LIFE IS ETERNAL

DOUGLAS R. HENDERSON

As the spiritual fact that life is eternal dawns upon us, we begin to awaken to the deeply satisfying realities of true existence. We learn in the study of Christian Science that man is a spiritual idea and that as such he can never be lost or destroyed. His life cannot be impaired or interrupted. We do not have to wait until some remote period to perceive and enjoy these realities. In God's universe there is no end to His creation.

Existence after what is termed death is as real and as rational to us as is our present sense of being, and we take with us only that which we have developed in consciousness here. Experience shows that to the degree that one applies himself in an effort to gain lasting Soul values from his experiences, will he find the spiritual laws of the universe in harmony with his efforts and adding their power to his attainments.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 427): "If man is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say, 'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death'? The tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory over death in proportion as we overcome sin." Each day therefore should mark the advance of the purification of our thinking. We must continue to put off the belief that man's life is bound up in matter. By aligning our thought with Life, the one Mind, we can win daily victory over the thoughts that lead to death.

Since life is eternal, it must extend beyond any earthly phase of existence; thus those we love but who have passed from our sight live still. Mrs. Eddy writes of a friend who had passed on (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 296): "He is wiser to-day, healthier and happier, than yesterday. The mortal dream of life, substance, or mind in matter, has been lessened, and the reward of good and punishment of evil and the waking out of his Adam-dream of evil will end in harmony,—evil powerless, and God, good, omnipotent and infinite."

As one awakens from a nightmare and finds that the horror and suffering belonged only to the dream and not to himself, so each one of us will at last find that sin and suffering have never in reality touched us. One never remembers the act of falling asleep. Upon awakening one may remember his thoughts just before slumber came; but try his best he cannot recall any experience of falling asleep. We can therefore find comfort in realizing that the departed have had only an awakening.

If faithful in our efforts to spiritualize our thinking, all that seems to deny or misrepresent the truth concerning us disappears like mist before the rising sun. When we think always of radiant, active, and never-ending life, this divinely correct mental attitude will enable us to rejoice with the Psalmist (Ps. 118:17), "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."

Life is a free gift from God, and with it and through it we learn immortality. Immortal life is unknown to mortal sense, but so also are love, faith, integrity, and all other God-derived qualities.

On page 42 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says, "When we shall have passed the ordeal called death, or destroyed this last enemy, and shall have come upon the same plane of conscious existence with those gone before, then we shall be able to communicate with and to recognize them." In the meantime, it is enough to know that their love for us and ours for them will continue. We can rest in Christ Jesus' promise (John 14:2, 3): "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

To the enlightened thought there can be no question as to the Master's understanding of man's coexistence with God. Our great Teacher knew that the divine nature of God, good, His omnipresence and omnipotence, can be demonstrated by us here and now, and he based his mission upon the demonstrability of man's oneness, or unity, with the Father.

James counseled (4:8), "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." As we draw nigh to Life, the thought of Life will flood our consciousness to the utter exclusion of anything unlike Life, God.

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