CHAPTER VI.--FIRST WORK IN THE VINEYARD.
"Would you like me to read to you for a little while this evening, Mr.Higgs? My aunt has given me permission, if you would like me to," Carolasked modestly as he entered the old man's cottage the following Sundayevening. Mr. Higgs was seated as usual at the open door, watching thevillagers pass by on their way to church.
"Thank you kindly, young gentleman. I'll be glad to hear some of thewords of the Book. I just keep it close by me. It don't seem Sundaywithout. But my eyes fail me, and I just sit and ponder over some ofthe Psalms I can well remember. After the service sometimes aneighbor'll pop in and tell me the text Rector's been preaching about.A mighty fine preacher is Rector, but often I used to say to myMissus--she's dead and gone these five years--his thoughts are likebirds, they fly over our heads, and we don't seem able to lay hold ofthem. If he'd just tell us something simple to help us day by day. I'dbe glad now if I could remember some of the sermons I've listened to,year in, year out. But there, it's all gone, and I've got no moreunderstanding of the Bible than when I was a boy. It's ower late tothink about it now, and me turned seventy."
"I have been taught to understand the Bible. I should like to teach youwhat I have been taught. Then, when you understand, you would lose yourrheumatism."
"_Lose my rheumatism!_" The old man repeated the words in the utmostastonishment.
"Why, yes, of course you would," Carol said with that wonderfully sweetsmile which won all hearts. "I had hip-disease; but I lost it."
"Well, now, young gentleman, I can say with absolute truth that I havenever been told that before--no, _never!_ though I've been a regularchurch attendant since I was a little choir boy, and never left offgoing till the joints in my old legs grew so stiff I couldn't walk.It'd want a lot of faith, sir, to believe that just reading the Biblewould make 'em lissom again."
"Faith comes with understanding. There is another book; it is called_Key to the Scriptures_. I haven't a copy of that book now, but I canremember so much of it, I shall be able to help you to understand theBible perhaps a little better. We will commence with the first chapterof Genesis."
"Yes, now; I remember that chapter pretty well. I learnt it at SundaySchool sixty years ago, and I've never quite forgotten it. I couldrepeat verses straight off now."
"And has it never helped you all through your life?"
"Well, no. I can't say that chapter has. I have found comfort sometimesfrom the Psalms. 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,' I haveoften turned to when we'd a growing family and work was slack."
"Let me read the chapter now and then we will talk about it."
The boy opened the Bible, and slowly with an impressiveness which theold man had never before heard, he read the first chapter of Genesis,and three verses of the second chapter. He read as one reads words thatare very familiar and understandable.
"_Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host ofthem, and God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was verygood._" He repeated the words from memory, looking with a kindly smileat the old man, as he asked the question: "If God looked upon everythingwhich He had created, and declared it very good--where do the thingscome from that are not good? Who created them?"
"Well now, young sir, that is a question I'm not prepared to answer. Ican only say like that little black girl in the story, ''spose theygrowed'."
"But everything must grow from something, mustn't it? Every tree andplant has its own seed. God created every living creature after itskind, and bade it be fruitful and multiply. So you see everything goodwas created by the Word of God. Is rheumatism good?"
"'Deed no, young gentleman! It's cruel bad."
"So is hip-disease. It's very, very 'cruel bad,' and because it is theopposite of good it was not amongst the things which God 'beheld.' Ourdear Heavenly Father did not create poor suffering little childrenmaimed with hip-disease, and sometimes blind. He created them in Hisown image and likeness, and God could not be suffering sometimes withone disease, sometimes with another, so that His image and likenesscould have it too, could He? See, if I hold my hand up so it casts ashadow on the wall, that is an exact image or likeness of my hand, is itnot? Now if I just hold something--only a slip of paper between my handand the reflection, the reflection is deformed, isn't it? But my handis not affected by it. So when we are bound by any cruel disease, thereis something between God and His image and likeness, something that wasnever created by Him--was never created at all. It is only a shadowymist--a belief: and we have to get rid of it, by knowing its unreality.We have to know that because we are God's children, His spiritualcreation, we must be perfect, even as He is perfect. Jesus came toteach people this. He said, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as yourFather in Heaven is perfect.' But, my cousin says, the world has beenslow to learn the lesson. Sin and disease will disappear from our midstjust as soon as we do learn it. When she came to me, and I was veryill, she taught me that nothing was real except what God had created,and pronounced good, and He never created hip-disease. Because sheunderstood this so clearly, and taught me to understand it, I soon beganto get better. I should like to help you to understand it, so that youwould lose your rheumatism. I think I have stayed as long as I hadpermission to-night. Would you like me to come again next Sunday?"
"'Deed, and I would, young gentleman."
"My name is Carol," the boy said simply.
"Thank 'ee, Master Carol, you've given me something to think about, Ishan't forget during the week."
"I should like to teach you the Scientific Statement of Being. It is inthat book I told you of, which explains the Bible. If you would learnit, and try to realize it, it would help you so much.'
"My mem'ry 's none of the best now, but I'll try," the old man saidregretfully.
"Perhaps it will be better for me to write it for you in large writing,so that you can read it until you know it. I will bring it with me nextweek. These are the words: 'There is no life, truth, intelligence, norsubstance in matter.' He repeated the words gravely and slowly to theend, the old man gazing at him the while with wondering eyes. The sunwas setting; the crimson light streamed through the lattice window uponthe boy's upturned face, so sweet, so grave, so loving, and so earnest.
"The words seem difficult to understand at first," he said, "but youwill soon grow to love them. It is the truth which Jesus promisedshould make us free. It has made me free. It will make you free."