"WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT?"

How often two reports on the same subject will be at complete variance because of individual appraisals! An outstanding illustration of this is found in the Bible in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the book of Numbers. Here is recorded the search of the land of Canaan by a selected group of twelve men sent out by Moses in obedience to God's command.

Upon their return forty days later, ten of the men reported to the Israelites that the land was one of walled cities and strong inhabitants, which the Israelites would not be able to overcome. The others, however, urged an immediate advance, describing the territory in glowing words and saying (14:7–9): "The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land."

Obviously both reports could not have been true, and in the light of later events the conclusion is that one group surveyed the land through the eyes of unreliable personal sense, of fear and limitation, while the other group saw it from the truer standpoint of spiritual discernment, of dominion and abundant good.

Because the Israelites allowed themselves to be influenced by superstition and fear, they accepted the majority report of unenlightened thought and thereby delayed their entry into the Promised Land by many weary years.

Christian Science, which was discovered and founded by Mary Baker Eddy, teaches that the testimony of material sense can never be relied upon, for it is false, incapable of giving a true picture. This unreal sense sees its own delusive images objectified as material conditions and conveys this information to impressionable mortal thought. We accept or reject this testimony according to the degree of our spiritual understanding.

In no field of human experience is this misinformation more widely and readily accepted than in that of health. Reports from the heart, stomach, or nerves are often received unquestioningly, and we fulfill the painful conditions of our own beliefs.

Christ Jesus, whose words and works Christian Science explains, never accepted the evidence offered by physical sense, nor was he influenced by reports of disease or sin. His clear reasoning was deduced from God, infinite Mind, and he acknowledged Mind as the only informer of accurate communications regarding man and the universe. Confronted with physical testimony which reported blindness, palsy, or death as the seeming realities of existence, he refuted with spiritual logic all such false conclusions and proved the correctness of his reasoning by healing all kinds of discord.

The Master recognized man's true nature and being as formed in the image of God, and therefore as never subject to the chronic beliefs which often mar human experience. He knew and proved that health and holiness are reflections of God, not conditions of matter.

The Christ, as the tender influence of Love in human affairs, is ever present to reveal man's divine sonship, his perfect manhood. No shadow of mortality can be cast across the radiance of a spiritual idea, and actually there is no evil power which can hinder one's entrance into the promised land of dominion over error.

In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 298): "What is termed material sense can report only a mortal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can bear witness only to Truth. To material sense, the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected by Christian Science."

Have we apparently been a long time in the wilderness of confusion, despair, or frustration? Then let us begin to reject the reports of the carnal mind and claim man's God given perfection. With assurance of spiritual discernment, which never errs and is never falsely influenced, let us claim our jurisdiction over matter. Regardless of the clamorous pleading of the physical senses for recognition, we have divine ability to reject them and to accept the reports of Truth, with their comforting promise of harmony, health, and peace.

Those who accept only the reports of Truth will receive the divine communications of harmony, health, and peace; and they will unfailingly enter into the consciousness of eternal coexistence with the Father and creator of all. In this spiritual state of being, there is no submergence of true individuality, no cessation of joyous, fruitful activity.

The understanding of man's unbroken, continuous relationship with God is the most effective insurance known against disaster or discord. Without the unthinking acceptance of collective human belief, the reports of sin, age, sickness, and even of death itself would have no support, no foundation. Disbelieved, discredited, the claims of mortality have no influence over one's health and happiness.

A Christian Scientist arose one morning with a painful stiffness in her neck. Remembering past experiences in which such conditions had been prolonged and difficult, she was momentarily dismayed. Almost at once, however, she recalled the experience of the Israelites, who had been wrongly influenced to accept the discouraging and wholly erroneous reports of the ten scouts.

Resolutely and with spiritual vigor, she rejected the evidence of pain and inflammation. Prayerfully she acknowledged that man is the reflection of God, conceived by divine Love, developed by infinite Mind, and maintained by the ever–operative law of Life. With joy she affirmed that the perfection of spiritual reflection is unbroken and that no disruptive element or erroneous report can ever mar man's serene and perfect expression of health.

The student's intelligent and understanding repudiation of the presentation of error, together with her spiritual recognition of the reality of good, resulted in a complete healing within the hour. She had proved anew our Leader's statement (ibid., p. 298), "Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality."

The spiritually inspired of different ages have experienced the disbelief and scorn of the worldly–minded when they presented their reports and prophecies of reality. Nevertheless, they have pressed on with the assurance of inspiration to their goal of godliness and have adhered to the revelations which unfolded to them. For example, with the clarity and certainty of spiritual conviction Isaiah foresaw and prophesied the coming Messianic age. Although the general thought beheld only materiality and personal viewpoints, the signs of Truth's appearing were clearly defined for him. He asked (Isa. 53:1), "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

Let us weigh the reports presented to us! Let us consider them in the light of divine Science! Then we shall not be deceived by the testimony of physical sense, but shall claim the good as our present possession and enter step by step into the realm of all good.