Aging is death in slow motion. The human sense of existence accepts it without questioning, even as this sense believes death to be unavoidable and final. As long as one submits to age—youth, middle age, or old age—one subjects oneself to aging. Christian Science comes with the heaven born assurance that this is wrong.
If the means at the disposal of the Christian Scientist in combating old age were the same as those the physician and psychoanalyst are attempting to use, namely, the power supposedly inherent in matter and human intellect, the above assurance might be called vain boasting.
Mary Baker Eddy's discovery of the scientific nature of Christianity affords the scientific or true approach to existence. By it one can avail himself of the Christ-power that heals and restores, far surpassing any human capacity. This approach and practice is clearly set forth in Mrs. Eddy's many writings. For example, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 259) it is stated in this way: "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." Right here the need may be stressed for emphasizing the word "thought."
Adherence to the meaning of the above quotation brings about a revolutionary change in one's outlook upon existence and in one's concept of himself. Existence is seen in the way it is so cogently described in Genesis (1:31), "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Equally radical is the conclusion to be drawn as to the correct concept of oneself. It accords with the divinely derived understanding of man as God's image and likeness, or divine idea, also set forth in this same first chapter of Genesis.
The assumption seems to be widespread that the experiencing of all good, including the immortality and perfection of man, is a possibility to be achieved after death and in the far future only. However, such views conflict with the tenor of the text, illuminated by the fearless and piercing logic characteristic of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. If it is true that man is God's image and likeness—and how could it be otherwise if God is recognized as the source of all truth and reality?—then man must be, here and now, the expression, idea, or conscious manifestation of this divine Principle. Hence the insistence that perfect God and perfect man have to be acknowledged not only as the basis of demonstration, but also as the basis of thought.
The significance of thought is ceaselessly pointed out in Christian Science, for the simple reason that existence, even in the way it humanly appears, is a mental phenomenon. The infinite, eternal nature of God, Principle, Spirit, Mind, determines the infinity and eternality of His manifestation, man and the universe. Being infinite and eternal, the universe must be and is spiritual; it cannot be material.
Here we have arrived at a conclusion of tremendous importance. Matter is not an entity in itself. Christian Science has shown the fallacy of the agelong hypothesis that there is a distinction between matter and material mentality. On page 35 of "Unity of Good" Mrs. Eddy asks, "What then are the so called forces of matter?" And she replies, "They are the phenomena of mortal mind, and matter and mortal mind are one; and this one is a misstatement of Mind, God." Here she anticipated the modification by physical scientists of the Newtonian concept of the universe. The great English philosopher and mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton, thought of the universe as a rigid and immutable edifice.
One should not think that the above reference to Sir Isaac has led us away from the subject under consideration. On the contrary, it hints the reason why aging and dying have been thought of as inevitable and therefore dreaded. It was supposed that man was material and that matter, existing as entity equipped with its own set of laws, inexorably ended in disintegration. The foregoing exposition has led to the conclusion not only that matter is mental in nature, but also that it exists merely as a misstatement, or misconception, of that which is spiritual and thereby indestructible. In fact, the only disintegration and death there are, exist in the misconceiver, mortal mind, objectified as the misconception, mortal man and the material universe, so called. Paul's well-known pronouncement, "To be carnally minded is death," gives the gist of this.
Misconception being mental, the only possible way out of it is inevitably mental too. The solution of the problem of aging consists in understanding oneself as God's image and likeness and refusing to take in the suggestion that one is material and mortal. This false suggestion, or assertion, is silenced by denying its veracity and legitimacy and by discerning that it talks about its spurious self and not about man or one's own real self.
The result of this spiritual activity, called Christian Science prayer, or treatment, is a lessening of the misconceiving mortal or carnal mind and is apparent in an improvement of the human picture. It is a fuller, more direct, and constant appearing of that which man already really, divinely is: the immortal manifestation of infinite Mind.
Having duly reduced matter to what it is, a misconception, let us now consider the main assertions on the part of this mortal concept, this cage in which mankind has been caught unawares. One of its barriers is called space, a second parades as time, while the third is personal sense.
Material space is the limited sense of God's spiritual ever presence. The sense of space may suggest that this is a bad place, but over there is a good one. "Unfortunately," it suggests, "I am in the wrong spot and cannot get away, because of my occupation, family, nationality, or lack of money." The one being mesmerized by these and similar arguments is liable to worry about his right place and to become fearful. Hereby disintegration, first mental then objectified as physical, is induced.
The way to counteract and annul these spurious utterances is to realize man's nature as spiritual, including the truth of all the things which, according to mortal sense, have been scattered in space as material objects. No "there" exists to spiritual ever-presence; it is all consciously "here."
The misconception of eternality is called time. Time is not a thing in itself; it is only an attempt to divide the spontaneous continuity of the divinely real into a dead past, a future out of reach, and a present so evasive that it slips into the past the very moment one tries to lay hold on it. Hence many are tempted either to regret the good of the past that is no more or to be so anxious about the good of the future that they do not appreciate and enjoy the good of the present, elusive as it may seem to be.
Until recently it was assumed that the mere passage of time could bring about the gradual disintegration of the material body to the point of death. Lately, however, the medical faculty has voiced the opinion that time is not toxic. What supposedly poisons the body and causes decay is not the mere passing of days and years. According to these more enlightened views, it is the worrying that people do when they become more advanced in years and their constant thinking of their bodies as material, noticing small corporeal discords and connecting these with ominous possibilities, that bring about symptoms of age. One of these symptoms is the tendency to muse in terms of the past, while youth is inclined to yearn in terms of the future. The Christian Scientist lives and thinks wisely and joyously in terms of the spiritual now—a most strengthening and refreshing experience!
From within the time-sense, existence appears monotonous for the great majority of people. The same kind of work has to be done over and over again, the same daily routine to be followed. A sense of inanity develops, and one wears oneself out for lack of interest and renewal. The truth is that spiritual existence, being infinite, is infinitely varied, never subject to rut and repetition, and that this spiritual fact is true of one's own nature.
In order specifically to undo these false suggestions coming under the heading of time, one must understand that God's eternity includes as right ideas, in the ever continuous spiritual now, the truth of all the good that time suggests as events belonging either to the past or to the future. In this realization it will humanly appear that one is not being deprived of the good of the past; also the good of the future will appear in its spiritually present timelessness.
The third and most insidious barrier to mankind's release from its apparent cage is personal sense. Like time and the material concept of space, personal sense is not a thing in itself. Personal sense is a sense of division. It misinterprets the divine manifestation, the one universe, which is spiritual and whole. Here again is a source of worry and fear. Thinking of himself as incomplete, a person finds his capacities and qualities restricted in scope and number. Liable to be envious of the abilities of others, he fears their competition.
Man, understood as God knows him, is infinite idea. He includes all the qualities which, according to personal sense, have been divided among the unnumbered millions of persons inhabiting the world. He lives in the realm or consciousness of infinite, inexhaustible Mind, where substance is spiritual and thereby abundantly present.
Worrying, fearing, and fretting have been mentioned as incidental to all three of these evil suggestions constituting mankind's barriers. They form the fertile soil for aging and dying. In fact, the interpretation of death in the light of Christian Science reads in part (Science and Health, p. 584), "That which frets itself free from one belief only to be fettered by another, until every belief of life where Life is not yields to eternal Life." Consequently aging could well be called the intensification of the suggestions of space, time, and person. And the sure remedy for aging and the prevention of it lie in the realization that man, being wholly spiritual, is unable to be mesmerized by accepting the fallacy of living in matter and the inevitability of doing so.
Christ Jesus has provided the right idea of Life and body and has exemplified this for mankind's benefit. Not only did he declare that to understand God correctly constitutes eternal life, but also he was well aware of the restorative capacity of this understanding: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." He knew that he was endowed with the Christ, and that the true or Christ-idea is the only real temple or body. Indeed, he made perfect God and perfect man not only the basis of his demonstration of eternal life, but also the basis of his daily thought! In accordance with this, Science and Health (see p. 246:27-28) impresses upon the reader that he must go and do likewise!
