstairs — papa had seen Ned before. He kissed us all, but looked as if he didn't see any of us. He read and prayed like a dream, and then sat down and seemed to forget all about us.
So we went out where the balsams grew. We told Ned how Aunt Joy proved to us that if we would keep the
Father's likeness in ourselves we must do like the little balsam has done—forget everything else.
When our gardener saw Ned walking without his crutches and heard how he was cured, he crossed himself and said, "If God done it, he'll die; if the divil done it, the Lord hev mercy on his poor soul."
Aunt Joy said, "The poor man believes that God is too great to do so small a good for man, and the devil too clever to refuse a good turn now and then."
She says we are sure to find out now everybody's ideas of God.
