The path of so-called mortal existence, or life in matter, includes material birth, growth, maturity, and decay. It involves sickness and health, poverty and wealth, sorrow and joy, all the outcome or expression of a material state of consciousness.
Has this concept of existence any connection with Truth, any relation to Life, the Life of which John declared, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men"? Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 468): "Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity."
The path of mortal existence is bounded by the limits of time, of sickness, health, birth, growth, and so on. These phases of belief are no part of eternity.
