RECENTLY, the writer had occasion to sit, for several days, in a courtroom where a case was being tried. The selection of the jury, the examination and cross-examination of witnesses, the arguments by attorneys, the instructions of the judge, and, finally, the verdict of the jury, recalled to mind the "mental court case" which Mrs. Eddy describes on pages 430 to 442 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science.
The latter trial opens in the Court of Error with Personal Sense as the plaintiff and Mortal Man as the defendant. False Belief is attorney for the former, but the defendant is without counsel. The jury is composed of Mortal Minds and their colleagues, and Judge Medicine is on the bench. The witnesses are all enemies of the defendant. The jury, after a brief consultation, returns a verdict of "Guilty of liver-complaint in the first degree," and the Judge sentences the prisoner to death, adding the hope that God may have mercy on his soul.
At this point divine Love sends a dispatch ordering the execution to be delayed, and stating that the prisoner is not guilty. Permission is obtained for a trial in the Court of Spirit, where Christian Science is allowed to appear as counsel for the prisoner in the presence of Judge Justice of the Supreme Court of Spirit, and with Spiritual Senses as jurors. Here, all the evidence presented at the first trial is repudiated, and witnesses, judge, jurors, and counsel are found to be perjurers and ordered to be executed. The jury agrees on the verdict, "Not guilty," and the prisoner arises "regenerated, strong, free."
