Around Old Bethany Part 7

"'The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward G.o.d,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,'" read Kate Newby.

"This makes it plain," said Robert. "Water cannot wash away sins except in a figurative way. It is the blood that cleanses. Read Rev.

1:5 (last sentence), and Col. 1:15."

"'Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,'" read Mary Davis. "This is Rev. 1:5. Col. 1:14 says, 'In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.'"

"Robert, what church do you belong to?" asked Jake finally.

"I am not a member of any denomination," said Robert, "but recently through a study of the Bible, I have become convinced that these denominations are not right, and that we should get back to the Bible in name, faith, and practice. I do not see any church that tallies with the church of the New Testament; so I am waiting and praying for G.o.d to establish a real New Testament church in this community. By the way, Jake, we found that the Bible name for the church is the church of G.o.d. We have had a religious paper coming to us, which is published in the interests of the church of G.o.d. Maybe this is what we are looking for. Jake, let us seek for the truth."

"I will, Robert," said Jake. "I am dissatisfied with my religion.

Really, I doubt if ever I was converted."

"G.o.d bless you, Jake," said Robert, "the Lord has a real experience of salvation for you. Come to Him, repent, and believe. Get under the blood. Amen."

After a blessed service of prayer and singing some of the good old soul-cheering songs, Robert and Mary Davis went home.

It was the beginning of a new era in the Jake Newby home.

CHAPTER TEN

FALSE GUIDES APPEAR IN BETHANY

It often happens when people become awakened to the fact that they are below the standard of Christianity and do not as yet see or know what to do, that they become ensnared in destructive doctrines. Having loosed from their old moorings and not having reached a peaceful haven, they drift about, sometimes at the mercy of every wind that blows. When the truth of the gospel begins to appear then the great enemy, Satan, sows his tares, for the ground is then broken up.

Robert Davis' debates at the schoolhouse, his confession, and his private conversations on the Scriptures, were like rays of light shooting through the rifts in the clouds of the sky. The town of Bethany had never heard such doctrines as Robert was upholding. And even to Robert himself they had not yet been formed into a coherent system of Bible teaching. Several things were still mysteries to him.

Jake Newby and his family were in this partly awakened condition. They had lost confidence in the church to which they belonged, but they did not see the light clearly. They were seekers after the truth.

On one day of the next week after the conversation in his home with the Davis', Jake and Kate went to the railway station in Bethany to see their Aunt Mellisa off. She had been visiting with her brother, Peter Newby, for a few days and was on her way home to Boston.

While sitting in the station chatting and waiting for the train to come, Kate Newby saw a wall-pocket in the waiting-room on which was a neat sign, "Take One," filled with printed literature. She stepped to the receptacle and took out two or three pieces of literature which she placed in her handbag, and she thought no more about it till she got home and opened her bag to get her handkerchief.

Something about the leaflet attracted her attention, and she sat down and read it. The pamphlet proclaimed the virtues of Christian Science to heal all kinds of mental and physical sicknesses and troubles.

There is no sickness, sin or death, said the treatise. All of these things are errors of mortal mind. We are, it continued, to ignore and repudiate these errors, for G.o.d is good and everything is good; G.o.d is eternal Mind, all-embracing, and there can be no death, and sin, and sickness in G.o.d. Material things, it said, are not important, the spiritual is the important. The basis of all things is the spiritual, hence we can count material things as immaterial and be all engrossed in G.o.d. The false notion that there is sickness, it said, has led many to the grave, the false notion that there is a devil has led to the idea of sin. But sin and sickness are errors of the mortal mind, and when we get swallowed up in the one great mind (G.o.d), there will be no more sickness, pain, sin, or death. Much more it said which s.p.a.ce will not permit us to narrate here.

Kate Newby read on and on. She was longing for something better than she had. The arguments of the pamphlet seemed plausible to her, and she embraced them. Seeing that the Christian Science text-book was advised, she ordered a copy of Mrs. Eddy's Science and Health. When it arrived she read it a.s.siduously. She was getting very deep into the meshes of it. Her theology was undergoing a radical change. G.o.d, to her, was no longer personal, but the great Mind which is all-comprehensive. She tried to believe herself well, free, and happy, and she began to enjoy a measure of relief. But, at the same time, Kate Newby was growing more worldly; she began to lose her former distinctions of right and wrong, and the change was beginning to be made manifest in many different ways. She began to ignore Jake and to show an aversion to material things and she began to develop a sort of overmystical att.i.tude toward life in general.

Finally, Jake asked her point-blank, "Kate, what is the matter with you? You are acting so queer."

"Well, Jake, I might as well tell you," answered Kate. "I am a Christian Scientist."

If Jake Newby had been hit with a cannon ball he would not have been worse shocked.

"Christian Science!" he echoed. "Of all things! Where did you get hold of that?"

Then she told him of getting the leaflet, then Science and Health, and how she had gradually been won to embrace it. Jake was clearly disturbed, and started to argue with Kate, but she had the advantage in that he did not know anything about it. So Jake thought of Robert Davis.

"Say, Robert," said Jake to Robert the first time that they met after his talk with Kate about Christian Science, "do you know anything about Christian Science?"

"Indeed I do," said Robert, "my mother once got somewhat entangled in it, and through her efforts to get out I was led to study it."

"Come over and talk to Kate, then," said Jake. "She has taken up with it and it is ruining her. Please come over and talk with her about it.

We must have help."

"All right, I will come," answered Robert.

On the next evening Robert found time to go, and soon he and Kate were talking on Christian Science while Jake and the others listened.

"Now, I will read from Science and Health," said Robert. "See if you can understand it. See if it does not make you feel like scratching your head in order to help to comprehend it. 'What is man? Answer--Man is not matter, he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of G.o.d. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect....

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can G.o.d, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin' (page 475). Can you understand that?"

"For the life of me, I can't," said Jake, but, of course Jake could not be expected to understand it, thought Kate.

"Now, here is another. 'Therefore the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until G.o.d strips off their disguise. They are not true, because they are not of G.o.d. We learn in Christian Science that all inharmony of mortal mind and body is illusion.' Again, 'Sin, sickness, and death are to be cla.s.sified as effects of error' (pages 472 and 473)" read Robert.

"I wonder what I am made of," said Jake's boy, John, "if I have no brain, blood, or bones. When the bay filly threw me last winter and broke my arm I thought I was part bone. And a lot of blood ran from my foot the time I cut it with the ax, at least they called it blood."

"Now, let us get Mrs. Eddy's definition of G.o.d," said Robert. "'What is G.o.d? Answer--G.o.d is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.'"

"Let us notice her definition of Mind," continued Robert. "'Mind is G.o.d,' she says. Let us draw forth some of the Christian Science principles and stand them up for inspection.

"1. Man is not matter; he has not brains, blood, or bones.

"2. Man is incapable of sin.

"3. Man is incapable of sickness.

"4. Man is incapable of death.

"5. Sin, sickness, and death are errors.

"6. G.o.d is Mind, Principle.

"7. Mind is G.o.d.

"8. Sickness is a dream.

"9. Sickness, sin, and death are 'mortal dreams.'

"10. 'There is no disease' (Science and Health, p. 421).

"11. 'Death is the illusion' (Science and Health, p. 428).