It was in Antioch, anciently a large and important city in Syria, that the followers of the teachings of Christ Jesus first were called Christians. The city was exceedingly paganistic and corrupt, and the term "Christian" probably was used with some measure of opprobrium. Nevertheless Christianity continued to gain adherents there and elsewhere throughout the Roman Empire for something over two hundred years after Christ Jesus left the earth. Marvelous demonstrations of the power of the healing and saving Christ as taught by the Galilean Prophet are accredited to the early Christians. Their earthly reward was persecution and martyrdom, yet the truly faithful ones among them pressed forward, well knowing that the vitality of their religion depended on the continuance and steady increase of the works of healing and regeneration.
History records that at the height of the persecution the Roman emperor Constantine took upon himself the role of "protector" of the Christian religion. Under this blighting patronage the vital part of Christianity, the pure, spiritual essence of Christ-healing, gradually faded out. Creed, dogma, and ritualistic worship gained a foothold, and the impersonal Christ came to be regarded as synonymous with the personal Jesus.
It is well for the troubled world today that the discovery of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy, in the year 1866, removed the veil of mystery which for many centuries had beclouded so much of Jesus' teachings, especially those concerning the Christ. The demonstrable truth about God and His healing and saving Christ, Mrs. Eddy made available to humanity through her various writings, particularly her textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is indeed a most hopeful sign that this textbook, in connection with the Bible, is being studied throughout the world today, and the healing and regenerating works of primitive Christianity are increasingly accomplished thereby.
