Editorial April 9, 1949 Issue

THINKING OF IMMORTALITY

Robert Ellis Key

The truth concerning Life discloses the fact of immortality. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 469), "If Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending."

From a limited, material standpoint, life appears to come and go; we seem to be born and to die, to rise, achieve, and vanish. So persistent is this evidence that mortals regard it as unalterable and seldom stop to question its validity. Thus we find life, which is immortal, compassed by beliefs of finiteness and limitation. To take an illustration, suppose an observer standing upon the earth notes the sun rising and watches it travel across the heavens until it disappears beneath the western horizon. Would he be correct in assuming that the sun was born when it rose, that is, when he discerned its first appearing? Would he be correct in declaring that it was dead when it disappeared below the western horizon? To one outside the earth's orbit, such assumptions of birth and death would assuredly seem absurd. To him the universe would appear to function in a different manner. He would see the planets pursue their courses in an endless round and rhythm, circling through space, not merely traveling from point to point or rising and setting.

It is true that from our limited human standpoint our friends seem to come and go like the stars in the night skies. They appear to rise and set. We lose sight of them for a period; they are outside our viewpoint, and therefore we speculate on their condition or whereabouts. But need we be anxious concerning them? Are we fearful that the stars will fail to pursue their allotted courses or that the rhythm of the universe can be obliterated?

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