Christendom freely acknowledges the primacy and supremacy of God, but equally freely it seems to ignore the practicability of demonstration. Too often passive resignation to the besetments of evil has been the rule, and, disregarding the intrepid examples in the Scriptures culminating in the unparalleled demonstrations of divine presence and power by Christ Jesus, men have placed both effective godliness and oppressive evil in the domain of mystery.
This mesmeric state is referred to in the Bible by the terms "sleep" and "slumber," and it was not until 1866, when, after many years of spiritual preparation, Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science, that men were presented with an effective means of awakening. The work of our Leader, as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, quickly became world-wide in its significance, and its permanence is assured because her organization, the Church of Christ, Scientist, is governed impersonally and for all time by her divinely inspired By-Laws in the Church Manual.
In the study of Christian Science one is greatly helped by the spiritual meanings which Mrs. Eddy gives to Scriptural words. Thus to understand the phrase "the day of the Lord" we turn to the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 584), where Mrs. Eddy defines "day" in part as "the irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love." And a few lines farther on she adds: "The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and 'there shall be no night there.' "
