PROBABLY the great majority of those who have taken up the study of Christian Science have done so either because of dissatisfaction with orthodox scholastic teaching about the nature of God and man or in the hope of gaining freedom from the beliefs of sickness, sin, and other discords of the flesh. They have felt a real need for a more satisfactory sense of existence than they knew how to obtain. They have found that Christian Science meets their need because it understandably declares the spiritual law of cause and effect, the relationship of divine Principle and its idea, and the true status of God and man.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, had sought for years to learn the true nature of God. She sought to define God in terms that would express a sense of His nearness and availability. Naturally of a deeply religious nature, she regarded God as a loving, compassionate Father. The published record of her childhood days shows that she responded mentally and physically to the soothing assurance from her mother of God's love for her, and of His power and willingness to heal her of fever caused by the mental conflict between her pure sense of God as Love and the rigid requirements of her father's orthodox theology.
By constant spiritual striving for a higher concept of God, Mrs. Eddy at length prepared herself for the revelation of His divine nature which He gave to her, with the result that she was quickly healed, by spiritual means, of the effects of a supposedly fatal injury. She found that she could heal others also by the same spiritual method, and she began to teach those persons who were receptive to her discovery. She was able to impart to them a measure of what had been revealed to her of the true nature of God and man, and in this manner she started the Christian Science movement, which now has a worldwide following.
