Carmen Ariza Part 113

"She wishes to be rid of me, you mean, Doctor?" said the girl, turning and stretching a mental hand to the sinking divine.

"H'm! well, hardly so--ah--so--"

"Doctor," said the girl calmly, "I know it, and I wish to go. I have been waiting only to see the way open. I do not wish to remain longer in an atmosphere where ignorance and false belief stifle all real progress."

The doctor turned another look of astonishment upon her. He had forgotten that he had not been talking with one of his own age. The fact suddenly pressed upon him. "How old are you?" he blurted.

Carmen could not help laughing. But if her clear mental gaze penetrated the ecclesiastical mask and surmounted the theological a.s.sumptions of her interlocutor, enabling her to get close to the heart of the man, she did not indicate it further. "I am nearly sixteen," was her only reply.

"Ah," he reflected, "just a child! My dear girl," he continued, laying a hand indulgently upon hers, "I will advise with Madam Elwin, and will endeavor to convince her that--ah--that your spiritual welfare, if I may so put it, requires that you be not turned adrift at this critical, transitorial period of your life. We must all be patient, while we strive to counteract the--ah--the pernicious teaching to which you were exposed before--ah--before becoming enrolled in this excellent school."

Carmen looked at him steadily for a moment before replying. There was something of pity in the expression of her beautiful face, of tender sympathy for those who seek the light, and who must some day find it, but whose progress is as yet hampered by the human mind's unreasoning adherence to the stepping-stones over which it has been pa.s.sing through the dark waters of ignorance. "Then, Doctor," she said calmly, "you know what I have been taught?"

"Why--ah--yes--that is, vaguely. But--suppose you inform me briefly."

He was beginning to be sensible of having pa.s.sed judgment upon the girl without first according her a hearing.

"Well," she smiled up at him, "I have been taught the very hardest thing in the whole world."

"H'm, indeed! Ah, quite so--and that?"

"To think."

"To--ah--to think!" He again clutched at his mental poise. "Well, yes, quite so! But--ah--is it not the function of all our schools to teach us to think?"

"No," answered the girl decidedly; "not to teach us to think, but to cause us blindly to accept what is ignorantly called 'authority'! I find we are not to reason, and particularly about religious matters, but to accept, to let those 'in authority' think for us. Is it not so?

Are you not even now seeking to make me accept your religious views?

And why? Because they are true? Oh, no; but because you believe them true--whether they are or not. Have you demonstrated their truth? Do you come to me with proofs? Do your religious views rest upon anything but the human mind's undemonstrated interpretation of the Bible? And yet you can not prove that interpretation true, even though you would force it upon such as I, who may differ from you."

"I--ah--" began the doctor nervously. But Carmen continued without heeding the interruption:

"Only yesterday Professor Bales, of the University, lectured here on 'The Prime Function of Education.' He said it was the development of the individual, and that the chief end of educational work was the promotion of originality. And yet, when I think along original lines--when I depart from stereotyped formulae, and state boldly that I will not accept any religion, be it Presbyterian, Methodist, or Roman Catholic, that makes a G.o.d of spirit the creator of a man of flesh, or that makes evil as real as good, and therefore necessarily created and recognized by a G.o.d who by very necessity can not know evil--then I am accused of being a heretic, a free-thinker; and the authorities take steps to remove me, lest my influence contaminate the rest of the pupils!"

"H'm--ah--yes, quite so--that is--I think--"

"Do you, a preacher, think?" the girl went on hurriedly. "Or do you only _think_ that you think? Do you still believe with the world that the pa.s.sing of a stream of human thought, or a series of mental pictures, through your mentality const.i.tutes _real_ thinking? Do you believe that jumping from one human mental concept to another twenty-four hours a day const.i.tutes thinking? Have you yet learned to distinguish between G.o.d's thoughts and their opposites, human thoughts? Do you know what Jesus taught? Have you a real, working, demonstrable knowledge of Christianity? Do you heal the sick, raise the dead, and preach the truth that sets men free from the mesmerism of evil? If so, then you are unevangelical, too, and you and I are both heretics, and we'd better--we'd better leave this building at once, for I find that the Inquisition is still alive, even in America!"

She stopped, and caught her breath. Her face was flushed, and her whole body quivered with emotion.

"The Inquisition! Why, my dear young lady, this is a Christian nation!"

"Then," said the girl, "you have still much to learn from the pagan nations that have gone before."

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed the doctor, again adjusting his gla.s.ses that he might see her more clearly. "My dear child, you have been thinking too much, and too seriously."

"No, Doctor," she replied; "but you preachers have not been thinking enough, nor even half seriously. Oh," she went on, while her eyes grew moist, and ever and again her throat filled, "I had expected so much in this great country! And I have found so little--so little that is not wholly material, mechanical, and unreal! I had imagined that, with all your learning and progress, which Padre Jose told me about, you would know G.o.d much better than we in the darkened South. But your G.o.d is matter, machinery, business, gold, and the unreal things that can be bought with money. Some one wrote, in a recent newspaper, that America's G.o.d was 'mud and mammon!' What do I find the girls here in this school talking about but dress, and society, and the unreal, pa.s.sing pleasures of the physical senses! Do they know G.o.d? No--nor want to! Nor do the preachers! There are religious services here every Sunday, and sermons by preachers who come down from the city.

Sometimes a Baptist; sometimes a Presbyterian; and sometimes an Episcopalian, or a Methodist. What is the result? Confusion--religious confusion. Each has a different concept of G.o.d; yet they all believe Him the creator of a man of flesh and bones, a man who was originally made perfect, but who fell, and was then cursed by the good and perfect G.o.d who made him. Oh, what childish views for men to hold and preach! How could a good G.o.d create anything that could fall? And if He could, and did, then He knew in advance that the man would fall, and so G.o.d becomes responsible, not man. Oh, Doctor, is it possible that you believe such stuff? How can you! how can you! Is it any wonder that, holding such awful views, you preachers have no longer the power to heal the sick? Do you not know that, in order to heal the sick, one must become spiritually-minded? But no one who holds to the puerile material beliefs embraced in your orthodox theology can possibly be spiritual enough to do the works Jesus said we should all do if we followed him--really understood him."

"My dear child--you really are quite inconsistent--you--"

"Inconsistent! What a charge for an orthodox preacher to bring! Let us see: You say that the Scriptures teach that G.o.d made man in His image and likeness--the image and likeness of spirit. Very well. Spirit, G.o.d, is eternal, immortal. Then while He exists can His image fade away, or die? Can or would G.o.d cause it to do so? Can or would He destroy His own reflection? And could that image, always being like Him, ever change, or manifest sin, or disease, or evil, unless G.o.d first manifested these things? And if G.o.d did manifest them, then, perforce, the image would _have_ to do likewise. But, in that case, could G.o.d justly punish His image for faithfully reflecting its original? Consistent! Oh, it is you preachers, lacking sufficient spirituality to correctly interpret the Scriptures, who are wildly, childishly, ignorantly inconsistent!"

Carmen rose and faced the clergyman. "I did not mean to condemn you, Doctor," she said earnestly. "I wage no warfare with persons or things. My opposition is directed only against the entrenched human thought that makes men spiritually blind and holds them in the mesmeric chains of evil. I am young, as you reckon years, but I have had much experience in the realm of thought--and it is there that all experience is wrought out before it becomes externalized.

I have told you, my teacher was G.o.d. He used as a channel a priest, who came years ago to my little home town of Simiti, in far-off Colombia. His life had been wrecked by holding to the belief of evil as a power, real and intelligent. He began to see the light; but he did not overcome fear sufficiently to make his demonstration and break the imaginary bonds which held him. He saw, but he did not prove. He will, some day. And, Doctor, you and everybody else will have to do the same. For, unless Jesus uttered the most malicious falsehoods ever voiced, every human being will have to take every step that he took, make every demonstration that he made, and prove all that he proved, before mortals will cease to consume with disease, perish miserably in accidents, and sink with broken lives into graves that do _not_ afford a gateway to immortal life! My G.o.d is infinite, eternal, unchanging mind. The G.o.d of the preachers, judging from their sermons preached here, is a human, mental concept, embodying spirit and matter, knowing good and evil, and changing with every caprice of their own unstable mentalities. My religion is the Christianity of the Master, love. Oh, how this poor world needs it, yearns for it! The love that demonstrates the nothingness of evil, and drives it out of human experience! The love that heals the sick, raises the dead, binds up broken hearts! The love that will not quench the religious instincts of children, and falsely educate them to know all manner of evil; but that teaches them to recognize it for what it is, the lie about G.o.d, and then shows them how to overcome it, even as Jesus did. My G.o.d is truth.

Is truth real? Ah, yes, you say. But error is the opposite of truth.

Then can error, evil, be real? No, not if you will be consistent.

Again, G.o.d is infinite. But G.o.d is spirit. Then all is spirit and spirit's manifestation--is it not true? What, then, becomes of the evil that men hug to their bosoms, even while it gnaws into their hearts? It is the opposite of good, of mind, of truth, G.o.d. And the opposite of truth is supposition. Is it not so? And the supposition is--where? In your mentality. And you can put it out whenever you are willing to drop your ceremonials and your theories, and will open your mentality to truth, which will make you free, even as the Master said. That is my religion, Doctor. Those are the religious views which you have been sent by Madam Elwin to investigate. Am I a heretic? Or unevangelical?"

She waited a few moments for the doctor to reply. Then, as he remained silent, she went up to him and held out her hand.

"You do not care to talk with me longer, I think," she said. "Perhaps we may meet again. But, as regards Madam Elwin's wishes, you may tell her that I shall leave the school."

"Have you--have you been fitting yourself for any--ah--particular work--ah--for your support, that is?" inquired the doctor gravely, as he took the proffered hand. He had been swept off his feet by the girl's conversation, and he had not the temerity to combat her views.

"Yes," replied Carmen. "I have been working daily to gain a better understanding of the teachings of Jesus, and through them, of G.o.d. My single aim has been to acquire 'that mind which was in Christ Jesus.'

And I have no other business than to reflect it to my fellow-men in a life of service. That is my Father's business, and I am working with Him. My mission in this world is to manifest G.o.d. I am going out now to do that, and _to show what love will do_. G.o.d will use me, and He will supply my every need. And now, good-bye."

She turned abruptly from him and went to the organ. Soon the same song which he had heard as he entered the room rose again through the stillness. A strong emotion seemed to possess him. He started toward the girl; checked himself; and stood hesitating. Then his lips set, and he turned and walked slowly from the room.

In the hall two women were approaching, and as they drew near he recognized one of them.

"Why," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, holding out both hands, "my dear Mrs. Hawley-Crowles! It is not so long since we met at the Weston's.

But what, may I ask, brings you here?"

"This is my sister, Mrs. Charles Reed, Doctor Jurges. We have come to, make a duty call on Mr. Reed's protegee, the little South American savage, you know. Madam Elwin said she was up here with you?"

"Ah, yes, quite so--er, in the chapel, I believe," said the clergyman, his face becoming suddenly grave. "I would return with you, but my time is--ah--so limited." He bowed low, with his hand in the breast of his long frock coat, and pa.s.sed on down the hall.

As the women approached the door of the chapel through which came Carmen's low singing they turned and looked at each other inquiringly.

Then they quietly entered the doorway and stood listening. Carmen, concealed behind the organ, did not see them.

The song stopped, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles went quickly to the organ.

Bending over it, she gazed down into the face of the startled girl.

"My goodness!" she exclaimed. "Get up and let me see what sort of a looking creature you are."

Carmen rose, and Mrs. Reed came forward and gave her a tempered greeting. Then Mrs. Hawley-Crowles fell back and stared at the girl from head to foot. "You know," she said to her sister, "this is the first glimpse I've had of your husband's discovery. I was out of the city when he brought her to my house, you remember. But," turning again to Carmen, "sing that song over, dear, please--the one you were singing just now."

Carmen seated herself again at the organ, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles drew her sister to the rear of the room. "It will sound better back here,"

she explained.

After the lapse of a few minutes she turned to Mrs. Reed. "Belle," she said, nodding her head sententiously, "you had a pearl, and you threw it away. That girl there is our social fortune! Her voice, and her face--why, with our ward--this beautiful, gifted, South American owner of a famous mine--as a lever, we can force the Beaubien to bring the Ames to our terms! She goes back with us to-night! You've been blind!"

Meantime, the dainty Madam Elwin and the amiable Doctor Jurges in the office below had reached a conclusion. "A young lady of--ah--invincible will," the doctor had observed; "and already--ah--decidedly mature, despite her tender years. Should she--ah--a.s.sume leaders.h.i.+p over the pupils of your school, my dear Madam Elwin, the result might be disquieting. There can be no question as to her religious views, as I have said. But, what astonishes me is--ah--that this strange cult should have its devotees even in the wilds of tropical America!

Astonis.h.i.+ng--and so unfortunate! The girl is utterly--ah--unevangelical, Madam; and the advisability of removing her from the school can not be questioned. Do you not agree with me, Mr. Ketchim?"

"By all means," a.s.serted the latter gentleman with great seriousness, while his eyes dwelt tenderly upon Madam Elwin's written order for a hundred shares of Simiti stock which he held in his hand.

"Very well, then," said the lady with a determined nod of her head; "I shall request Mrs. Reed to take her to-day." Then, with a proper sense of what it meant to have the moral support of such an eminent divine as Doctor Jurges, she rang for her maid and bade her summon Mrs. Reed and the girl.