Bildungsromans; City and town life -- Juvenile fiction; First loves -- Juvenile fiction; Religion -- Philosophy -- Juvenile fiction
"Why, the law is certain, but"--Jane spoke gently--"you're so far from
understanding it yet. I only told you a little. It takes ever so long to
get one's mind built to where it will grasp an ideal and hold it without
wavering once. There's such a lot I didn't tell you; I couldn't in those
few minutes. I just showed you the picture, and you have to work hard
till you learn how to paint it. You see, a wish is like blowing a
bubble, and if you add wishes and more wishes, you gradually change the
bubble into a solid mold, which is a real thing of spirit but empty of
material; then, if you keep it solid and firm, the fact of it is real
spiritually, and a vacuum as to matter makes the matter just _have_ to
fill it, and it is that filling into the mold shaped by our thoughts
that makes what we see and live here in this world. The world is all
matter circulating in thought-molds. Anything that you carefully and
steadily and consistently think out must become manifest. God
manifesting His will means that. We are His will. And the nearer we
approximate to the highest in Him, the more we can manifest ourselves.
That's why very good people are seldom rich; they want to manifest in
deeds and not in things. That's why they never keep money--it only
represents to them the need of others. If you really and truly love Mr.
Rath, and feel it steadily and steadfastly your mission to make him very
happy, of course it will be, even though he loved some one else. But to
want a man who loved some one else wouldn't be possible to any one who
believed in this teaching. That's where it is, you see. When you get
power, you never want to do evil with it. Power from God never manifests
in evil. When you are where you can get whatever you want, it simply
means that you are living where only good can come, and where you are
able to see it coming."
Emily stood perfectly still, looking downwards. Then suddenly she burst
into violent sobs. "Oh, I feel so small, so mean--so wicked. It isn't as
you feel a bit with me. I just want to get out of this stupid town--and
he's so good-looking!"
Jane's eyelids fell.
"I feel so mean and petty," Emily went on, pressing her hands over her
face. "I could never be good like you. I can't understand. I just want
to be married. I'm so tired of my life."
"Well," said Jane, with steady firmness, "why don't you go to him and
talk it all over nicely? As you would with Madeleine or me. Perhaps that
would be best."
"Do you really think so?" said Emily, lifting her eyes; "do you believe
that a girl can go to a man and be honest with him, just as a man can
with a woman?"
"I couldn't," said Jane, "because I wouldn't want to, but if you want to
do it, I don't see why you can't."
"But why wouldn't you?"
"Because I get my things that other way,--simply by asking God to guide
me towards His will and guide me from mistake."
"Did you do that about asking old Mrs. Croft?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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