"In the year 1866," Mrs. Eddy writes on page 107 of Science and Health, "I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing." No ambiguity there! Mrs. Eddy's words convey only one meaning, and it is that absolute Science has been established through her discovery of its divine Principle. Every one who has studied Christian Science, and as a result has perceived in a measure the Principle which it elucidates, and applied his understanding of that Principle to the problems of human life, has come to the same conclusion, namely, that absolute Science stands revealed now and for all time.
To those who know nothing about Christian Science this may seem a startling pronouncement. Some may have been on the search for years for the Christianity which is identical with absolute Science, may have been for long on the watch for the reappearing of Christ, Truth, like the shepherds of old on the Bethlehem plains; and to such Christian Science will without doubt reveal the Christ. It cannot be otherwise; it is the watcher who sees, it is the humble who discern, and the pure in heart who understand spiritual truth.
The word science means knowledge. It is true the word has usually been coupled with the adjective natural, or physical, giving the term natural or physical science. But what are the so-called natural sciences? They are, one and all of them, knowledge of so-called material things, of so-called material law, of the phenomena which are seemingly manifested to human consciousness through what are named physical senses. Every natural scientist will admit that sense perception is always material, and that consequently every conclusion drawn from data obtained through sense perception is merely temporal. In other words, the physical senses of men convey only the most superficial aspects of the phenomenal to them; and every thinking man knows that through these material senses he can never attain to the knowledge of absolute Truth. He may seem to get a step farther when a new development takes place along a material line, but he can never console himself with the conviction that he is appreciably nearer the absolute knowledge of reality.
