Article February 19, 1972 Issue

When the Past Is Present

ARLINE WALKER EVANS

The past is present whenever it is in our thought. What we are now thinking of the past influences our health, happiness, and success today—and tomorrow.

Whatever of the past comes to thought may seem remote and hazy or may appear with vividness and clarity, but it is vital to our progress and well-being that we understand what part of it is real and what unreal.

"Nothing is real and eternal,—nothing is Spirit,—but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense."^{Science and Health, p. 71;} These statements of Mrs. Eddy's in Science and Health can guide us in determining what we can carry along gratefully and what must be dropped because it is useless, "simply a belief, an illusion of material sense."