WHEN Jesus uttered the immortal words recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you," it is probable that those who heard him placed a limited, personal construction on his utterance, not fully understanding that he referred to the Christ, Truth, which he had taught and demonstrated during his earthly ministry. When speaking of the ascension in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says (pp. 46, 47): "His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them a faint conception of the Life which is God."
The Holy Ghost, or divine Comforter, was with Peter and John when they healed the lame man at the Gate Beautiful of the temple. It was with Paul when he rendered harmless the sting of the viper, and when it enabled him to free Eutychus from the mesmerism of death. It was with the followers of Jesus throughout the entire history of the early Christian church; and it is recorded, in secular history, that even the raising of the dead was accomplished by the early Christians for several centuries after the ascension.
In accordance with prophecy, the divine Comforter must appear in the fullness of time to someone, and naturally through the one best prepared to receive it. Mary Baker Eddy, because of her deeply religious nature and training, her education and experience, her humility, her obedience, her faith, was ready and waiting. In her autobiography, "Retrospection and Introspection," we have, in Mrs. Eddy's own words, her story of the discovery of Christian Science and its establishment as a healing and redemptive agency. Frequent readings of this autobiography will undoubtedly give students of Christian Science a better understanding of her mission, a greater appreciation of her labors for mankind, and a fuller comprehension of Christian Science as the Comforter.
