As a young child I feared eternal life almost as much as death. The prospect of a never-ending sequence of hours, stretching on and on, without climax or conclusion, droning through eternity, terrified me. But as I grew in my understanding of Christian Science, I saw that what I feared was my misconception of eternity as endless time, somehow extending backward and forward to fill infinity.
Yet eternity is the opposite of time, not its extension. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized." Science and Health, p. 468;
"Time is no part of eternity"! Matter is no part of Spirit. Evil is no part of God, all good. The mortal concept of the universe as haphazard, as intelligent and non-intelligent matter, is no part of the immortal understanding of the universe as God, Spirit, and His perfect, ordered, spiritual manifestation. Time marks the hours of human reckoning; eternity marks the endless moments of spiritual awakening. Then the dreams of time and sense fade away, for centuries and parsecs have fallen short, and only this single measurement of good remains—God's allness.
