Editorial May 22, 1915 Issue

"A thousand years"

Annie M. Knott

Throughout the Scriptures the phrase "a thousand years" is many times used symbolically, sometimes to contrast the mortal sense of time with the spiritual idea of eternity. Thus does the psalmist say of the Almighty, "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past;" then, after some mournful reflections upon the briefness and uncertainty of mortal experience, he prays, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Those who study physiology in the effort to become better acquainted with man, soon learn that a thousand years of mortal history has made practically no change in the corporeal structure of the race; indeed what change there is, indicates decadence rather than development. It is admitted by students of biology that the eye and ear of the civilized man are inferior to those of the savage, to say nothing of the physical body in other respects, and that on the animal plane men have less endurance, strength, and agility than many four-footed creatures. From the view-point of materiality we may well ask with Mrs. Eddy, "Of what avail is it to investigate what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it begins, in nameless nothingness?" (Science and Health, p. 550.)

Christian Science, however, neither begins nor ends with a negative view of things, whatever may be supposed by ill informed critics of its teachings. It goes at once to the vital truth that one day of actual spiritual experience counts for more than an ordinary lifetime, thus holding by the Scripture declaration that one day "with the Lord" is "as a thousand years." There is nothing more certain than that many days and many years are wasted because men do not see that they must work with God in order to accomplish anything of value to themselves or to humanity. This does not mean that one is to do his work with the thought of pleasing a deity known to him only through creed and dogma, but that he should realize in all his activities the presence and power of the Mind that governs the entire universe.

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