CHAPTER XXV

Gila took herself off to a house-party the very next day, with only a tinted, perfumed note, like a flutter of painted wings, to explain that the butterfly had melted into the pleasant sunshine to taste honey in other flowers for a time.

In a way her going was a relief to Courtland.  He didn’t understand himself.  There was something wrong, and he wanted to find out what before he saw her again.

It was while he was in this troubled state that he stumbled upon the Bible as something that might possibly bring light.

He had studied it before in his biblical literature classes, and found it much like other books, a literary classic, a wonderful gem of beauty in its way, a rare collection of legends, proverbs, allegories, and the like.  But looking at it now, with the possible hypothesis that it was the Word of God, all was changed.

He remembered once seeing a tray of gems in an exhibit, and among them one that looked like a common pebble.  The man who had charge of the exhibit took the little pebble and held it in the palm of his hand for a moment, when it suddenly began to glow and sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow and rival all the other gems.  The man explained that only the warmth of the human hand could cause this marvelous change.  You might lay the stone under the direct rays of a summer sun, yet it would have no effect until you took it in your hand, when it would give forth its beauty once more.

It was like this when he began to read the Bible with the idea that it was the Word of God.  Things flashed out at him that fairly dazzled his thoughts; living, palpitating things, as if they were hidden of a purpose to be discovered only by him who cared to search.  Hidden truths came to light that filled his soul with wonder.  Gradually he understood that Belief was the touchstone by which all these treasures were to be revealed.  Everywhere he found it, that belief in Christ was a condition to all the blessings promised.  He read of hearts hardened and eyes blinded because of unbelief, and came to see that unbelief was something a man was responsible for, not a condition which settled down upon him, and he could not help.  Belief was a deliberate act of the will.  It was not a theory, nor an intellectual affirmation; it was a position taken, which necessarily must pass into action of some kind.  He began to see that without this deliberate belief it was impossible for man to know the things which are purely spiritual.  It was the condition necessary for revelation.  He was fascinated with the pursuit of this new study.