During the first few weeks of my attendance at services in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I read and pondered a quotation by Mary Baker Eddy which was inscribed on the wall of the church. The statement read in part: "Jesus' three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time" (see The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 214). The revelation inspired by these words was startling. I saw that since the seal of eternity is set on time, time does not exist, and therefore it could no longer shut my door to a happy life. Nor did I have to dispose of time myself, for Jesus had already done so; I needed only to accept these facts.
The evidence of this revelation of truth came quickly. Where I had labored for months to arrange my business sales calls in a reasonable way and had failed miserably because I was either too late or my prospect was busy, now the interviews began to come in proper and effective order. My gratitude was unbounded. At once I set about praying to understand more fully this profound statement. As I continued to read and ponder the teachings of Christian Science, my prayer to see the unreality of time was answered by steady and growing unfoldment.
For instance, in planning a workday at the office, I had made it a habit to arrange the various jobs on my desk in the order of their importance. This habit had proved more disturbing than effective. Often as I started on the first job, there would come the question, "Is this really the most important, or have I made a mistake in putting it first?" And then the day would be spent in an atmosphere of doubt. Now it became more and more evident that because divine Mind governs all, it would unfold to me whatever intelligent action was required. A sentence from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy accurately describes this divine activity (p. 506): "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear." My responsibility, then, was to make sure that each of my activities had behind it what I could honestly call a holy purpose and was not impelled by a sense of human will. As this was done, the petals of each holy purpose were truly opened in ways glorious to behold, and the former method of planning from a human sense of time and direction slowly faded out.
