Jesus epitomized his mission to mankind in the single brief sentence from the book of the prophet Isaiah which he read in the synagogue at Nazareth the first Sunday after his return to the home of his boyhood, declaring its fulfilment as the office of Christ in himself: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." It was to this same end that he commissioned the little band of disciples whom he later sent out "to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick;" and that this work was to be continued is evidenced in this all-inclusive statement: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us."
Had the good work so well begun by the early church been continued, one can but believe the status of Christianity would be vastly different from what it is today, and that had the Master's command been obeyed in its entirety, there would have been a unity of purpose instead of the doctrinal divisions so much deplored and to overcome which so much effort is being put forth at the present time. And yet "the way" was again revealed with the discovery of Christian Science in 1866, and it was "to organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Manual, p. 17), that a little band of students of the Christ Science discovered and taught by Mrs. Eddy came together thirty-four years ago, and the Church of Christ, Scientist, entered upon its mission to humanity.
The work so quietly begun has grown by leaps and bounds, and has demonstrated that it is indeed the truth that makes free in the multitudes all over the world who, through its beneficent ministrations, have been freed from sickness and redeemed from sin. So great was her faith in the unbounded efficacy of the rediscovered Principle and rule which had governed the healing works wrought by the Master and his disciples, that at the time of the dedication of The Mother Church in 1894, Mrs. Eddy wrote these prophetic words (Pulpit and Press, p. 22): "If the lives of Christian Scientists attest their fidelity to Truth, I predict that in the twentieth century every Christian church in our land, and a few in far-off lands, will approximate the understanding of Christian Science sufficiently to heal the sick in his name. Christ will give to Christianity his new name, and Christendom will be classified as Christian Scientists."
