Immortality will not be found only in tomorrows—even in centuries of tomorrows. We find it today. Immortal being is not something that happens only later. It happens now. And we can begin demonstrating that fact now.

People are used to restricted views. Finite being is considered the norm—in fact, the reality. Infinite being is thought to be theoretical. But it's thoroughly practical.

Suppose you throw a ball just as high and far as you're able. From the moment it leaves your hand, the ball is moving toward the end of its trip. In a way, this helps symbolize what we call mortal life. Some may hope that after death God will pick up that little ball of existence and give it another throw—an endless journey this time. People like to think of this next toss as immortality. But this is a wholly inadequate definition of existence.

Think of another sphere—the earth. Its rotation around the sun comes closer to symbolizing our true being, our relationship to God. Just as the earth moves constantly around the sun, so man is uninterrupted, held continuously in natural unity with his Maker.

If we have the ball approach to life, we will always be bouncing along, rolling toward an end. But if we discern our existence more from the standpoint of constancy, we'll see that immortal being isn't something that happens over a long, long period of time; it is undying being, continuous consciousness; it is taking place now. We begin demonstrating immortality by acknowledging that man's real substance is spiritual consciousness; that true mentality never dwindles, never terminates.

Material sense perceives man as mortal, as having been thrust from birth toward an unavoidable death. Spiritual sense discerns God as our Parent, as infinite divine Mind. Man is God's offspring—His image, His expression, held within His orbit of good. Man is idea, the ceaseless manifestation of perfect consciousness. This man, the only real man, never began to be man. He always is man. He is endless because he represents God.

Of course this isn't the usual way existence is defined. It takes humility to admit man is endless. Arrogant material sense insists on a conclusion. It says there's always an end down the trail: an end of a good day or a good time; perhaps the end of a relationship or season, or even life. Being and all the action implied by it are defined in finite terms. Mortality doesn't offer a very promising destiny.

Christian Science reveals that man's being is expressive of constant good—that is, immortal. Christ Jesus illustrated the ideal man, the man whose true selfhood never ends. He "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light," ^{II Tim. 1:10;} the Bible assures us.

Jesus did demonstrate immortality—not by showing that material existence goes on endlessly, but by bringing to an end the belief that man's existence is mortal. Immortality for him was the demonstration that man's perfect relationship to God is more than an eventuality; it is intact now. Jesus understood that man, God's pure likeness, never dies. And he realized that this genuine being never started out in mortality.

It was his constant recognition that God is perfect and that man is God's continuous expression that enabled him to prove his immortal nature. He set the example for each of us. He expected us to follow. His understanding that man cannot expire enabled him to heal fear and lack, illness and sin. This realization enables us today to heal on the same basis.

Healing is an aspect of our resurrection; it establishes proof of individual immortality. As we purify thought, define our life as spiritual—and bring our actions more and more into accord with true being—mortality recedes. "Resurrection," Mrs. Eddy explains, is "spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding." ^{Science and Health, p. 593;}

We shouldn't be thinking that later we will be immortal. If we are immortal at all, then we are so now. At this moment we are held within God's allness. Now we are expressing His permanence. Man is undying. He is not approaching an end. If we accept life and being as mortal, we find that good is always coming to a stop. If we admit that existence is immortal, our lives continually open up to new ideas, fresh views of reality—we experience a degree of resurrection. To admit right now that you are immortal is to deny that an interruption can come to divine consciousness.

A limited, material body is the picture, the object, of a limited, material mentality. A mortal, then, is a picture of mentality that is advancing toward demise. As consciousness is transformed, as we realize that the substance of thought is divine, eternal, we don't lose identity; we take hold of immortal being and realize that consciousness is perpetual, timeless. Good isn't discontinued. Being doesn't vacillate between good and evil, health and illness, joy and despair. The facts of eternal being never become mortal. "There is no such thing as mortality," insists Mrs. Eddy, "nor are there properly any mortal beings, because being is immortal, like Deity,—or, rather, being and Deity are inseparable." ^{ibid., p. 554.}

Immortality is the unbroken consciousness of good. We glimpse and demonstrate something of immortal being each time we challenge effectively the belief that good is cut off. If we assume immortality to be only a future condition, we'll always be waiting for it to happen later. But it's happening now.

NATHAN A. TALBOT