Rays of spiritual, eternal truth have been breaking through the mist of material ignorance for unnumbered centuries. This timeless dawn of spiritual reality was evidenced in the thinking of Melchizedek and Abraham, followed by the great Bible characters through whose Spirit-enlightened thinking appeared the Word of God recorded in the Old Testament. Since spiritual foresight accompanies spiritual enlightenment, it was inevitable that the prophets should discern events to come that were essential to the fulfillment of the divine purpose, that all material ignorance be destroyed by the God-impelled light of divine intelligence in such human ways as mankind could recognize and understand.
Micah and Zechariah foresaw that two messengers would appear to further and fulfill this divine purpose. The first, Christ Jesus, by the spoken word and mighty proofs of the healing power of God's Word defined the basic issue between good and evil to be between the forces of deific Mind and the forces of the godless, lying evil mind, objectified in mutable mortal man and perishable things. That the divine purpose demanded a subsequent revelation of truth the Master made clear in these prophetic words: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever."John 14:16; John, in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, reiterates Micah's prophecy that she who travaileth shall bring forth that revelation of eternal truth which shall rule all peoples.
This second appearing of revealed truth was made available to humanity in 1875 with the publishing of Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. It appeared nine years after she had been expected to die from an accident and was restored to health through her unfaltering trust in the healing might of deific Mind. She was then living at Swampscott, near Lynn, Massachusetts, on the Atlantic seacoast about ten miles north of Boston. Immediately following her healing she devoted several years to deep research into the Bible to gain a demonstrable knowledge of the basic rules and laws of eternal Mind for applying its healing power to human needs. Science and Health contains her conclusions. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she writes of the origin of this book, "It was not myself, but the divine power of Truth and Love, infinitely above me, which dictated 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.'"My., p. 114;
