Not long ago I received a telephone call from a friend I hadn't seen for some time. After the usual amenities she bombarded me with these questions in rapid succession: "Have you got arthritis? Do you still have all your teeth? Is your hair gray?" I found myself answering mechanically, "No," "Yes," "No." Then I realized that animal magnetism, or the mesmeric belief in a life or mind apart from God, was suggesting beliefs of mortality—and middle-aged ones at that! Immediately I steered the conversation to more constructive subjects.
In my study of Christian Science I had been gaining a clearer understanding of myself as a spiritual idea, not made of matter, and therefore not subject to a so-called "aging process." How easy it is to get caught up in world thought and to submit to the tremendous pull away from spiritualized thinking and living! I was grateful I recognized this decoy and was alert to reaffirm my spiritual identity as the immortal and perfect child of God. This true identification of ourselves becomes easier and more natural as we turn our thought first to God and then reason from a spiritual standpoint. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality." Science and Health, p. 492;
Beliefs based on materiality, physicality, and mortality have an aggressiveness we cannot ignore. Pushing aside the suggestion of age, refusing to think about it, is no more scientific than dwelling on it and watching for its approaching signs with fear and foreboding. The absolute truth is that man is ageless, diseaseless, sinless, and deathless. God is constantly imparting to him life, health, beauty, intelligence, strength, and energy. The glorious perfection of our true manhood and womanhood is eternal, never fading or diminishing.
