Article February 22, 1975 Issue

Reversing the Evidence of the Material Senses

BEVERLY BEMIS HAWKS

We are all capable of distinguishing between good or evil thoughts, healthy or sick ones. We can allow or refuse any of these entrance into our thinking and thereby govern our bodies accordingly. It is at the door of our thought that discordant pictures need to be stopped and the evidence of the material senses reversed.

Mortal mind, or the belief of life in matter, makes men think that flesh is substance, and this seems convincing because the physical senses tell us so. But the Apostle Paul wrote, "The carnal mind is enmity against God."^{Rom. 8:7;} He urged men to realize their true being in Christ and taught them how to experience it. "Ye are not in the flesh," he said, "but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."^{v. 9;} Through Christian Science we learn of the substantiality of Spirit and the insubstantiality of matter. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health: "Spirit is the only substance, the invisible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal are insubstantial."^{Science and Health, p. 335;}

When one is faced with pain, it is not enough merely to be intellectually or theoretically receptive to the truth that man is not material but is spiritual. Overcoming pain takes more than the mere repetition of statements of truth in Christian Science. One needs a deep understanding of these divinely inspired words, a commitment to them, a willingness to live in accord with them. One must be willing to pray scientifically and thoroughly, to deny matter any reality or power, any substance or sensation. He must have the courage to refuse to be deceived into thinking of himself as material.

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