George was on the last page of one of the best Sherlock Holmes stories he had ever read, when his mother called to him to turn out his light and go to sleep.

"May I just finish this page?" he asked.

George thought he couldn't possibly go to sleep without knowing how the clever sleuth had solved the mystery. Everything hinged on four letters offered as evidence; and Sherlock Holmes, after careful examination, announced that all four letters had been written by someone other than the person whose name appeared at the close.

Satisfied that the truth had been uncovered and the impostor exposed, George turned out his light. "Smart detective," he thought as he fell asleep.

It was still dark when George awakened the next morning, feeling feverish and miserable all over. Messages regarding his situation flooded into his thinking. His throat hurt a lot. He wouldn't be able to go to school. He would have a lot of work to make up. He would miss basketball practice—a real disaster since tryouts for the eighth grade team would be held in just three days. On and on, thoughts like this came to him.

When his mother called him to get up, he told her all his troubles. "Could you read the lesson to me?" he asked.

George had been healed before by hearing and realizing the truth contained in the Christian Science Quarterly weekly Lesson-Sermon. He wanted quick action this morning. He was eager to feel better and be on his way.

So he was somewhat disappointed when his mother explained that she had to get breakfast for Dad so he could get to work and for the twins so they could catch the school bus. She suggested he start reading the Lesson-Sermon himself.

He began to read, and in the second there was a passage from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy that caught his attention: "A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's real death would bring." Later the paragraph continued: "Another despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and you learn that your suffering was merely the result of your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and death." ^{Science and Health, p. 386;}

"Could my illness this morning be no more than a 'blundering despatch' I think is true?" George wondered.

He thought of Sherlock Holmes calling for a magnifying glass to examine carefully the details of the typewritten notes that had brought such distress to his client. George remembered that his Christian Science Sunday School teacher had spoken of "the microscope of Spirit." The statement she had pointed out to the class from Science and Health was, "Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit." ^{p. 264;}

George had thought of a microscope as an instrument providing a clearer view of matter. But that Sunday he had learned that the microscope of Spirit enables one to examine closely and see clearly the truth of being. When you look at things from a spiritual point of view, you find that Spirit, God, is All and that matter is nothing.

George assumed the role of detective. He now considered the thoughts of his illness and disappointment simply as messages or dispatches he had received. They seemed true and real when he first received them. But who had sent them? Were they from a reliable source?

The first message, saying that he was ill, showed an ignorance of the truth that God did not make sickness. Since He made everything, sickness cannot exist. God's creation is well, whole, healthy. The subsequent messages all threatened him with loss of something good. But the truth is that man cannot be deprived of good any more than he can be deprived of God. All the messages indicated an ignorance of Truth.

"Obviously," George reasoned, using one of Sherlock Holmes's favorite words, "these messages did not come from God."

"Then who sent them?" he questioned.

The answer came as George continued reading the lesson. In a reference from the Bible, Christ Jesus said of the devil: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." ^{John 8:44.}

George decided the dispatches were lies. Their source was only a liar. He finished his reading. Messages of God's presence and goodness came to him. He felt better, so he got dressed and went downstairs and had a very pleasant day at home.

The next morning George was out at the bus stop at the usual hour. He felt fine. He was sure he could easily make up yesterday's work, and he looked forward to basketball practice that afternoon. The truth of God and man had been revealed and the lie exposed.

The Case of the Blundering Dispatch was closed.