Just how real and how resistless is the pressure of time? The revelation of Christian Science completely negates the notion that time is a force external to thought over which we have no control. The spiritual fact is that man, the image and likeness of God, is not consigned to death by time restriction but is eternal, ever developing. And this fact, understood and demonstrated, acts as a law of liberation to the human mind and body.

Christ Jesus, the master Metaphysician, overcame the belief in time as an inexorable force which, from the very moment of birth, blights and finally blots out human life. His resurrection after the crucifixion proved the time barrier to be nothing but a cruel and senseless myth, finding its sole support in general acceptance.

Mrs. Eddy refers to this momentous spiritual breakthrough on behalf of all mankind in these words: "His three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time." ^{Science and Health, p. 44;} Again she 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. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite." ^{pp. 468, 469;}

In the realm of absolute Truth time is nonexistent, precluded by the infinitude of eternity. In the human realm time is not really a force; it is a measurement conceived by the human mind, which has no more power in and of itself than a yardstick.

Speaking recently before the American Academy of General Practice convention, Dr. Frederick C. Swartz challenged the traditional view of time as a degenerative force. As to the so-called infirmities of age, he said, "There are no diseases caused by the mere passage of time." He continued, "The fatal concept that 'debilities' come with age and at 65 one is 'over the hill' condemns the oldster to a period of ever narrowing horizons, until the final sparks of living are the psychoneurotic concerns with the workings of his own body." The doctor stressed that time is a measure, not a force.

Dr. Swartz is not a lone voice in this field. More and more the general world thought is coming to the conclusion that time, in order to be used wisely in human affairs, must be treated as our servant, not our taskmaster. At best, time serves to help us organize our experience in an orderly way. The age we live in puts the question: Are we using time, or is it using us?

Working out from the spiritual fact of man's timeless coexistence with God, Christ Jesus invariably handled with dismissal the human belief in deterioration caused by passing time. The instantaneous healings consistently wrought by the Master prove irrefutably that time is not a requisite for healing. The Apostle Paul spoke of a more relevant factor than time when he counseled, "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." ^{II Cor. 8:12;}

How heartening to realize in our own healing work that willingness to be reformed be the Christ, rather than so many earthly revolutions around the sun, opens the door to health, harmony, and wholeness here and now! No negative thought, no belief in sin— however long we may have mistakenly identified ourselves with it— need be a deterrent to healing, once we truly repent of it.

Mrs. Eddy uses the word "pressure" only once in her works, and then not in connection with time at all. She writes, "Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate." ^{Science and Health, p. 451;} And Jesus compassionately called to a world weighed down with a false sense of time and pressure: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. ... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." ^{Matt. 11:28–30.} Submission to the yoke of Christliness is not oppressive. On the contrary, to yield to the pressure "to come out from the material world and be separate" is to be lifted up spiritually and released from the pressure of time. To conform to the Christ is to come naturally into harmony with our real selves—timeless, ageless —in the joyous, unlabored reflection of God's infinite goodness.

Christian Science reveals that there is no such force as time to resist the Christ-power. Insofar as we are Christlike, we are free to rule out of our lives the insidious lie of time limitation. We are free to demonstrate timeless, ageless being—now!