Someone under thirty concerned about "old age"? Sounds preposterous, doesn't it? But I was. I had always been around elderly people, and the varying degrees of physical and mental decrepitude I had witnessed made advancing years seem unpleasant.

Many young adults and older people do have fears about old age. Some bury their fears in a flurry of human activities. Others resign themselves to "growing old." All around us are evidences that people accept this belief of growing old as inevitable and even natural.

Happily, Christian Science teaches us that this belief can't come from God, eternal Mind, but is only another of mortal mind's baseless beliefs. It teaches us why the notion is limited and limiting, and how we can overcome it.

In the story of the true creation, we are told that "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." ^{Gen. 1:27;} Mrs. Eddy gives seven synonyms for God—Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit. Becoming familiar with the attributes associated with each of these synonyms, we can learn what is true of man as the reflection of God. For instance, as the image of Mind, man constantly expresses wisdom, intelligence, understanding, perception. As the image of Life, he continually expresses joyous, lively, harmonious activity. As the likeness of Spirit, man is spiritual, not material or at all subject to matter. This rules out the false belief that the real man has a physical body that, like a machine, can wear out. It rules out the false belief that man can experience physiological changes, which cause senility.

Christian Science teaches us that our thinking determines our experience. To the degree that we understand man's unlimited, ageless being and our identity as this man, we expunge from our thinking, and hence from our experience, the problems that seem to accompany advancing years. Of course, this dominion is contrary to the general expectations of mankind, but nevertheless it can be proved possible.

How frequently we hear or think statements such as, "I'm getting too old to be as active as I used to be" or "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" or "Mother's getting too old to live by herself." We must constantly stay alert to reject such thoughts about ourselves or others. Is Principle getting older and less active? Is Truth growing old and senile? Obviously not, and neither is man.

It is a mistaken view to expect to make steady progress for a few years, hit a peak of ability and activity, and then steadily go downhill. Each year should be the best we've had so far, because each year we should have a greater understanding of God and man. A person's activities may change at different times in his life, but always his basic purpose is to express God. This purpose always defines the work of this moment—whether the world considers one to be six, twenty-six, forty-six, sixty-six, or eighty-six.

The Psalmist said, "I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being." ^{Ps. 104:33;} Decrepitude does not praise God, and we need not accept it as inevitable or even possible, for there is nothing of God in it. We can see it as it is —unreal—never more than an illusion.

But, one may ask, what about the senior citizens one sees just about everywhere who look as though they were carrying heavy burdens? They may believe they are carrying heavy burdens: all the mistakes, toil, pain, heartache, and resentment of years past. Whatever our age, how important it is, when problems confront us, to see the nothingness of evil promptly and leave behind past injustices, mistakes, and failures. How vital it is to remember the past only to the degree that it reveals to us a better understanding of God! Christ Jesus said, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." ^{Luke 9:60;}

Sometimes it is difficult to "let the dead bury their dead," but it is an attitude we can profitably develop. Throw out yesterday's quarrels and failures along with yesterday's rubbish! Having done this, we can step forward each day, light of heart and free of step.

Spiritual truths annul the fears of advancing age—fear of helplessness, of senility, of impoverishment, of loneliness. We need not experience the handicaps mankind have attached to age, for the Bible tells us that we are now the sons of God. ^{See I John 3:1;} On pages 244-248 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy discusses in depth the agelessness of man. She writes: "Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight." ^{Science and Health, p. 246;}

As we better understand the agelessness of man, we experience, too, a greater sense of unity with all mankind. Of each one we meet we can say, "Behold, the son of God!" Consequently, with this understanding, young people are more patient with their elders, and older people are more tolerant of young people.

Have you ever watched a small child skipping along a sidewalk? He is not weighed down by the past, the present, or the future. A child who is confident of his parents' loving care and provision feels unburdened. Oh, that we might express that same childlikeness by confidently relying on our Father-Mother God for our provision!

And what about the various means people use to cover up what the world considers physical signs of "advancing years"? Each person must answer such a question for himself, for each case is individual, but anyone can ask himself, "What is my motive? Does this action interfere with my spiritual progress by allowing me to grow apathetic toward the claims of matter instead of denying them?"

If one begins to think of exercise as a physical function that preserves his "youthful figure," he perverts the true idea of exercise as an expression of activity. If getting rid of that gray makes one suppose he is thinking young, when deep inside he is nurturing great fear of old age, he's allowing himself to be mesmerized by matter. There is nothing wrong with tinting one's hair, but a mere act does not absolve anyone of the need to establish in thought his God-bestowed agelessness. Nor should we look to the physical body to find beauty, for beauty is essentially spiritual, a quality of Soul.

To one of her students Mrs. Eddy wrote in her later life, "I am well and younger than ever before. The foam of earth's billows have left their white waves on my hair but what of that if the heart is hopeful, and not tired of the strife?" ^{Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial by Robert Peel (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), p. 301;}

Joyfully, constantly, we can all be striving for a greater awareness of man's true nature. The result of such activity could not possibly be decrepitude and deterioration; it is buoyancy and health. Mrs. Eddy says, "Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness." ^{Science and Health, p. 246.}