s. And this he had just voiced to her.

"Padre dear," she had said, when his tremulous voice ceased, "how
much longer will you believe that two and two are seven? And how much
longer will you try to make me believe it? Oh, Padre, at first you did
seem to see so clearly, and you talked so beautifully to me! And then,
when things seemed to go wrong, you went right back to your old
thoughts and opened the door and let them all in again. And so things
couldn't help getting worse for you. You told me yourself, long ago,
that you would have to empty your mind of its old beliefs. But I guess
you didn't get them all out. If you had cleaned house and got your
mind ready for the good thoughts, they would have come in. You know,
you have to get ready for the good, before it can come. You have to be
receptive. But you go right on getting ready for evil. If you loved
God--really _loved_ Him--why, you would not be worried and anxious
to-day, and you would not be believing still that two and two are
seven. You told me, oh, so long ago! that this human life was just a
_sense_ of life, a series of states of consciousness, and that
consciousness was only mental activity, the activity of thought. Well,
I remembered that, and put it into practice--but you didn't. A true
consciousness is the activity of true thought, you said. A false
consciousness is the activity of false thought. True thought comes
from God, who is mind. False thought is the opposite of true thought,
and doesn't come from any mind at all, but is just supposition. A
supposition is never really created, because it is never real--never
truth. True thought becomes externalized to us in good, in harmony, in
happiness. False thought becomes externalized to us in unhappiness,
sickness, loss, in wrong-doing, and in death. It is unreal, and yet
awfully real to those who believe it to be real. Why don't you act
your knowledge, as you at first said you were going to do? I have all
along tried to do this. Whenever thoughts come to me I always look
carefully at them to see whether they are based on any real principle,
on God. If so, I let them in. If not, I drive them away. Sometimes it
has been hard to tell just which were true and which false. And
sometimes I got caught, and had to pay the penalty. But every day I do
better; and the time will come at last when I shall be able to tell at
once which thoughts are true and which untrue. When that time comes,
nothing but good thoughts wi