Article May 8, 1926 Issue

"Neither beginning of days, nor end of life"

CLARA LEAVITT BAXTER

Christian Science teaches that God is the only Life, eternal, infinite, immutable; that man is inseparable from this Life; and that as the pure reflection of the eternal One, man is without mortal limitation or time-sense, without beginning or end. In this connection the circle and the sphere, which have no point of beginning or end, symbolize real Life, eternal good. This is a glorious contrast to the frail concept of life which the material senses afford us.

God gives man the gift of eternal life; but to prove this in everyday experience, human progress is demanded. There is food for thought in a game which children sometimes play. Various balls of colored twine are unwound and entangled with one another and with objects in the rooms of the home, thus making a cobweb-like maze. At the farther end of each string an appropriate gift for each child has been concealed. Every child has the pleasure of starting with the nearer end of his piece of twine, winding it up into a neat ball, untangling many entanglements and often helping his neighbor. Finally, the ball is complete, and the child is joyfully surprised as he finds his gift.

To lay hold upon the great gift of eternal life, mortals must remove their cobwebs, their entanglements, their snarls—their wrong thinking and acting. By the simple process of learning to know and trust God in a Christianly scientific manner, they wind up and discard their beliefs of mortal selfhood. No two people have the same rate of speed in this endeavor. Perseverance is called into play, and helpfulness to all in need of one's ministrations. In healing one's own ills and sins, one simplifies the difficulties of the rest of the world. Our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 240), says of this process, "The divine method of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls, and learning from experience how to divide between sense and Soul."

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"Neither beginning of days, nor end of life"

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