“POOR little ‘live dolls!’” sighed Colombe. “You’re all filled up with rubbish and covered with dark veils! You’ve been in this sad condition for a month now. Mother, isn’t it about time to finish that story-game? I can’t play with my dolls when they’re all filled up that way!”

“All right,” replied Mother. “We will continue the story. The reason why I asked you to leave the dolls stuffed with rubbish and covered with veils was to impress upon you how long such unhappiness lasts when we turn away from the God within us and look for Him somewhere outside of us, as did the dolls. Think how long we have had to live in bodily bodies, stuffed up with rubbish thoughts and covered over with veils, just because we have insisted in thinking that God is in the skies (or some place outside of us), instead of knowing that He is in us as you are in your dolls.

“Now, remember that the Live Dolls on your hands are the soul bodies, and their reflections are the mirror-world bodies—just as the body we see (running hands over child’s body) is but the reflection of the real soul body within us,—the glorious body of light and beauty that is there when we lift the veils covering it.

“So here are poor little Adam and Eve still hobbling and stumbling about before their mirror world, looking gloomily through their dark veils of hate and wrong feelings, and thinking that all is sad, dark, and unhappy.

‘Oh, why were we put in such a bad ugly world?’ they cry. ‘Why must we be sick and in pain?’

“Little dolls!” interrupted Colombe, earnestly, “it’s just the paper in you that makes your sickness and pain, and your veils that make your world look sad and ugly!”

“Yes,” answered Mother. “You are now talking to them just as God talks to us, but they can’t hear or see you as long as their whole attention is fastened on the things in the mirror. They must forget their world and their mirror-selves for awhile, and become very still and quiet—then they can hear what you’re trying to tell them.

“Just see how foolish they still are! Adam hates his dark crippled-looking body which he sees in the mirror-world, and is trying to pull the veil off the mirror. He still likes his rubbishy thoughts and becomes angry if Eve tries to pull any of them out of him, as she does when he reaches for hers. Such foolish dolls! They can’t yet see that it is such rubbishy thoughts that keep them sick, dark, and unhappy.

“This goes on for a long, long time, until at last Eve throws herself down, saying, ‘Oh, I can’t stand this any longer! Everything I do goes wrong. I’m sick, miserable, and beaten.’ And she lies there quiet at last, with her face away from the mirror-world. Now, because she is quiet, she begins to feel your finger IN her, although she is not entirely sure as yet just what it is; and she hears You telling her to get rid of those foolish thoughts and wrong feelings so that You can make her well and happy. This gives her some hope, and she begins to remember—just a little bit at first—that in some way she is connected with God. Of course this good true thought immediately removes some of the old rubbish, and You, her God, can get your hand a little further into her.

‘My body is getting better,’ she cries, happily, when she sees her mirror-self straightening up as the rubbish comes out of her mind. So now, oftener and oftener she becomes quiet and tries to feel the God in her; and the more she feels God’s Hand, the further into her it can go.

“At last, after being quiet for some time, Eve looks at Adam and says, ‘Oh, poor little Adam. God’s Hand must be in him, too. His body really isn’t mean and sick and ugly as it looks in the mirror-world! It’s just his rubbishy thoughts making him seem that way. I don’t hate him any more. I’m sorry for him and I’m going to help him!’

“Such a loving thought immediately removes some of Eve’s veils, and the world looks brighter and happier (removing veils from the doll as she speaks).

‘What’s making you look so well, Eve, and why are you so much happier and better looking?’ asks Adam.

‘Because I’ve found out what was making me sick and unhappy, and making everything go wrong!’ she answers.

‘Tell me!’ demands Adam.

‘It’s because I was more interested in the world and my body-self, than in God, Who is IN me and making me go,’ she answers. ‘But you won’t understand till you too become real quiet and try to feel God’s Hand in you!’

“And so Adam, too, begins to quiet his mind and to feel the God part within him, and he, too, little by little, loses his rubbishy thoughts (gradually pulling paper out bit by bit).

“Now this goes on for a long time, each loving the other more and more as they feel more of God’s Hand in them, until every veil at last falls off and they turn about and again see You, their God!

‘Oh!’ they cry in delight. ‘We are part of God and of each other, and He is making us do everything! The mirror-world isn’t real at all. And that body in the mirror-world is only a reflection. God is our Real Self!’

“As soon as they realize this the last piece of rubbish comes out of their souls, and God can again make them do exactly what He wants them to.

‘We are so thankful and so happy,’ they cry gratefully. ‘We’ll never forget God again, and will always do only what He wants us to!’

“Well!” sighed Colombe. “What a nice ending to that story. I, too, am going to be quiet oftener and love people more so that God can make me go just as He wants me to, and so my veils will all come off, like theirs did. Thanks Mother.”

STEP out into the Path revealed to you by the Inner Urge; for it is thy soul that thus speaks. Fear not that it is dark; for somewhere, somehow, very soon will it be thy lot to light up the Path, not for thyself, but for others.—Humanity.

Note: As in the preceding lesson this story should be illustrated with the dolls, the mirror, the veils and the paper, the narrator guiding the child’s hands in the appropriate motions and positions as the story proceeds.

Questions 1. Where should we look for God?

2. What has filled us with rubbishy thoughts?

3. If our soul-body is one of glorious light and beauty, and this body we are in is its reflection, why is it ever sick or ugly?

4. What causes the world to look sad, dark, and unhappy?

5. Does God try to “talk” to us as Colombe did to the dolls?

6. Why don’t we always hear Him?

7. What must we then do to be able to hear Him?

8. Do we, too, try to pull the “veils” off our world? What are the veils?

9. Where is it that these veils really are?

10. Should we become angry if someone tries to pull some of our rubbishy thoughts out of us?

11. Give examples of how others help us to get rid of these foolish thoughts.

12.What must we do to feel God’s “Finger of Light” in us?

13. Explain how feeling God’s Light within will change our whole lives without.

14. Why can God’s “Hand” go farther into us the oftener we feel and know it there?

15. What do loving thoughts do for us?

16. When the last veil falls off, what will we see?

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