In that spiritually inspired exegesis of the book of Genesis to be found in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy gives us many arresting and enlightening statements of truth. One of the most thought-provoking of these is to be found on page 502. There she says. "Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal." Speaking of this spiritual view of the untrue she says, "Even thus the crude forms of human thought take on higher symbols and significations, when scientifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminating time with the glory of eternity."

"Illuminating time with the glory of eternity"—just what may this arresting phrase mean? And how may we find time illuminated with eternity and its glory? The sentence quoted gives its own answer to the latter question: Through "scientifically Christian views of the universe." A scientifically Christian view of the universe is a purely spiritual view in which time or matter has no place —that view which St. John had when he said. "There should be time no longer"—that universe which Christ Jesus proved to be intact when he instantaneously dispelled the material belief of sin and disease and revealed man as the harmonious expression of his divine source, Spirit or God.

"Time" is defined by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 595) partly as "mortal measurements; limits, in which are summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs. opinions, knowledge." Time, then, illumined with the glory of eternity means life freed from the limitations of mortal belief and lifted into the eternal verities of true being and of inexhaustible good. There is no evil in eternity because eternity necessarily includes nothing destructive or destructible.

In one of his best-loved plays Shakespeare declares, "Time travels in divers paces with divers persons." Then follows a graphic description of those for whom time trots, ambles, gallops, or "stays it still withal." To the human mind generally, however, time passes all too quickly because the passing of time most frequently means the passing of good; the passing of what is called youth, of life, of strength, of health and activity. In the light of eternity we find that spiritual good, the only good, never passes. It is the ever-present substance and condition of man and the universe. No good thing ever passes with what is called the passing of time. This is the glory of eternity.

Life passes not with the passing of time. On the contrary, the illuminating glory of eternity reveals Life as the ever-present, indestructible fact of existence. On page 468 of Science and Health our Leader states: "Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized." This is the glory of eternity. Life does not pass from consciousness with the passing of time, but actually increases in freshness, in strength, in beauty, in power, and in prestige. This is not a transcendental dream of religious fervor, but a scientific fact to be practically and individually demonstrated. To do this, one must see Life from the scientifically Christian point of view and tirelessly, joyously, claim his own eternal, glorified existence as the expression of Mind.

Perhaps time is arguing that it is allowing you only so much of itself and you must hurry up and get things done or you will miss something. It may say. "You have just so much of me in which to carry out that good plan necessary to your human welfare; you have just so much of me in which to get well." It may even say. "You have just so much of me in which to be saved, else you will go to hell."

In the light of the glory of eternity one is saved from this threat and worry. One sees that all good is already created and established, maintained by the omnipotent God. Each individual's good is by Him ordered and maintained, and His law of good governs immutably the individual's every moment and assures the success of his good purposes. This is demonstrated as one intelligently trusts and obeys eternal Truth, the substance of his spiritual being.

If one seems to be struggling with a belief of illness, one of the besetting worrisome arguments of time is, "If you don't get well in the time I allot you, you'll lose your job, and then what will become of you?" But the light of the glory of eternity brings release from this fear. In the light of Truth one sees himself as the beloved of Love, eternally maintained by Love in its own wholeness and perfect harmony. This light of eternal Truth needs no lapse of time to waken one from the dream of sickness. But whether the awakening seems slow or fast, time cannot divorce one moment from the eternity of God's goodness.

The glory of eternity, the ever-presence of good, of Love, the all-power of Principle, the never-fading beauty of Soul, the indestructible essence and substance of Spirit! Here one finds refuge from the ills of time, the beliefs of separation from the one indivisible God. the source of all good. Every moment of what is called time, when illumined with the glory of eternity, is found to be safe in the heart of divinity. One finds oneself brought out of darkness into His glorious light, "for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light, of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." This is indeed the scientifically Christian view of Life and its manifestation.

Margaret Morrison