Article May 31, 1930 Issue

Time's Pretensions

WILLIAM E. BROWN

When Mrs. Eddy defined God as Principle she blessed mortals far beyond their human perception. How mortals have longed for a state of existence in which harmony is manifested without interruption! Through the understanding of God as Principle it is possible to become conscious of and thereby to dwell in such a state of existence, a spiritual state in which chance can never present themselves. In a universe governed by divine Principle "the clanging bells of Time" never peal. It is also plain that such a universe can express only perfection throughout an harmonious eternity—a universe, therefore, in which time has no part.

But beware of the claim of time! To learn its nature it will be helpful to consider Mrs. Eddy's definition of "time," on page 595 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," which reads, in part, as follows: "Mortal measurements; limits, in which are summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, knowledge;" for until the advent of Christian Science comparatively few looked upon time as an enemy to life and happiness. Time indeed binds to mortality. It may be said that time is one of the chief pretenders of the carnal mind. Among its fallacious claims is the power to blight youth, creating old age and decrepitude, and finally to extinguish life with death.

Throughout the centuries, time has seemed to wield the scepter of a monarch. Poets have sung of it, extolled it, upbraided it, called it both friend and enemy, have been for it and against it, but have generally conceded that it ruled mortals inexorably, as with a rod of iron, and, like the tide, waited for no man. Having arranged its mortal program of so-called birth, growth, old age, and death, time then proceeds with subtle sophistry to reconcile mortals to its various activities, and to lull them into sleep, first with siren songs of joyous childhood, next with the supposed blessings of maturity, and finally with the mellowness of old age. Siren songs of this nature are designed by the slave master, time, to bind mortals with their fallacious claims; but, thanks to Christian Science, these claims now stand exposed or unmasked as illusions of the devil, which Jesus referred to as "a liar, and the father of it." Through the teaching of Christian Science we learn that the claims and pretensions of time are but the figments of a mortal dream and have nothing to do with real life, and that real man knows nothing of birth, growth, and old age.

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