For over three quarters of a century Christian Science has withstood criticism of the application of the word "Science" to Christianity. Each succeeding year brings more abundant proof of the correctness of this application in the healing of all kinds of discord and disease, showing unmistakably that Christianity and Science are inseparable, since both have the same basis—that of Truth. Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary defines "science," in part, as knowledge arranged under general truths and principles. This definition refers to the ordinary physical sense of science; but when we learn, as we do from a study of Christian Science, that there is in reality only one Truth and only one Principle, both being synonyms for God, we learn also that there is in reality only one Science, comprising knowledge of Truth and Principle.
The narrative of how Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, made her momentous discovery that Truth, God, heals the sick according to a fixed Principle and rule makes inspiring reading. Accounts of this discovery are to be found in the authorized biographies of Mrs. Eddy by Sibyl Wilbur and Dr. Lyman P. Powell, and in her own autobiography, "Retrospection and Introspection," as well as in some of her other writings. A fall on the ice had resulted in injuries pronounced fatal by the doctors, and she was not expected to live for more than a few days. On the third day, however, she asked for her Bible and opened it at the account of Christ Jesus' healing of the paralyzed man (see "Miscellaneous Writings." p. 24). In the Chicago newspaper, Daily Inter-Ocean of December 31. 1894, there appeared an account of an interview with Mrs. Eddy in which the interviewer relates the incident referred to. He writes that "she suddenly became aware of a divine illumination and ministration" as a result of which she was instantaneously and completely healed.
What an amazing and awe-inspiring discovery this must have been to our Leader! The first proof of an intuition she had long felt, namely, that the wonderful healings of Christ Jesus were not accomplished by any supernatural power peculiar to himself, but were the result of exact Science, the Principle and rule of which he was fully cognizant of. Throughout his ministry he had labored to impart to the dull ears of his contemporaries the significance of his works, promising them that if they would accept his teachings, not only would they repeat his demonstrations of the Science of Christianity but "greater works than these" would become possible to them.
