greatest stimulus.

"See, Padre dear," she said one day, "if I erase a wrong figure and
then set down the right one instead, I get the right answer. And it is
just like that when we think. If we always put good thoughts in the
place of the bad ones, why, everything comes out right, doesn't it?"

Jose smiled at the apt comparison. "Of course, _chiquita_," he
replied. "Only in your algebra you know which are the right figures to
put down. But how do you know which thoughts are right?"

"I always know, Padre. I can't make even the least mistake about the
thoughts. Why, it is easier to mistake with figures than it is with
thoughts."

"How is that, little one?"

"Because, if you always think God _first_, you can never think wrong.
Now can you? And if you think of other things first you are almost
sure to think of the wrong thing, is it not so, Padre?"

The priest had to admit the force of her statement.

"And, you know, Padre dear," the girl went on, "when I understand the
right rule in algebra, the answer just comes of itself. Well, it is so
with everything when we understand that God is the right rule--you
call Him principle, don't you?--well, when we know that He is the only
rule for everything, then the answers to all our problems just come of
themselves."

Aye, thought Jose, the healing works of the great Master were only the
"signs following," the "answers" to the people's problems, the sure
evidence that Jesus understood the Christ-principle.

"And when you say that God is the right rule for everything, just what
do you mean, _chiquita_?"

"That He is everywhere," the girl replied.

"That He is infinite and omnipresent good, then?" the priest
amplified.

"He is good--and everywhere," the child repeated firmly.

"And the necessary corollary of that is, that there is no evil," Jose
added.

"I don't know what you mean by corollary, Padre dear. It's a big word,
isn't it?"

"I mean--I think I know how you would put it, little one--if God is
everywhere, then there is nothing bad. Is that right?"

"Yes, Padre. Don't you see?"

Assuredly he saw. He saw that a fact can have no real opposite; that
any predicated opposite must be supposition. And evil is the
supposition; whereas good is the fact. The latter is "plus," and the
former "minus." No wonder the origin of evil has never been found,
although humanity has struggled with the problem for untold ages!
Jesus diagnosed evil as a lie. He gave it the mi