Sentence evil to silence

Does mortal mind ever machine-gun its arguments at you so that you can't get a spiritual word in edgewise? You can sentence it to silence.

I remember an occasion when this mental provoker had been working overtime to persuade me I was imposed upon and frustrated. I couldn't seem to subdue its aggressive suggestions. Then I recalled the court-trial allegory in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health.^{See Science and health, pp. 430-442.} In it Mrs. Eddy illustrates the importance of taking our case out of the Court of Error with its mortal testimony and into the Court of Spirit, where Justice is the Judge and Christian Science our defender. It was as if I had suddenly heard the decree "You are sentenced to silence" pronounced with divine authority upon that infamous talker, mortal mind. Its blustering ceased immediately, and a gentle peace enveloped me. I was exercising my God given right to be free from the arguments of personal sense. Not long afterward the circumstance that had fostered the unhappy feelings was adjusted in a way that benefited everyone.

Whenever a trial arises, we can make sure our appeal is to the proper court. Accusations, complications, condemnations, should alert us at once to the fact we are in the wrong court. Our case, which often appears to be between us and another individual, cannot be correctly handled until we recognize that the adversary is impersonal evil, or animal magnetism, and that it is attacking the Christ-idea in our consciousness—keeping us from beholding what God sees: His perfect spiritual reflection, man and the universe. Regardless of evil's methods, its suppositional aim is always to stifle Truth. We allow it the only voice it can have when we listen to it in its own court.