"I am glad to hear that," said Kate; "though I must confess at first I
was very much afraid to look into this; but last night I had a very
clear assurance that there is something in it. Grace and I denied a long
time, and I had a most peculiar experience. Such a strange, exalted
feeling, as if there were no weight about me, and it was very clear that
there is no reality in matter."
"Remarkable!" murmured Mr. Hayden. "Suppose you come down Sunday and
we'll compare notes," he suggested, as he turned the corner toward home.
"We will," she promised, and went on with a hurried step, anxious to
read the letter, for she was now as interested as Grace. When she
arrived at their rooms she found her friend had gone out, so she went
about the domestic duties, resolving to have everything ready when Grace
returned.
"Isn't that a beautiful lesson?" exclaimed Grace, when they finally sat
down to study, later in the evening.
"Perfectly grand; but I want the Bible corroboration, though I am not
afraid it is not there this time."
"Of course everything that proves the theory helps to establish the
consequent facts, and I suspect all things prove it when we understand
it. Well, here is the first statement about God that is about the same
as in the first lesson," said Grace. "Look up the references to life."
"Here is one in Psalm xxvii: 1. 'The Lord is my life and my salvation,
whom shall I fear?'" read Kate; "and here is another in Acts xvii: 25:
'God giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.'"
"That is good; see if you can find another," said Grace.
"Here is one, but I hardly understand it--John xi: 25, 26. 'Jesus said
unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die.' What can that mean, Grace?"
"Wait a moment," said Grace, silently pondering. Then she looked again
at the letter. "Why, of course! How could we forget so easily? I had it
just a moment ago. Jesus never referred to his flesh and blood when he
spoke of himself as life, resurrection, truth, bread, but always meant
the Spirit of God that was manifest in him, and the Spirit of God which
is the Christ, is Truth, and whosoever believes or apprehends Truth,
shall be whole and live."
"But it says, 'shall never die,'" interrupted Kate, still unsatisfied.
"I don't know, then, unless it means 'the Spirit is all.' Find another
passage."
Kate read John vi: 51-64, and then added, anxiously, "it seems to grow
more mysterious all the time."
"Never mind, let us be patient. Read the fifty-first and sixty-third
verses again."
Kate read, "'I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.... It is
the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that
I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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