ALTHOUGH the discovery of Christian Science was in itself an event of supreme importance, its practical significance would have been lost to the world but for certain rare qualifications of leadership which enabled its Discoverer to become the pioneer of a new dispensation. More than one spiritually minded individual in the past had experienced the vision of man as God constitutes and knows him; but it remained for Mrs. Eddy to bring out the potential bearings of the revelation on the great problem of human redemption. The task was indeed a stupendous one from a human standpoint, involving as it did the awakening of a world which was sunk in the beliefs of mortality, sin, and disease, to the transcendent realities of spiritual being. But, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (Pref., p. xi), "when God called the author to proclaim His gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard."
First in order was the translation of the new tongue of spiritual sense into human phraseology, so that the Word would be intelligible to human ears and applicable to human needs. For several years, while testing her discovery and seeking divine guidance in formulating a statement of its truths, our Leader imparted the new understanding by word of mouth, and healed all manner of diseases "without money and without price." The outcome of this period of gestation was the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," a work which its author trusted would supply the law as well as the gospel of the new movement.
But while Divine Science itself is absolute, the human factors in the case had to be taken into account. The "new wine" of spiritual inspiration required "new bottles" for its preservation. Experience showed the need of organized measures of some sort to direct and safeguard the steps of those who essayed to walk in the straight and narrow way of spiritual demonstration. It does not follow that such instrumentalities in themselves constitute an essential element of this spiritual part of the structure; rather do they represent the scaffolding which enables the builders to work systematically and efficiently in bringing the divine idea into manifestation through spiritual demonstration.
