Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

Then there was a wave of religious devotion in the school.I no longer hear anyone swearing or swearing, and the mischievous behavior of the junior students is regarded as treasonous, while the older children are like the members of the House of Lords who did not hold the priesthood in the Middle Ages, relying on their physical strength to force the weak to change from evil to good. Philip's mind was already relatively active, and he was eager to explore new things. When this enthusiasm came, he became very religious.Soon, he heard that there was a "Bible Fellowship" for members, and he wrote to London to ask for details.To reply to the letter, you need to fill out a form, write down the applicant's name, age and school; you must also sign a formal affidavit, promising to read a "Bible" every night for one year; in addition , and pay half a krona membership fee--according to the explanation, this half kroner is required to prove the applicant's sincerity in requesting to join the "Bible Fellowship", and on the other hand, it is also to share the office expenses of the association.Philip sent the form and the money in time, and then received a calendar worth about one penny from the other party. The calendar indicated the scriptures to be read every day; There is a picture of Jesus and the lamb printed on it, and on the other side is a short prayer framed with a red line. This prayer must be recited before reading the Bible every day.

Philip undressed as quickly as he could each evening, to buy time to finish his reading before the gas went out.He read the scriptures assiduously, as he always read books, stories of violence, deceit, ingratitude, dishonesty, and deceit, he read one by one without thinking.Such deeds, which would have terrified him if they had occurred in the real life around him, now pass through his mind without a word as he reads them, for they It was done under the direct command of God. The reading method of the "Bible Fellowship" is to alternately read a chapter in the "Old Testament" and "New Testament".One night Philip saw these words of Jesus Christ:

"If you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but you can also say to this mountain, Remove this place and throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done. "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe and it will be yours." At the time, this passage made no impression on him.But by coincidence, on that Sunday two or three days later, the pastor of the church who lived in the office also used this passage as the content of his sermon.Logically speaking, even if Philip wanted to listen carefully, he might not be able to hear clearly, because the students of the Royal College were all arranged in the choir seats, and the pulpit was set at the corner of the transept of the church. The preacher turned his back almost entirely to Philip and them.Besides, the distance is so great that the preacher must not only have a natural voice but also know the knack of oratory if he wants to be heard clearly in the choir.But for a long time, the main basis for selecting the members of the Canterbury Cathedral Clergy, as a rule, is the academic attainments of the priests, and does not pay attention to whether they have the practical ability to deal with the affairs of the cathedral.Perhaps it was the fact that Philip had read the passage not long ago, so it was still audible to him.Somehow, he suddenly felt that these words seemed to be directed at himself.During the sermon Philip kept thinking about that passage.As soon as I climbed into bed at night, I immediately opened the Gospel and found that passage again.Philip, though always convinced of the same thing in the books, now found it strange enough that the Bible sometimes said one thing clearly and meant another.There was no one at school here he would like to ask, so he kept the question in his mind until he got an opportunity to ask it when he came home for Christmas.One day after supper and just after prayers, Mrs. Carey was counting the eggs that Mary Ann had brought in, as usual, and marking each one with the date.Philip stood by the table and pretended to be listlessly leafing through the Bible.

"Let me tell you, Uncle William, does this passage really mean that?" Philip put his finger on the passage, pretending to read it by accident. Mr. Carey raised his eyes and looked at Philip over the frames of his spectacles.He was holding a copy of the Blackstable Times, toasting in front of the fire.The ink was still wet on the newspapers that were delivered that night, and the pastor would always dry them for ten minutes before reading them. "Which section is it?" "Well, it's about the section where mountains can be moved as long as you are sincere."

"If it says so in the Bible, it certainly means so, Philip," said Mrs. Carey softly, picking up the cutlery-basket. Philip looked at his uncle, waiting for his answer. "There's a question of sincerity here." "You mean to say that as long as you are sincere, you will be able to remove the mountain, is that right?" "Influence God with sincerity," said the minister. "Well, it's time to say good night to your uncle, Philip," said Aunt Louisa. "You don't want to report to Dashan tonight, do you?" Philip gave his uncle a kiss on the forehead, and went upstairs ahead of Mrs Carey.What he wants to inquire about has already been inquired about.The small room was like an icehouse, and he couldn't help shivering while changing his pajamas.However, Philip always felt that praying under difficult conditions would be more pleasing to God.The cold numbness of his hands and feet was a sacrifice to the Almighty.Tonight, he fell to his knees, covered his face with his hands, and prayed with all his body and mind to God to restore his lameness to normal.Compared with moving the mountains, this is a trivial matter that requires little effort.He knew that God could do it with a gesture of his hand if He would;When Philip finished his prayers next morning, he made the same request, fixing a date in his mind for the miracle to take place.

"Oh God, if kindness and mercy are your will, please be kind and merciful to me, and cure my lameness the night before I go back to school." Philip happily codified his prayers into words.It was repeated later during prayers in the dining room.The chaplain often stood up in silence after saying his prayers, and it was during these moments that Philip said it silently.Before going to bed at night, he was in his pajamas, trembling all over, and said silently again.His heart is not sincere.At one point, he even wished that the vacation would end sooner.He thought of how surprised his uncle must have been to see him running down the stairs three steps at a time, and how he and Aunt Louisa had to rush out after breakfast to buy a new pair of boots... Thinking, thinking, he couldn't help Laughed out loud.And those classmates in the school, it would be no wonder if they were stunned when they saw it!

"Hey, Carey, how's your foot?" "Oh, it's all right," he said casually, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Now Philip could play football as much as he could.He seemed to see himself running, running, running faster than anyone else, and his heart couldn't stop beating when he thought of this.By the end of the Easter term, there was a sports day at the school, and he could compete in various track and field events; he even imagined himself flying over the hurdles.He can be exactly the same as normal people. Those new students will no longer look at themselves curiously because they discover their physical defects; I hid my feet in the water--all this is really wonderful.

Philip poured all the energies of his soul into his prayers.He has not the slightest doubt, and has unlimited faith in the word of God.The night before his return to school, he went upstairs to bed shaking with excitement.The ground was covered with snow; even Aunt Louisa took pains to build a fire in her bedroom, and Philip's fingers were numb with the cold in his little room.He had difficulty undoing the collar button.Teeth chattering constantly.It suddenly occurred to Philip that he had managed to attract God's attention by some extraordinary act.So he moved the rug in front of the bed so that he could kneel on the bare floor; he suddenly thought that the pajamas he was wearing were too soft and might offend the Creator, so he took off the pajamas as well, and So naked to pray.He got into bed, his body was cold and cold, and he couldn't fall asleep for a while.But once he fell asleep, he slept soundly and deeply, and when Mary Ann came in to bring him hot water the next morning, she had to shake him awake.Mary Ann was talking to him as she drew the curtains.But Philip said nothing, for as soon as he awoke he remembered that the miracle should have happened this morning.His heart was filled with joy and gratitude.His first instinctive action was to reach out and touch the now intact lower limb.But to do so would seem to cast doubt on the goodness of God.He knew his feet were healthy.Finally he made up his mind and just touched his left with the toes of his right foot.Then he quickly reached out to touch it.

Just as Mary Ann was going into the dining-room to say her morning prayers, Philip limped downstairs and sat down to breakfast at the table. "Why didn't you say a word this morning, Philip," said Aunt Louisa a moment later. "Now he's thinking about the big breakfast he's going to have at school tomorrow," said the preacher. Philip's answer obviously had nothing to do with the matter at hand, and this kind of irrelevant answer often irritated his uncle.His uncle often denounced it as "the habit of absent-mindedness". "Suppose you ask God to do something," said Philip, "and you really believe that it will happen, oh, I mean move mountains and things like that, and you are sincere enough, that it happens." .It didn’t happen, so what does that mean?”

"What a queer boy!" said Aunt Louisa. "Two or three weeks ago, you asked about moving the mountains." "That shows you are not sincere," replied Uncle William. Philip accepted this explanation.If the heart is sincere, it will work. If God did not heal him, the reason can only be that his heart is not sincere enough.But he couldn't understand how to make himself further deepen his sincerity.Maybe he didn't give God enough time. The deadline he gave God was only nineteen days.After a day or two, he began to pray again.This time, he set the date for Easter.It was the day when the Son of God was resurrected. Maybe God, immersed in happiness, would be more merciful.Philip, however, wished to have it, and added other means: whenever he saw a new moon, or a dappled horse, he began to wish himself well; and he watched for shooting stars.Once when he came back from a holiday, he happened to be eating chicken at home. When he and Aunt Louisa pulled the wishbone together, he expressed his wish again.Each time, he prayed that his lameness would return to normal.Without knowing it, he invoked the earliest gods of his race, gods older than the God of Israel.During the day, as long as he was free, as long as he remembered, he prayed to the Almighty Lord over and over again, always with the same few words.In his view, it is crucial to ask God in the same words.But after a while, he felt vaguely that this time his belief was not deep enough.He couldn't resist the waves of doubt that came over him.He summed up his personal experience into this rule:

"I don't think anyone can be that sincere," he said. It was like the wonderful use of salt his nurse used to tell him.She said: No matter what kind of bird it is, as long as you sprinkle some salt on its tail, you can easily catch it.Once, Philip really took a small bag of salt into Kensington Gardens.But he could not get near the bird so that he could sprinkle salt on its tail.He gave up the effort before Easter.He secretly felt resentment towards his uncle, feeling that he had been tricked by his uncle. This is exactly the case with the removal of mountains in the Bible: it says one thing and means another.He felt that his uncle had been playing tricks on him.