Article February 24, 1912 Issue

"WHO TOLD THEE?"

W. TAYLOR STONE.

To most of us, in our first introduction to Christian Science, there has probably been nothing which has caused us more perplexed thought and tripped us up more frequently than the question of sense testimony, the evidence or appearance that confronts the physical or material senses. This confusion is caused mainly, no doubt, through our having been taught to accept as true and reliable all the evidence which comes through these channels, as well as to believe that the record of creation as given in the second chapter of Genesis was the detailed account of how God had made man. To the human mind this account seemed more get-at-able; whereas the more spiritual record found in the first chapter could only be understood by spiritual sense.

When Adam gave as his reason for hiding in the garden that it was fear caused by the belief that he was naked, the voice of Truth put the question to him, "Who told thee?" He might well have replied that it was only sense testimony, for he could not have gotten that kind of evidence or consciousness from God. All through the ages this question has been asked. At times it has been almost inaudible, unheard, but today it is ringing out clear and strong in Christian Science, as Truth asks, Who told thee that man is material? Who told thee thou art sick or diseased? Who told thee thou art blind, deaf, or lame? Who told thee thou art dying of an incurable disease? Who told thee thou art a poor wretched sinner? Who told thee thou art in difficulties, with a problem that thou couldst not meet? To each question the Christ Science replies, "Sense testimony alone, which discerns not the truth of being."

How exceeding glad we should be that this glorious truth has been discovered. Is it any wonder that there are thousands upon thousands who are grateful that one was found spiritually-minded enough to receive this wonderful revelation? How one could wish that he could have gone to Adam and awakened him out of the illusion that life is in matter, and so saved his progeny from perpetuating the lie. How rejoiced we should be that we too have been shown the way of escape from it, and that when our mentality is receptive we may receive that revelation of spiritual understanding which will enable us not only to answer the question but to destroy this false evidence and the fear it produces, both in our own consciousness as well as in the mentality of others, by the realization that man in divine Science is not naked but "clothed, and in his right mind;" or, as Science and Health so beautifully puts it (p. 171), "Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free."

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