Editorial July 17, 1976 Issue

Gospel versus Gossip

Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

Physical sense checks on the body with its own hearing apparatus. With the ear and the ear's instrumental extensions. It starts from the assumption man is basically material; and it listens to pulse, heart, breathing. And what does it get back? Better reports or worse reports, both unreliable and both largely conditioned by its own expectations. By expectations based on the body's age and history, one's hopes for the body or fears for it. Chatter; interference; gossip.

Spiritual sense starts from the opposite premise. It recognizes that all reality is divine Spirit and Spirit's wholly spiritual creation. That reality is not physical or material at any level. That it is not material body, physical brain, or limited personal mentality. Spiritual sense listens for truth, gospel truth, the good news of God and of man as he really is.

And what does spiritual sense hear? The divine pronouncement: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."^{Matt. 3:17;} This pronouncement voices Christ, Truth, man's sonship with divine Spirit. It states the spiritual fact about each one of us as about Christ Jesus. Accepted by us, it heals, corrects, frees. It establishes orderly functioning in what appears as physical body. It silences the chatter of material sense.