Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/103

Rh In explaining creation as described in Genesis Mrs. Eddy refuses to let “evening” and “morning” designate time. She thinks “Chronological data” should not be thought of; that “time-tables” of birth and death shorten life; that “time is a mortal thought,” that is, that the sense of time is error, not truth. Accordingly, the divine act of creation must be eternal. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy cannot think of God as creating anything now or at any given time, though her metaphysical acumen was not sharp enough to enable her to see that if we cannot think of an eternal creation as being at any time in progress we cannot think of it as being at any time finished.

The conception that we are now dealing with is far-reaching in its importance not only as explaining the character of God but also as explaining the character of creation; that is, the creation of the real world. We do well to pause here until we feel the force of this conception. If God is without purpose then there is no design in nature. This sweeping inference must follow from the assumptions that the world is without temporal relations and that its maker is principle, not a person, and that the agency by which it is created is mind only or intellect without will. This matter will become plainer when we come to study the psychology of Christian Science. At present