THE ETERNAL NOW
"Organization and time have nothing to do with Life," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 249 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and she precedes this consummate dismissal of the material sense of time with the assurance, "Life is, like Christ, 'the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever."
This ringing challenge should awaken all who regard a new year as merely marking another milestone in a material, aging process, another step on a pathway between youth and decrepitude, another curtain rising on a relentless struggle with a material sense of existence.
The eternal now and the infinite here of spiritual being constitute the standpoint of the real man's present and continuous existence in Christian Science. The contrary, erroneous belief that man is a material personality, existing tentatively in space and time, is one of the most pernicious mortal falsities, and nothing is more essential to individual welfare and progress than the uncompromising rejection of this mistaken premise.
Many astronomers now proclaim space to be limitless and the universe to be a continuously unfolding manifestation for which they have been able to discover no hint of boundaries, beginning or ending. In a recent book one physicist declares the cosmos to be "a construction of the consciousness." Archaeologists are constantly pushing back their estimates of a supposed "beginning" of existence. As to a supposed end, any opinion that the real universe is destined to be destroyed or to vanish in an ultimate void would be advanced today only by one steeped in agnostic materialism, for such an opinion would reject John's discovery while on Patmos of "a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away" (Rev. 21:1).
That organization and time have no part in the measurement or appraisal of existence assures us that we are not components of a material universe but that, as explained by Paul (Acts 17:28 ), "In him [God] we live, and move, and have our being." Since organization and time do not constitute or limit life, this false concept is to be replaced by the spiritual fact that the true nature of God constitutes the true substance and permanency of the universe. Therefore spiritual substance is the origin of the true identity and permanency of man, for man exists in the eternality and infinity of Spirit, where there can be no limitation, no beginning, and no end. In the words of Mrs. Eddy in "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468 ), "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." Thus the student of Christian Science becomes aware of spiritual, all-inclusive Being, revealed to Moses as I AM THAT I AM.
Today's accelerating rush and pressure of human activity have become an ever-increasing problem for multitudes of people, and it is commonplace to hear such expressions from busy men and women as, "I am so tense and tired," "I feel I am on a treadmill," "I am under such a strain," and so on. Today it seems difficult to find anyone engaged in any ordinary occupation, large or small, who does not feel "too busy." Regardless of how plausible or necessary these arguments may seem to those enthralled thereby, there is release and freedom for everyone who will turn away from material sense, particularly the material sense of time, for the answer.
The belief, often subtle and undetected, seems to persist in the daily round of human activity that existence is similar to a relentless machine that presses its momentary, hourly, daily, and continuous demands upon everyone to keep pace with an inevitable grind which seems to resist one's most earnest effort to obtain surcease, peace, and refreshment. "Let's go," the mortal sense of life seems to urge; "hurry up; keep moving; obtain what you need; get what you want; make the goal. There's no time to lose!" But our Leader's assurance that organization and time do not govern our lives is the open gateway to our release from this pressure. Moses, pursued by the army of Pharaoh, surrounded by rebellious followers, and confronted by the Red Sea, had no recourse based on time or expediency, and thus he was ready to obey the gentle command of divine Love (Ex. 14:13 ), "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord."
Clocks, calendars, and measuring devices are not the taskmasters of man, the true man, who is responsive only to divine Life. Every useful instrumentality in daily life is one's servant, not his master, and the Psalmist emphasized our real recourse to the restful, available power of Mind in the opening words of the ninety-first Psalm. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." This secret place, of course, is spiritual understanding as revealed in Christian Science. It is the assurance and positive conviction that there is only the eternal now and the infinite here of God's presence, as manifested by the Christ and exemplified in the life and works of the master Christian.
The real man is not always "going somewhere." He is already in the presence of God, already at the standpoint of all good. Man's life does not depend upon, and will not be enriched by, harried pressure for gain, for security, for satisfied ambition, affluence, or popularity. Such belief of material pressure does not banish but actually engenders fear, dread, and anxiety. By holding one to a false sense of oneself as material and mortally self-dependent, this pressure secretes the beliefs of sickness, disease, and death, as well as those of luck, chance, accident, loss, and futility, of something being used up or in the process of exhaustion. Among the most self-deceiving of such secretions is the belief of age resulting from the failure to stop counting off years as a measurement of life or existence or the normal continuity of one's faculties. It is scientifically lawful and right for one to declare daily that no part of his being is "getting older."
In Christian Science we understand that it is the atmosphere of Spirit, Love, wherein man coexists and is coeternal with his Father-Mother God. God is not in the process of becoming God. Man and the universe, His perfect creation or manifestation, are not in the process of becoming that manifestation. Mind is, and its ideas are. What does man need to hurry from or hasten to in this infinite spiritual existence? Is man separated from good, and must he strive to get it? What can come to an end here? How can organization and time influence this perfect being of Mind and idea?
It is not in some special doing of our own that we achieve the realization of spiritual perfection now. It is in spiritual regeneration, in beholding in spiritual consciousness that which divine Mind beholds, constitutes, sustains, preserves, perpetuates, and satisfies. It is in this secret place of the eternal now and the infinite here of spiritual reality that healing is attained, that supply and security are found, that peace and rest and sweet resignation to the will of God are achieved, that the assurance of life eternal replaces the limited beliefs of mere animal existence.
A young student of Christian Science was confronted with the urgent necessity of finding immediate housing accommodations in an overcrowded area during wartime. She was at first tempted to obtain all available rental listings and begin a difficult and promiscuous search, when she realized the answer was already waiting in the secret place of spiritual understanding. She quietly prayed over the need in accordance with her understanding of the teachings of Christian Science and promptly found the right home without searching for it. No human need is beyond this present and available means of solution.
"Behold." said Paul, "now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2 ). And Mrs. Eddy declares in "Unity of Good" (p. 37 ), "Because God is ever present, no boundary of time can separate us from Him and the heaven of His presence; and because God is Life, all Life is eternal."
