Young people in high school and college are often seized with the false fear that the energy, well-being, and winsome qualities of youth are only a passing phase of life and that life itself is mortal. Mortal belief tells them that their vitality is inherent in their physical bodies, which can confer numerous fleeting pleasures they must enjoy while they can.

Feeling self-existent and self-sufficient, young people are tempted to sit back and enjoy their youth until the unthinkable day when, youth having been lost, they are forced to reexamine their concept of existence. How much better it would be to follow the advice of the book of Ecclesiastes, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them"! ^{Eccl. 12:1;}

Sooner or later everyone must come to the realization that true Life is God—self-sustained, spiritual, and immortal. The real life of man is not bounded by birth and death or characterized by youth and age, growth and decay, but is Life's reflection. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Man in Science is neither young nor old." ^{Science and Health p. 244;} On a nearby page she continues: "Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness. Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight." ^{p. 246;}

Immortal, perfect life is not a new concept. Over and over the Bible reiterates the promise of eternal life as it does in Romans: "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." ^{Rom. 5:23;} Christ Jesus demonstrated the eternality of life by raising himself and others from the grave. Moreover, Jesus proved that true individual life is spiritual and good by destroying false, mortal concepts of life expressed as people's impaired faculties, sensuality, and disease.

Christian Science shows that Jesus' works were not miraculous but natural and that it is possible to imitate them in our present experience because God, the divine Principle of those works, is synonymous with Life. Since God is Life, the individual reflects the healing power of the one infinite Life as he learns to reflect God. Just as God, Life, is eternally good, man's existence is eternal and is comprised only of the good qualities derived from God. Any qualities that are not good cannot come from God, who is and does only good. Hence, these ungodlike qualities are not real and have no more lasting claim on our human experience and bodies than we allow them.

In immortal Life there is no time termed youth. There is only the ageless, continuous unfoldment of the Godlike qualities that are always with us. The qualities we associate with the belief of youth, such as comeliness, vigor, joy, perfect faculties, and good health, are in reality spiritual qualities derived from God. Since man can never be separated from God, man can never be separated from these Godlike qualities.

A spiritual sense of Life is not something to prepare for and experience later on when one is old and has nothing better. John says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God."^{I John 3:2;} Spiritual living is a present possibility. There is nothing to be gained by ignoring the daily need for spiritual progress, for a fuller recognition, understanding, and demonstration of the good and lasting spiritual qualities with which God endows every one of us.

In fact, spiritual living confers on men such infinite possibilities for true achievement and true joy that being satisfied with the limited, temporal pleasures of material sense is like eating bread and water when a whole feast is spread before you. A truly lively, active person, one who is really "with it," is constantly striving to express more of the nature of his source, divine Life, or God.

Young Christian Scientists learn that their thinking determines their experience and that they have sovereign control over their own thoughts. Yet they have this control only if they exercise it. If they would not be drawn unconsciously into mortal beliefs of aging and corruption, they must take a firm stand for the truth of Life. They must constantly seek to replace the mortal, limited sense of youth, strength, health, and sight with the spiritual sense of Life and its perfect condition.

This is accomplished through consecrated study of Christian Science to learn more of Life and its expression, man, and through consciously accepting and demonstrating the immortal sense of Life day by day. In this way everyone may learn to free himself from the mortal belief of aging and debilitation and prove the promise of Isaiah, "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." ^{Isa 40:30, 31.}