THE human sense of life is limited by a tenacious belief in three distinct periods of existence—youth, manhood, and old age. Broadly speaking, the first is spent in hope, in looking forward; the second is too often filled with dissatisfaction that greater success and happiness do not materialize; and the third, in looking back to the mistakes of the past, in so-called repose, clouded by the regretful sense of having accomplished little or nothing of true worth. All these unsatisfactory and unsatisfying conditions are removed as, in the light of Christian Science, life is seen to be spiritual and not material; not limited by matter, nor governed by time, but as expressing man's oneness with God, and unfolding in endless continuity. Immortal man has neither birth nor death. It is mortal man, the counterfeit, who to human sense appears to be born, to live for a period, and to die. Of immortal man Mrs. Eddy writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 82): "Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love."
When we have once arrived at a knowledge of this truth, life is seen to unfold day by day, and to overflow with the boundless promise and fulfillment of good and ever widening opportunities. These blessings are ours as we perceive man's inseparability from God—Life, Truth, and Love. Life is no longer regarded as being limited to so many years, and to certain successive material conditions, accepted as unavoidable by the human senses; for Life, God, is seen not to be dependent upon material development, on maturity, on decay. God's spiritual ideas, existing before the human sense of birth and despite the human sense of death, always have been, are now, and always will be complete and perfect, individual units in the spiritual universe; for every idea constantly reflects and coexists with Life, its divine Principle.
This harmonious and orderly un-foldment becomes apparent to individual consciousness as each one learns to apply to his daily problems the truth of man's being. Then like a rosebud opening its petals to the sun, human consciousness unfolds to a wider and clearer knowledge of God. The result is speedily seen in greater happiness and contentment, more harmonious surroundings, and a larger sense of freedom from care and from a sense of limitation in the conditions of daily life.
