ought."

"But to believe that there is anything but God, and the things He
made, is sin, isn't it, Padre dear?"

"Sin is--yes, to believe in other powers than God is to break the very
first Commandment--and that is the chief of sins!"

"Well, Padre dear, can't you make yourself think right? Do you know
what you really think about God, anyway?"

Jose rose and paced up and down through the dark aisle.

"I try to think," he answered, "that He is mind; that He is infinite,
everywhere; that He is all-powerful; that He knows all things; and
that He is perfect and good. I try not to think that He made evil, or
anything that is or could be bad, or that could become sick, or decay,
or die. Whatever He made must be real, and real things last forever,
are immortal, eternal. I strive to think He did make man in His image
and likeness--and that man has never been anything else--that man
never 'fell.'"

"What is that, Padre?"

"Only an old, outworn theological belief. But, to resume: I believe
that, since God is mind, man must be an idea of His. Since God is
infinite, man must exist in Him. I know that any number of lies can be
made up about true things. And any number of falsities can be assumed
about God and what He has made. I am sure that the material universe
and man are a part of the lie about God and the way He manifests and
expresses Himself in and through His ideas. Everything is mental. We
_must_ hold to that! The mental realm includes all truth, all fact.
But there may be all sorts of supposition about this fact. And yet,
while fact is based upon absolute and undeviating principle--and I
believe that principle to be God--supposition is utterly without any
rule or principle whatsoever. It is wholly subject to truth, to
Principle, to God. Hence, bad or wrong thought is absolutely subject
to good or real thought, and must go down before it. The mortal man is
a product of wrong thought. He is a supposition; and so is the
universe of matter in which he is supposed to live. We have already
learned that the things he thinks he hears, feels, tastes, smells, and
sees are only his own thoughts. And these turn out to be suppositions.
Hence, they are nothing real."

"Well, Padre! How fast you talk! And--such big words! I--I don't think
I understand all you say. But, anyway, I guess it is right." She
laughed again.

"I _know_ it is right!" he exclaimed, forgetting that he was talking
to a child. "Evil, which includes sickne