The difference between time and eternity is a question which constantly arises to puzzle mankind. The usual conception of time is that it consists of the passing of minutes, hours, days, months, and years, due to the revolutions of the earth on its axis and around the sun. Astronomy has connected so closely the idea of time and the movements of the solar system that we think that if the earth should cease to revolve on its axis and the stars and planets cease to move about the sun, a man would have the consciousness in which there would be no longer any sense of time. Christian Science shows us that the destruction of the sense of time is not dependent on the elimination of days and seasons. Time is a misconception of the human mind, and as each individual proves the consciousness of the true man and reflects the divine Mind he will lose his sense of time and be conscious of eternity. So long as a man believes himself to be controlled by the carnal mind, no seemingly outside circumstances can change his sense of time or bring eternity into manifestation. Time is not a condition of the material universe outside of man but is an individual problem and as such can be solved by each one of us. To others the sun may rise and set and time seem to continue, but to the one who has "put off the old man with his deeds" time will disappear. The reason for this lies in the fact that the material universe is only the expression of mortal thought, and therefore to the one whose consciousness is wholly spiritual there is no material universe.
Time, like all limiting beliefs, is a false concept of the carnal mind. The word "limitation" is practically a complete description of mortal mind. In all varied phases limitation is the mark of the beast which identifies erroneous beliefs. Error would have us limit God's creation by translating it into material forms. The difference between the true idea and the material concept is that the former is infinite, unlimited, while the latter is finite, limited. As matter is but the suppositional expression of mortal mind it is not primarily matter which limits but mortal mind. Mortal mind is that which would have us believe that God's ideas are expressed in material forms. Thus the material conception of man is that the physical body confines him. The true man is the image of God and reflects His infinitude. This man is conscious of God's idea as true spiritual form. He does not have to translate this into matter in order to be conscious of its manifestation. To him it is clear that, as Mrs. Eddy says, "God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are spiritual realities" (Science and Health, p. 513). The human mind would have us believe that man's capabilities and possibilities are limited. Christian Science shows him to have unlimited capabilities and infinite possibilities. When we are conscious of the fact that man reflects the infinite Mind, we realize that man has infinite intelligence and is conscious of the true universe. When Paul said, "The carnal mind is enmity against God," he showed that just as the chief characteristic of God is infinitude, so the chief quality of the carnal mind, God's opposite, is limitation.
What is time but a sense of limitation applied to our conception of the universe? We think of limitation when applied to the human mind as the inability of this so-called mind to grasp a number of conceptions at once. As the saying is, "We can think of only one thing at a time." This is the essential nature of time. It is error's contention that man can have ideas only in rotation,—that he cannot grasp God's creation and be conscious of the true universe at once, but must be conscious of only one thing at a time.
All true actions and events are ideas. God has already created all; in other words, He has thought all ideas, therefore all real events are already accomplished in infinite Mind. If they are not accomplished then there are ideas about to exist, or be manifested, of which God has no knowledge. This is absurd, for our primary conception of God credits Him with infinite knowledge. If a man were conscious of his God-given intelligence and realized his possession of the Mind of Christ, he would be conscious now of the things of God and would see already manifested all events. Error would try to make us believe that man's consciousness is limited and that he cannot see now the manifestation of all God's ideas; in other words, that he can only be conscious of one thing at a time. This limitation of conception is what the world calls "time." When we wish to accomplish a task, error would have us believe that it is not already accomplished, would have us be conscious of a beginning and completion, a sequence of conceptions instead of the completed idea as God sees it. It is the human belief in time which causes the seeming maturity, decay, and extinction of man. When we shall have "put off the old man," the unreal "carnal mind," and shall have become conscious of our reflection of unlimited, divine Mind, time will have disappeared and we shall see the eternal man and universe forever perfect and harmonious.
Mrs. Eddy gives us a definition of eternity on page 3 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she says, "The Divine Being must be reflected by man,—else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely;' but to understand God is the work of eternity." We have in the past thought that this statement, "to understand God is the work of eternity," meant that we would always be striving to understand God, that one had to look forward only to struggling for a knowledge of God through centuries and æons of time. If we use one of Webster's definitions of work as "achievement," we may say that to understand God is the achievement for us of eternity. When we lose our sense of time and are conscious of eternity, this consciousness achieves for us a complete knowledge of God. The former belief was that the consciousness of eternity would bring with it a never ending struggle to understand God. Mrs. Eddy says on page 61 of "Unity of Good," "Human perception, advancing toward the apprehension of its nothingness, halts, retreats, and again goes forward; but the divine Principle and Spirit and spiritual man are unchangeable,— neither advancing, retreating, nor halting." Now we see that since eternity and the full consciousness of God's complete creation are identical the achievement of one brings to us the other also.
God is conscious now of the manifestation of all that is real, events, objects, and actions; therefore the belief of a past, present, and future is the error that man does not reflect God, is not conscious of God's complete creation. A sense of future implies ideas of which man is not yet conscious, which are not yet manifested. A sense of past implies ideas which are no longer manifested. The present is the only time there is. The present is eternity. God is conscious now of the manifestation of all His ideas. Since man is God's image and reflects infinite Mind he is also conscious of the manifestation of all God's ideas. Time is the attempted limitation of man by the carnal mind to the consciousness of only one idea at a time, a series of events, a sequence of conceptions. Eternity is the infinite Mind conscious now of all ideas which mortals conceive as past, present, or future. To the carnal mind the universe is like a canvas on which is being painted a picture which is constantly changing under the painter's brush. To the infinite Mind the universe is the finished picture, already the complete manifestation of God, conscious of the infinite whole.
