THE divine impulsion which led Mary Baker Eddy to ordain the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," as the universal pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, is one of the many outstanding examples of her farsighted leadership of the Christian Science movement. After her discovery of the Science of Christianity, Mrs. Eddy was able to deliver extemporaneous sermons that were divinely inspired, and instances of spiritual healing frequently took place during these discourses. She was eventually convinced, however, that personal preaching was not what was required for the services in her church. In this situation our Leader turned, as she invariably did, to the one infinite Mind for guidance, and the answer came. Shortly after the dedication of The Mother Church, in the year 1895, Mrs. Eddy made the following public announcement: "Humbly, and, as I believe, divinely directed, I hereby ordain the Bible, and 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' to be hereafter the only pastor of The Church of Christ, Scientist, throughout our land and in other lands" (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 313, 314).
Perceiving the deep-seated human tendency of preachers to substitute their own personal opinions for the inspired Word of the Bible, Mrs. Eddy did everything in her power to turn the thoughts of her followers away from speculative theories and traditions of men to the gaining of an understanding of Christ Jesus' healing theology. She knew that this understanding could be gained only through obedience to the laws of God and the demonstration thereof. Because Mrs. Eddy had herself used the Bible as her only textbook in searching for a positive rule of healing, she knew that others could do the same, especially with the aid of her teachings and example. This fact is explicit in the first tenet of The Mother Church, which reads as follows (Science and Health, p. 497): "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."
When one reads this tenet for the first time, the question is likely to arise as to why no one else had discovered the divine Science of the Scriptures before Mrs. Eddy's time. It is certain that no book had ever been so widely read and so deeply studied as the Bible, yet no one had deduced from it the Science of Christian healing until Mrs. Eddy perceived and demonstrated it. The discovery of the divine Principle of Christian Science is in fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy.
