Article January 7, 1950 Issue

I AM ALL RIGHT NOW

MURRAY GILBERT DAVIES

When the writer was a small boy, he frequently heard the words in church, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end." This puzzled him because he could not see how there could be anything that had no end, and from time to time he asked questions about it. He was informed that the world always had existed and always would exist as it was created by God. This explanation seemed most unsatisfactory, since to logical human reasoning it did not seem possible that anything could exist without beginning and without end. Further questioning brought forth the invariable reply, "We are not meant to understand these things."

It was not until many years later that the completely satisfying answer was provided during his first interview with a Christian Science practitioner, in the words, "Eternity is now." In a flash he was able to glimpse something of the spiritual fact underlying this statement. He was able to perceive that now in its fundamental significance could never become a future, nor could it ever have been a past. The past, whether claiming to be two minutes ago or four thousand years ago, is only a mental picture held in consciousness now: the same of course applies to the future. He could see that he could never get away from now.

In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we read on page 39, "'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,'—meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life."