"It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man's real existence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being." So writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 21 of "Retrospection and Introspection." "Man's real existence," then, is not found in "material, mortal history," which is a "record of dreams." Christ Jesus declared, "God is a Spirit." In Genesis it is stated that God made man in His image and likeness. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 468): "Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." These statements set forth a great and liberating truth. Is it not to this truth of man's spirituality that Jesus referred when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"?

The knowing of our immortal spiritual selfhood frees us from the bondage imposed by beliefs of materiality. But we can know the freeing truth only as we turn from this "record of dreams," this unreal mortal history with its claim of material ancestry and many inherited physical and mental tendencies. God is the divine Parent, the Father-Mother, who created man in His own image and likeness. Therefore, in reality we can inherit nought but His eternal goodness. It follows naturally that there is, in truth, no mortal history, no devastating past. God's man dwells in the ever-present now, and is as harmonious and indestructible as his creator, God, Spirit.

Does not the knowing of this eternal truth of being free thought from fears and regrets which claim to be a part of mortal so-called existence? Yes, indeed; and through the earnest study of Christian Science many grateful men and women are gaining the consciousness of perfect God and perfect man, which has no part in mortal history—history which is but "the record of dreams."

The despairing exclamation, "If only I had my life to live over!" is sometimes heard, as though one's life were a passing, fleeting thing, which comes, acts independently of one's control, then leaves one desolate on the shore of uncertain time. Yet, why cry out for a false sense of life, which is only a "record of dreams"? Far better that one's prayer be for an understanding of Life which is Spirit, God, which is the only Life, and abideth forever. The understanding of Life as God unfolds to one's consciousness as one turns from material desires and indulgences toward the things of Spirit.

Mrs. Eddy tells us (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 12), "The present is ours; the future, big with events." What events could there be but the continuous unfoldment of Life in the ever-present now? In such unfoldment of spiritual good there can be no dream of regret, failure, injustice in the past, no fears for the future. The beliefs of lost opportunities and old age have no place in true unfoldment. That which is called time has no real existence, and is therefore neither cause nor effect. God alone is cause, and all His creation is the glorious, perfect, present effect of this one divine cause. Time is of the "record of dreams," and never can take away our spiritual heritage of eternity.

There may be the argument that Jesus came and went in the realm of time. Yet Jesus said of his spiritual selfhood, "Before Abraham was, I am." This was his denial of time and affirmation of his spiritual continuity as the Son of God, his eternal status. Jesus healed the man who had been born blind. He said, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Jesus' clear realization of the eternally present facts concerning real being, healed the man of false beliefs, and he rejoiced in restored sight. However, there was no lamenting because of past blindness, for the past was swallowed up in present manifestation of Truth. The student of Christian Science would do well to rejoice in the present healing, as did the blind man, and not to cast thought upon the past discord as though it were once a reality. An unreality has neither past, present, nor future; it is of the false belief in existence as material that one needs to be healed, for nought unlike God's goodness has ever touched real being.

The truth which Mrs. Eddy discovered has been operating forever, healing and freeing all who have perceived it. Daniel perceived this truth and used it so that he emerged unharmed from the lions' den. In answer to King Darius' call to him in the morning, asking if his God was able to save him from the lions' mouths, he answered: "O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." Daniel must have had faith in the fact that God's creation is harmless; and evidently in his thought there was no hatred, resentment, or fear to give recognition to the claim of destruction.

Let no one despair; though evil beliefs may seem to imprison him, God's angels are present to restore and liberate him as they did Daniel. But, like Daniel, one must humbly pray and desire to know God and serve Him by expressing true spiritual qualities. He must be willing to rid his thought of hate, lust, revenge, dishonesty, which are of the mortal "record of dreams." Does this seem a vague or impossible way of release? It is not only a possible, but a joyous, clear way, which is found through the study of Christian Science. Many have taken this way and been freed from the greatest of mortal bondage. The prison walls of discouragement, fear, or heredity disappear from the experience of those who heed God's angels and let innocency be established in their consciousness. Let us cease hearkening to the records of dreams—animality, hatred, greed, dishonesty, and discouragement, and abide in that pure consciousness of Love wherein is found life eternal.

No mere shrugging of a shoulder or turning from the advancing years avails to eliminate the belief in time. Only the realization of man's spiritual selfhood, never born and never dying, can disperse the mists of the dreams of time. Christian Science, the Comforter which Jesus promised should come, reveals man as spiritual, eternal, and coexistent with God; and men need only to accept this truth and apply it in demonstrating their eternal spiritual status, and be free. Let no troubled heart gaze tearfully at the past or toward the future, but let every troubled one look into the present unfolding of God's goodness.