Editorial September 14, 1940 Issue

Evidence

Evelyn F. Heywood

When faith is defined as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," in the epistle to the Hebrews, the writer is referring to that which the human mind objectively accepts but with which, as yet, it for the most part but faintly and intermittently identifies itself. In the measure of their spiritual awareness, men are convinced of the substance of divinity and respond to its evidence within themselves. Nevertheless, surrounded by the testimony of the material senses, weighted by its aggressive arguments and arrogant demands, they remain all too long in the realm of the "hoped for" and "not seen."

How different was the attitude of Jesus, and to a lesser degree those of his immediate followers, towards faith! With the Master, faith was immediately translated into action. The substance of things was made tangible in health, in harmony, in provision for human needs; the evidence of things was made visible even to eyes which had not seen. There was no conflict in the thought of Christ Jesus between that which appeared materially and that which actually is, for he knew material evidence was unreal. He did not have to wait for discernment of spiritual reality, because his eyes were not even temporarily deflected by what appeared to be taking place around him. With him it was not a question of accepting a wrong situation while hoping in time to replace it with the true. He sought to lift men's thought at all times into the realm of the real, into the consciousness of their spiritual being where substance and evidence are one, and the falsities of material existence are instantly and unequivocably repudiated and destroyed.

On page 494 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy asks with momentous directness: "Which of these two theories concerning man are you ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing, dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence, bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal fruits." Throughout her writings the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science has made it perfectly clear that from the moment Truth was revealed to her in all its grandeur and completeness, she recognized evil's baselessness; she laid hold of substance, she saw the spiritual evidence. The many healings that she wrought, the work that she accomplished, are the proof to the world that this is so. The immortal fruits which have come to so many Christian Scientists are the tangible evidence of faith and understanding made practical in their own lives.

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