IN eternity, the perfect circle of reality, where all is spiritually mental, the true qualities evidenced in youth and age coexist. Inspiration is forever joined with wisdom, strength undivorced from calmness, and spontaneity of action unfailingly governed by steadfastness. In time, which is the limited human concept of eternity, these qualities are separated. The characteristics of youth are placed near the beginning of individual human existence, those of age near its end, and both are united with erroneous beliefs and false qualites which tend to nullify the useful, the beautiful, and the good. As human life moves on toward what is commonly termed old age, afflictive conditions may appear, and fears may hamper activity.
What a travesty this is of the true sense of life, which, Christian Science teaches, can be no less than the expression of God, divine Life! And yet how almost universally this misconception has been accepted. In the twelfth chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher exhorts mortal man, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." He then proceeds to depict in verse of unparalleled beauty and pathos the sorrows and limitation of the aged.
Mary Baker Eddy rebukes this conventional error and opens to mankind a grander view in the following words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 244): "Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development, power, and prestige."
