Article May 29, 1976 Issue

The Circle of Unending Life

MADELINE KEENE WOOD

Many are seeking to understand more clearly the great verities of being. Indeed, one of the basic needs of humanity is to gain a clearer understanding of what life is. The futility that accompanies the material sense of life is lifted through the understanding of the Science of being, which enables mankind to overcome sin and disease. A study of Christian Science reveals that this Science is a way of life. Mrs. Eddy writes: "The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight line. The circle represents the infinite without beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end."^{Science and Health, p. 282;}

Christ Jesus taught his disciples the truth of unending Life. Understanding the Science of being, he told the Jews who questioned him, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."^{John 8:58;} His clear spiritual vision enabled him to see beyond the evidence of the material senses, beyond the belief in a finite beginning, which always carries with it the belief of inevitable ending. Jesus proved the scientific truth of his statements, and his life was a living proof that he understood the Science of unending Life.

Jesus not only realized his preexistence in Life, which is God, but he also realized his coexistence with this Life. Perhaps one of his most loved and least understood statements is "I and my Father are one."^10:30; He was here referring to his eternal unity with the qualities and attributes of his Father, divine Love. In this regard Mrs. Eddy writes, "As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being."^{Science and Health, p. 361;}