Editorial January 21, 1928 Issue

Overcoming the Deceit of Sense-Testimony

ALBERT F. GILMORE

THE twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, in its account of the struggle between Michael and his angels and the dragon, graphically sets forth the triumph of good over evil, of truth over error. "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world," runs the narrative. Evil, thus symbolized as devil or Satan, is manifestly the serpent of Genesis, who makes his sinuous entrance into the garden as the deceiver and through his subtlety first brings dissension to mortals.

The definition of "serpent" on page 594 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" reads in part, "The first claim that there is an opposite of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil." It is significant that Mrs. Eddy here uses evil as a synonym for matter. The sum total of evil inheres in the belief in matter as real, belief in substance other than Spirit. Spirit, however, being infinite, is in reality All. And since Spirit is All, matter exists only in belief, and that belief erroneous, false. How accurately, then, did the Revelator characterize the devil, evil, as that "which deceiveth the whole world"! Mortals greatly need to be awakened to the fact that materiality in its myriad phases and claims is erroneous, is false, the counterfeit of reality, and that in consequence sense-testimony in its entirety is false, the deceiver of the whole world, or at least of all who are not awake to the nature of its claims. Sense-testimony, based as it is upon the false supposition that matter is real, having entity and power, must be seen in its true light, and repudiated as would be any other testimony proved to be baseless and untrue.

Mrs. Eddy has uncovered the whole situation so completely that for anyone to persist in accepting sense-testimony as true is willingly to practice self-deception. Christian Science enables us so to deny sense-testimony as to rise above its influence, and to gain the spiritual understanding of Life and existence. Our Leader has pointed out how the sick, admitting sense-testimony as indicating their true condition, use their influence on the wrong side of the situation, argue against themselves, as it were, thereby fastening upon themselves that from which they would be free. And she gives the remedy—to plead in opposition to the testimony of false witnesses, the deceitful senses, while asserting the truth of man's present perfection and immortal likeness to God.

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Abiding
January 21, 1928
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