Demonstration is mental, it results from the realization and understanding of God's ever-presence and power. It is, Mary Baker Eddy tells us, "Immanuel, or God with us." And she explains her position in a sentence in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 34): "If Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other commemoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, or God with us." Demonstration is not evidenced primarily by material phenomena, but by a consciousness of God's presence and power. Jesus' admonition, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," calls for faith. But in seeking first the kingdom of God, we cannot limit in any manner the quality of thought which reflects God's omnipotence and omnipresence, nor can we cling to matter or to a belief in material existence.
To overcome evil with good, we must have the inspiration that coincides with spiritual sense. With it we subjugate and overcome the evidence of the physical senses. To overcome evil, sin, sickness, disease, death, lack, dishonesty, hatred, and so on, we must exclude from thought anything which would limit man's perception that God is Love. The Christian Scientist gains dominion over the body by refusing to accept sense-testimony and by having that Mind in him "which was also in Christ Jesus."
A Christian Scientist does not close his eyes to evil, but opens them to its false claims of power. He then realizes the inability of these false claims to harm, for he knows that God alone is power. The healing is merely a proof that the kingdom of God has come nigh to him.
