From the third century A. D. up to the time of Mary Baker Eddy's discovery of Christian Science, the Christianity which Jesus taught survived in one aspect of his demonstration, namely, in preaching, but without the healing work that he and his immediate followers had practiced. During those intervening centuries many Christian men and women lived truly self-sacrificing lives based on Christian motives. They looked for no present reward other than the joy of witnessing the fruits of their own selflessness, their only hope lying in the expectation of being translated to a more exalted state of being after passing through the experience of death. Through the true nobility of these men and women in their evaluation of Jesus' teaching, Christian civilization advanced and expanded. This was a great achievement, bearing testimony to the might as well as to the rightness of the Master's teaching.
Faithful as were many of those Christians, their lives would have been richer had they understood the importance and practicability of doing the healing work of which Jesus' demonstrations were examples. Mrs. Eddy has written (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 342): "The hour has struck when proof and demonstration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to the support of Christianity, 'making wise the simple.'" Her discovery of Christian Science has again brought to light primitive Christianity, with its component part of healing the sick as well as the sinning.
The student of Christian Science, when reading the chapter entitled "The Apocalypse," in Science and Health, sees the importance of christianity. Here it is shown to be one of the four sides of the holy city (p. 575). The nature of Christianity is thus seen to be something much more than a vague platform from which religionists propound a code of conventionalized morals. As the fundamentals of Christianity unfold, a new and fuller concept of what it means is developed. Looking deeply into the subject, the earnest student may consider Christianity from the standpoint of exact, demonstrable Science; whilst the fact that Jesus was not Christ, but was the one who more than any other in this world represented Christ, is appreciated.
