THE central point of the teaching of Christian Science is the supremacy of spiritual reality. And it is by proving the reality of good that we learn the unreality of evil. In order to demonstrate the reality of being we must discern it as eternal, and whatever is temporal must be seen as unreal. As problems are subjected to this mental process, we do not regard them in the light of mere time. Modern thought is tending more and more to admit that time is merely an aspect of matter. Such an admission presents nothing novel to students of Christian Science, whose teachings need no confirmation from material theories. It is, however, helpful to find that the intellectual thought of the day is no longer arrayed against us when, as Christian Scientists, we embrace the belief of time—as we should always do—in our denial of matter.
The belief in time is one of the chief obstacles to our apprehension of eternity, and therefore of reality. To conceive of eternity as an endless cycle of time is futile. Eternity, as the measurement of the duration of infinite Mind, is unlimited, whereas so-called time is a measure of limitation;it would even claim to limit Life, which is God. "Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
How, then, shall we recognize this eternal reality in which time has no part; and, when recognized, how shall we designate it? That is the question which seems to have confronted Moses in his vision of the burning bush; and the answer came to him in a significant phrase including the words "I AM," which embody the idea of the present. The latter word gives us a starting point; for even to mortal thought that which seems most real is undoubtedly the present. A moment's reflection, however, shows us that what mortals call the present has little in common with spiritual reality or eternity, but is insubstantial and fleeting. The "now" of mortals is merely a meeting point between two temporal notions, a belief of the past and a belief of the future. Then it is clear that we can begin to demonstrate eternity and immortality in the measure that we purge our thought of these temporal beliefs of past and future.
