God, the infinite creative mind, is that principle. Jesus showed
clearly--so clearly that the wonder is men could have missed the mark
so completely--that the great principle becomes available only when
men empty their minds of pride, selfishness, ignorance, and human
will, and put in their place love, humility and truth. This step
taken, there will flow into the human consciousness the qualities of
God himself, giving powers that mortals believe utterly impossible to
them. But hatred must go; self-love, too; carnal ambition must go; and
fear--the cornerstone of every towering structure of mortal
misery--must be utterly cast out by an understanding of the allness of
the Mind that framed the spiritual universe.
Josè, looking at Carmen as she sat before him, tried to know that love
was the salvation, the righteousness, right-thinking, by which alone
the sons of men could be redeemed. The world would give such utterance
the lie, he knew. To love an enemy is weakness! The sons of earth must
be warriors, and valiantly fight! Alas! the tired old world has fought
for ages untold, and gained--nothing. Did Jesus fight? Not as the
world. He had a better way. He loved his enemies with a love that
understood the allness of God, and the consequent nothingness of the
human concept. Knowing the concept of man as mortal to be an illusion,
Jesus then knew that he had no enemies.
The work-day closed, and Carmen was about to leave. A shadow fell
across the open doorway. Josè looked up. A man, dressed in clerical
garb, stood looking in, his eyes fixed upon Carmen. Josè's heart
stopped, and he sat as one stunned. The man was Padre Diego Polo.
"Ah, brother in Christ!" the newcomer cried, advancing with
outstretched hands. "Well met, indeed! I ached to think I might not
find you here! But--_Caramba_! can this be my little Carmen, from
whom I tore myself in tears four years ago and more? _Diablo!_ but she
has grown to be a charming _señorita_ already." He bent over and
kissed the child loudly upon each cheek.
Josè with difficulty restrained himself from pouncing upon the man as
he watched him pass his fat hands over the girl's bare arms and feast
his lecherous eyes upon her round figure and plump limbs. The child
shrank under the withering touch. Freeing herself, she ran from the
room, followed by a taunting laugh from Diego.
"_Caramba!_" he exclaimed, sinking into the chair vacated by the girl.
"But I had the devil's own trouble getting here! And I find everything
quiet as a funeral in this sink of a town, just as if hell were not
spewing fire down on the river! _Dios!_ But give me a bit of rum,
_amigo_. My spirits droop like the torn wing of a heron."
Josè slowly found his voice. "I have no rum. I regret exceedingly,
friend. But doubtless the Alcalde can supply you. Have you seen him?"
"_Hombre!_ With what do you quench your thirst?" ejaculated the
disappointed priest. "Lake water?" Then he added with a fatuous grin:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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