Article October 23, 1937 Issue

Time and Eternity

JOYCE HARRINGTON LUNDBERG

Eternity is "that which is timeless," and time means "measure of duration" (New World Dictionary). Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" writes: "Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity." Life, then, is not unfolded in days or years, but is the expression of the I AM, the one infinite God. We can never apprehend the meaning of eternity so long as we believe in time. An antonym for "eternal" is "finite." So time is merely a finite belief, the opposite of eternity.

Let us think for a moment of some of the many ways in which the belief of time is suggested to us. How often does this insidious belief creep into our thought in regard to healing! Instead of knowing that man as God's image is perfect and harmonious, we sometimes find ourselves believing that there is a material condition which it will take time to change, or that time is required to bring God's law of perfection into operation, or to exchange wrong concepts or beliefs for the spiritual facts of being.

In Christian Science we exchange wrong beliefs for spiritual facts. We certainly need no time to know that two plus two is four, and not five. We understand instantly that two billion plus two billion is four billion, and nothing else. The instant we realize this, we know the fact regarding the false belief about these numbers. In like manner, the moment we apprehend the fact that man is perfect and complete now, we know that he never was anything other than perfect. Man is eternally God's expression of Himself.

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