The House of Defence v. 1Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Science
The House of Defence v. 1
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Christian Science -- Fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Spiritual healing -- Fiction
What was happening? Maud asked herself that with thrilled and bewildered
wonder. She had to believe the evidence of her own ears, when she heard
Sandie saying--faintly, indeed, but audibly, and in his natural
voice--that he was better. She had to believe the evidence of her own
eyes, which showed her the pallid mask exchanged for the face of a
living being. He had been pulled back from the gate of death, even as
the door was being opened for him to pass through. The colour was coming
back to that ghastly clay-hued face; terror and suffering were being
expunged from his eyes; the short, panting breath, whistling from
between clenched teeth and backdrawn lips, became natural respiration.
And from under the bed-clothes there came no longer jumping movements;
the limbs lay still.
Yet it was impossible; she could not yet believe the evidence of her own
senses. It must be some trick, some illusion. And even as the thought
entered her mind, Cochrane, for the first time, turned to her.
"You mustn't doubt either, dear lady," he said, "for you know that all I
have been saying is quite true; it is the only thing that is completely
true. Come, take all other thought out of your mind. If you have been
questioning the truth of what you see here, reverse that doubt. Tell
Sandie that you know God is making him well, just because he is
beginning to know that neither illness nor sin nor fear can exist in the
presence of Infinite Love. Tell him that."
Maud took a step forward, and stood at the foot of the bed. She had to
believe what her eyes showed her, and they showed her no longer that
unrecognisable death-mask, but the face of Sandie--thin and pale and
tired, it is true, but his living face.
"It is quite true, Sandie," she said. "You are getting well. It is your
faith in the Infinite Love that makes you well."
Cochrane turned to the bed again, and spoke in a voice so tender and
strong that Maud felt a sudden lump rise in her throat.
"Why, Sandie," he said, "your faith is spreading round you like calm
waters, and Infinite Love shines through it like the sun at noonday.
Faith is streaming from you, and the same knowledge streams from us
all--Lady Maud and me. And the streams are joining, and rushing in spate
together over what was a dry and barren hillside. Listen to the voice of
them, shouting their praise to the Lord. By Jove! He is being good to
you, isn't He?"
Again he paused a moment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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