Sometimes little babes who have learned to walk, maybeAs Written:may be have walked two or three years, are overtaken by illness,- they sicken nigh unto death, and when they recover they have forgotten how to walk, and have to be carried or led until the strong use of their feet comes back to them. One of the many for whom you travailed sore to deliver, after having learned to walk, "sickened nigh unto death"– how nigh only the loving Mother watching beside her, knew. After long months of feverish tossing to and fro, and delirious mutterings, and mistaking of loving kin for strangers or enemies, the disease is abating, and the eyes begin to see truly, and the ears to hear the voice of Truth, and the first thought of returning health is toward the loving, patient Watcher whose trust in divine Principle healed Her child.
Dear Teacher, let me tell you what divine Love has revealed to me. I have been in deep error. I did not fall into it, I had not been out of it, and I must have needed the severe discipline of the past two years to bring me out of it.
I see now how "if the individual and his ideal be misunderstood or maligned, it eclipses the other with the shadow cast by this error and darkens the mind of the misjudger." Also that the senses join issue with error; they pity what has no right either to be pitied or to exist, and what does not exist in ScienceEditorial Note: Christian Science."
I saw that Mr. Nixon and Mr. Lang were wrong - if for no other reason than that they were opposed to you. I told them so, and often bored them intensely by saying that although I did not see far enough to tell them how it would be done; but you would demonstrate order out of the confusion and right out the seeming wrong; but dear Teacher, I thought all the time that the mortal mind good(?) intentions of these men, and of all for that matter, should be accounted unto them as righteousnessGen 15:6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. Rom 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. , and I thought you could and should do it.
How little I appreciated the divine constraint of Principle, and how surely and wholly you were governed by it. What a black, blasphemous error it was! Is there any atonement for it? I see all now - its wide ramifications I see what it involved. What a hideous nightmare! What shall I do to be saved?
With the uncovering of my error, has come to me the Light of all the Light that Christian Science has ever given me;– I see that a greater than Jesus is here and the greater works than he did are being done. I cannot put it into words. You know what I mean. That has been revealed to me - even me. It is mine. Glory be to God in the highest!Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
I have a sense that you know all this before I write it. Have you not watched at my side through this dark night of fever and delirium? and do you not see the first gleam of consciousness and true sanity?
Do with me whatever the best interest of the Cause of Christian Science demands, I will obey. My error has been public, my confession and atonement ought to be just as public, ought they not? Divine Love will give me grace to meet its every demand. In justice to all whom I thought were unjust, and whom I considered at willful As Written: wilful enmity toward me, ought I not in some way to speak out fearlessly, my error and so bring the first fruits of my repentanceMatt 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: to the altar?
If our Alumni meeting were soon, I would go and stand before my brother and sister graduates and confess my fault. If that is one of the penances needed, I will wait until the Association does meet and then go.
Take my hand dear Teacher, once more, if divine Principle permits, and let me learn again to walk. I love only Christian Science. It is all in all to me, for it is the Word of God who is All in All.
I now have no earthly tie. My brave, beautiful, manly, loving son has passed on into the Light. That is, the mortal evidence is that I shall not see him again in the flesh.
The evidence as far as it can be gathered is that he was shot by the Navajo Indians the 20" of last March, while riding, peacefully on his way from Bluff, Utah, to Flagstaff, Arizona. He was not married as has been reported. He was engaged to a lady of high character, who is a lover of Truth as taught in Science and HealthEditorial Note: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and they both looked forward to being someday united in the work of Divine Science and guided in their relations by its pure teachings.
God has indeed tempered the storm for Love has taken away the selfish sorrow that was mine through the weeks of suspense. When I wrote youEditorial Note: This letter is not extant. from OttumwaEditorial Note: Ottumwa, Iowa the last of Mar. that great shadow was over me but I did not know its nature until in May.
I am able today As Written: to-day , to say that "joy is the master of sorrow." " Love is supreme ."