During his earthly ministry Christ Jesus, in order to elucidate "the deep things of God," sometimes called his immediate disciples apart by themselves. "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while."
He called Peter, James, and John to that wondrous experience on the mount of transfiguration. He appeared several times to his followers after his resurrection. On one such occasion, referred to by St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, "he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once." And he spoke unto the apostles "of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." After they had received the Holy Ghost, the disciples were endowed with a deeper, fuller spiritual understanding, which enabled them to work out their own salvation from all evil, and to help others to experience and to understand the healing power of Truth and Love. Through spiritual baptism those pioneer Christians were better equipped to carry out the behest which their great Master entrusted to them and to all his followers for the universal establishment of Christianity.
In our own time, as the Discoverer of Christian Science, or the Science of Christ, which Jesus practiced, Mrs. Eddy was divinely inspired to elucidate her discovery in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook which is carrying its healing message over the globe. As the Founder of Christian Science, our Leader was divinely guided also in establishing The Mother Church and in compiling the By-Laws of the Church Manual. These wise rules govern the activities of the Christian Science organization, and they hold a practical significance and spiritual import for members of The Mother Church and its branches.
