The law of continuity is the law of Spirit, which by reason of Spirit's ever-presence and perfection holds no suggestion of cessation or flaw. Human laws are the result of human opinions and are essentially fragmentary and spasmodic, being perpetuated or destroyed by the fluctuating tide of human thought. Mortals, ignorant of divine Principle, are at the mercy of these uncertain currents; for mortal concepts of good and evil entail the framing of illogical laws, imposed on a world in bondage to the mesmerism of belief in matter.

Here and there in the history of humanity occurs a revolt against these misconceived mandates which causes a holocaust of suffering, for human conception grasps imperfectly the calm continuity of Spirit, where any diminution of eternal good is unimaginable. But through the gradual revelation of God's allness the irregular and unreliable action of mortal law becomes apparent, and men turn to Truth, which alone enables them to shake off the slavery of false belief, in which, deeply rooted, is the habit of expecting a preponderance of evil in human experience. Job's utterance, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me," customarily expresses the mood of mortals, unless they are consciously governed by the knowledge of infinite good.

Though we may admit as an abstract proposition the everoperative power of Life, Truth, and Love, yet through inability practically to apply spiritual facts to the problem of our own lives, we submit sleepily to error's influence and suffer the consequences. Never for one instant does good falter in its "unlabored motion" (Science and Health, p. 455); never for a second can Spirit be less than perfect. Yet with what slow reluctance humanity accepts this fact! Continuity is the root law, the very foundation of preservation. Fear, however, seeks to hinder the knowledge of Love's omniscience, but fear will ultimately be cast out of human consciousness by Truth's irresistible propulsion.

The dream of life in matter is a succession of ups and downs, wherein the only semblance of certainty seems to be fluctuation. This is the antithesis of spiritual being, where, from the ever-flowing fountain of good, thought receives and radiates uninterruptedly all that is real, life giving, and joyous. The devil's aide, discouragement, could never assume a shred of reality did we more consistently realize the absolute continuity of good, wherein is no "shadow of turning." Every human mistake may be traced to some apprehension of cessation in good. The history of mortal man from the beginning—when Adam through wrong thinking, expressed in wrong action, banished himself from his dream of paradise—betrays mortal man's failure to understand the continuity of good; and error then, as now, claims its inevitable victim. The "last enemy" and the first enemy alike can only be met and conquered when the fear of breaking false law is reduced to nothingness and divine Principle is looked for, listened to, and obeyed.

Mortals cherish a mistaken sense of continuity in certain phases of human belief. They believe, for instance, that accepted hypotheses, miscalled facts, hoary with time and superstition, are firm fixtures, whose removal is not only impossible but undesirable. Yet Jesus said, "Heaven and earth," mortal man's conception of good and evil, "shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." This generation is destined to see the coming of a higher ethical ideal, or better human belief, than any which has preceded it. Such ideals will be universally welcomed as heralds of that day which the prophets foreshadowed and Christ Jesus affirmed; for human footsteps in rising transcend the trembling footsteps of their predecessors, and the mountains of materiality which seem to be immovable will some day "be made low," disclosing the snowy chain of pure, unadulterated Truth, whose crowning summit is eternity.

Periods which mortals loosely classify as "the past" are merely accumulated records of phantasmagoria, chronicles of houses "built upon sand," beside the ebbing and flowing sea of erroneous belief. These fleeting mortal concepts disappear as we learn to understand something of eternity and seek the wider vista of endless Love. Mrs. Eddy describes this vivifying process of expansion in Science and Health (p. 261) when she says, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." To be expectant of good is, in effect, to demonstrate the continuity of Spirit. Not to do so is to make the fundamental mistake of ignoring the ever-flowing stream of Truth, and thus through fear prepare the way for error's suppositional activity.

Those who are not striving to roll away the stone from the cave's mouth of their own difficulties, cannot hope to help others who are struggling with that problem. If effort on our own behalf grows sometimes slack, an earnest desire, however humble, to further universal salvation will stimulate energy anew. Thus, and thus only, "is the mount of vision won," and as we look down from some point of vantage already gained, though we may have climbed but a little of the way, we shall invariably witness the struggles of weary humanity bound in the thongs of unreality and ignorance. Then we shall long, as our Leader longed, to loosen the chains which mortal belief has forged and show mankind how to free themselves from their prison-houses.

It is well to remember often the ephemeral nature of all unlike God, good, and constantly to refresh thought in the knowledge of Truth's unceasing activity, and so recognize the seamless robe of Christ's vesture as immortal, in contrast with the flimsy patchwork of human invention. True spirituality brings unceasing comfort and peace to the suffering, but the uncontrolled spasms of materiality exhaust themselves in aimless effort.

On all planes of thought the prize is always to the persistent. A capacity for painstaking work has been defined as genius, in comparison with the unstable effort of lesser minds. Christian Science is the only practical pathway pointing out how to win and wear the crown promised "to him that overcometh," for from the beginning of the Scriptures, veiled in allegory or hidden in historical anecdote, we are admonished not to be "weary in well doing." The life of Christ Jesus radiates abundant lessons of loving patience, even under the most cruel circumstances; the continuity of his spiritual attainment never halted in its pursuit of the one goal, the reflection of omnipresent Love. The cheerful, patient, and persistent labors of our beloved Leader bear evermultiplying, golden fruit, which hungering humanity culls with increasing eagerness. Had discouragement succeeded in clouding vision, had error been able to paralyze effort, the world would not have awakened as it has awakened, and unnumbered lives would not have been won to good through her incessant labors for mankind.

Let us know now and ever that thought lifted to conscious harmony with good can never receive aught but good. So multitudinous are the illusions which follow in the wake of the estimation of good as a transient and occasional visitant, without Principle or permanence, that they cannot be catalogued; but the question of age in the light of illusive materiality presents perpetual problems in human affairs. Age is a measure of limitation which human thought unremittingly applies, and so narrow are the barriers this fallacy creates, that human opinion assigns to youth as well as to age a period of relative mental and moral ineptitude, leaving one but a brief interval during which his faculties are supposed to operate effectively. This falsity is destroyed by understanding the false premises on which the argument is based; we learn, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 246), that "man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand," and that we must "shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity." As Whittier says in one of his poems:—