Do we ever stop to consider why it is that "Science and Health, With Key to the Scriptures" is unlike any other book ever written? why it is that the reading of it never becomes monotonous? why it is that new ideas are constantly being gleaned from it, that the longer one reads it, the more interesting and instructive it becomes? why it is that with this reading comes a higher sense of peace and happiness, enabling us to overcome trials and temptations that before seemed insurmountable? why it is that the so-called ignorant and unlearned can grasp its Truth and be healed by it, and that, oftentimes far more readily than the highly educated? why it is that the foreigner who can scarcely read or speak a sentence of the English language, can read and interpret its spiritual meaning?
The reason is plain. Back of every statement contained in this "little book" is the true idea of God, man, and the universe; not some one's opinion, supposition, or theory, but the one true idea of them, that idea which is as eternal and unchangeable as God himself, and which speaks to this age in a new tongue. It is this true idea that characterizes "Science and Health," and will ever keep it separate and distinct from all other works. Other authors may attempt to borrow from it; in fact, many have already done so, and have placed their human-mind productions before the world under the guise of Christian Science, but they lack, one and all of them, the seal of divinity. One may read and re-read them, but doing so will never heal him of his moral or physical infirmities. The thought that would seek an easier way than the right way to learn Christian Science will for a season be pleased with this false literature with its intellectual smoothness, but so far as we have observed from experience, those who become immersed in its thought are the ones least receptive of the true idea found alone in "Science and Health."
At this point, some of our conscientious church brethren will be asking about that book of books, the Bible; so we will endeavor to explain its relationship to "Science and Health." The tie is a very close one. As the true idea is one with its Principle, God, so are the Bible and "Science and Health" one in Principle and in idea. This true idea of God is spoken of throughout the inspired Scriptures, but its fulness has not been understood. And we will say in this connection that, as Christian Scientists, we do not dishonor God or the Bible when we say that "Science and Health" is the Key to the sacred Scriptures, and as such, we may at all times allow it to rest upon the Bible. The two go hand in hand, and are inseparable, but remember that you have to handle the key before you can manipulate the lock, and it is surely no discredit to the lock because you use a key that fits it.
