Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.—John, 8: 58.
The divine idea, or Christ,—which is from everlasting, —has been presented to mankind in three different ways, and at three different periods of the world's history; namely, by prophecy, nineteen hundred years before Christ Jesus (Melchizedek and the prophets); by fulfilment, in the coming of the Messiah (Christ Jesus), and by revelation and demonstration, nineteen hundred years after Christ Jesus (Christian Science). The record of this unfoldment of divine Truth in human consciousness is found in the Old and the New Testament Scriptures, and in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
The experience derived from the study of the Scripture history of the last forty centuries proves to us how slow the world has been to accept the Christ-idea, which was first foreshadowed to the world in 1900 B.C., in the person of Melchizedek, who, as his name signifies, was "the king of righteousness." It was this "priest of the most high God" (as he was also called) who first presented the Christ-idea to mankind, and this he did so clearly to Abraham that the latter indicated his recognition of the divine mission of Melchizedek by accepting his blessing, for we find in the 14th chapter of Genesis that Melchizedek said, "Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth."
