Christian Science teaches that the real man, our true self, does not drift with the so-called stream of time but stands now on the firm shore of timeless being. In this divine Science we learn that our true being is not part of the transience of time; we live in the eternal now, without the burden of a temporal past, without the uncertainty of a temporal future, without a beginning or ending.
"Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity," Science and Health, p. 468; says Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. Eternity is therefore not a span of time of infinite length, for "time is no part of eternity." Paul proclaimed: "Now is the accepted time." II Cor. 6:2; This now, without lapse of time—without years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds before or after—is ours, here, forever.
The thought of time and everything connected with it is a tenacious belief; the material senses often convince us that our life—everything we do or undertake to do —is tyrannically governed by time. But let us not be misled. Time is one of the oldest fetters of the human race. Great willingness and much discipline is needed to free ourselves from this bond by refusing to believe that we stand under time's compulsions. Gaining and maintaining the spiritual understanding of Life eternal is worth every effort.
