WE'RE so glad this morning, for when we went up to kiss mamma, Aunt Joy threw the window wide open, and let the sun kiss her, too. And mamma said if we'd play out under the blossom trees, she'd see us, and feel as if she were there, too.
But when papa came up, he didn't like it a bit; he's 'fraid, and said Dr. Grave didn't 'low mamma to have drafts and light.
Aunt Joy asked papa if he remembered that Dr. Grave had been trying this kind of treatment on mamma for nearly five years, and didn't he think that if there was any cure in it she ought to have found it by this time?
Papa said, "Well, Dr. Grave has kept her alive, anyway, when no one else could."
Aunt Joy said he meant "buried alive," 'cause poor mamma has been so shut up. She told papa that 'cording to his theory, this must have been God's way of trying to take mamma where she'd be well and happy, and it seemed selfish and wicked of him, believing as he did, to pay Dr. Grave a thousand dollars a year to defeat God and keep mamma suffering on. I didn't hear what papa
said, for he told us to go right down to breakfast. But I heard Aunt Joy say something about a "Grave and resurrection."
Didn't anybody talk at the breakfast table, and papa was awful sober. But he read something about Jesus curing sick folks, and prayed for God to "make us all whole, for Christ's sake."
Grace climbed into papa's arms and asked him what kind of medicine Jesus used that cured so quick, and why Dr. Grave didn't use it.
Papa said, "Jesus was the Great Physician and didn't use medicine at all, for God gave him power to cure without it."
"I wish Jesus was live now," said Grace.
"He is alive, darling," said papa.
"And does He know like he did?"
"Yes, baby."
"And as good to us as to 'em?"
Papa laughed, and said, "Yes, darling; Jesus Christ is 'the same, yesterday, today and forever' (Heb. 13:8)."
Grace jumped down and clapped her hands and said, "Oh, papa; 'en He'll cure mamma, won't he?"
Papa's face got real sober again. "Baby, I don't want to spoil your faith, but Jesus doesn't cure bodies now; it is our souls he heals."
"But, papa, didn't you say He's 'e same now? How can he be 'e same and quit curin'?"
"Why, baby, you see God let him cure then to show people that he was his Son. The Bible tells us all about the wonderful things he did then."
"But, papa, if He's 'live, why can't he do it now? If he doesn t do somefin' to show folkses he's 'live, how's 'ey goin' to know it?"
"The Bible tells us all about what He has done, little one, and we must read and believe from that."
"But, papa, I can't read it; lots of folkses can't read it, so Jesus ought to show us hisself, if he's 'live."
Aunt Joy said to papa, "The child's logic is perfect; the world can only know a living Christ from living works. You have but just told her that 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.' Add to that 'God is unchangeable,' and if these two statements be true, the same God must give the same Christ the same work to do for the world always."
"Well, Joy, if that follows, how do you account for it's not being done now?"
Aunt Joy seemed to be looking way, way off when she said, " 'And He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief' (Matt. 13:58). Brother, your question is answered by Jesus Christ himself. 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also' (John 14:12). It's unbelief."
"But we do believe."
"Yes, with a belief that makes Jesus' words a lie."
"How dare you say that?"
"Because you claim as belief that which does not verify Christ's promise to believers; therefore, it follows that there is either a false belief or a false promise. Which is it?"
"You are so extreme, Joy. Of course, Christ's promises are all true, but we are mortal, you know."
"Mortal? But you have hope enough in this kind of belief to trust it to save the immortal part of you? How dare you venture on the untried life with a belief that won't prove here?"
"Joy," said papa, "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (Job 19:25).
"Now, that's something like it. If He lives, know it; if he saves, know it; if he is ever-present, know it. This is the belief that Jesus Christ meant; this is the belief that proves him; this is how Christ manifests himself now, for did he not say: 'The world seeth me no more; but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also. At that day [when you understand] ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you' (John 14:20). 'And the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater, because I go unto my Father.' (John 14:12)"
"But, Joy," said papa, "your way of putting it makes us poor, weak mortals seem very presumptuous in the sight of God."
"I am not addressing 'poor, weak mortals.' I am talking to the Son of God, who is commanded to call no man father, and whose brother, Jesus Christ, declared, 'All that the Father hath is mine.' (John 16:15). Was he presumptuous in the sight of the Father? Unbelief and fear are the only presumptions we can offer him."
Papa kissed us and went off.
Ned and I went out under the blossom tree. Ned told me he thought papa'd have a hard time to keep up with Aunt Joy, 'cause Aunt Joy didn't talk like she'd read it, but like it was so.
"And it seems to me," said Ned, "just as if I'd turned
right in and knew it like she does. You remember what we's talking 'bout God the other day? Well, I bet any thing, it's just like Aunt Joy says. You've got to know it yourself."
I told Ned I didn't see why he didn't commence doing if he knew.
Ned was still a long time, then he said: "Trixie, I do know in me, someway, but I don't know how to get it out."
Just then Aunt Joy and Grace came out and we told her what Ned said.
"I see your difficulty, Ned," said Aunt Joy. "Tell me what the gardener is doing over there."
"Planting flower seeds," said Ned.
"Please bring me one."
When he gave it to Aunt Joy, she said: "Grace, what is this?"
"It's a little f'ower," said Grace.
"Oh, no, it's only a seed," said Ned.
"Trixie, what do you call it?" asked Aunt Joy.
"A balsam seed," I said.
"Each answer is right, but Grace's is best, for she knows the flower is there, waiting to come out. How will it get out, darling?"
"Put it in 'e ground, an' 'e little f'ower knows how." "How does it know?"
'Cause God's put a 'little know' in it."
"Pretty good, Grace; but suppose nobody puts the little seed into the ground, what then?"
"It'll know all 'e same, but folkses won't."
"Trixie, can this seed grow any flower but balsam?"
"No, of course not."
"How do you know it?"
'Cause I saw the flowers that made it."
"And are you sure the seed will grow, if you put it in the ground?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
Cause I've seen 'em grow."
"But you have never seen this one grow."
"No, but it's just the same."
"They are all of the one mind then. Do you remember what Jesus said about a little seed, Ned?"
"Oh, yes, that if anybody had faith like it he could remove mountains, but I didn't understand it before."
"Do you now?"
"Yes, for I've got the 'little know' in me, as Grace says, just like the seed."
"Why doesn't it grow, then?"
"'Cause he hasn't planted it," said Grace.
"Yes, that's the important part; the rest will do itself."
"But what is it the gardener does before he plants the seed?"
"Gets the ground ready," said Ned, "and if there's tough sod or weeds, he has to plow them all up to prepare the soil."
"In this planting Grace has just spoken of, is the soil ready for it now?"
We asked Aunt Joy if she didn't mean our hearts. She said yes, but that we could understand it better to call this soil our minds, and the sod and weeds that cumbered it the
false notions and untrue ideas about life. She said that our true words and thoughts are the plowshare that must tear down and uproot all this tough sod of error thought, and bring to sight the fresh, rich soil of the true mind.
And then the "little know"
Can sprout and grow,
and we can see very clearly that God is our Father, and like the little seed, our blossom and fruit must be as the blossom and fruit of the parent stalk.
You can begin at once to prepare the ground. These true statements shall be your plowshare:
"God is my Father, and I am his child.
"I am His image and likeness.
"I shall have no evil thought, because I am like my Father, who is All Good.
"I shall have no unkind thought, because I am like my Father, who is Love.
"I shall have no thought of sin, sickness or death, because I am like my Father, who is Life.
"I am well, strong, happy and wise, because my Father is all Life, all Love, all Strength and all Wisdom.
"I have the mind that was in Christ Jesus: because Christ Jesus was my Father's obedient son, and I am my Father's obedient son."
"I want you to repeat this with me," said Aunt Joy, "till you have learned it, then will the God-germ within you quicken, and you will unfold the Father-plant and blossom.
"Now, darlings, this is your work for one week on the soil of your mind — just keeping these thoughts at work, and none other. Grace, let's take mamma some flowers."
They went away, and Ned and I said over the words.
