AT this moment of the world's history Christian Science is perhaps most significantly distinguished from other systems of thought by its unyielding emphasis upon the indestructibility of individuality, expressing Life, or God. The indestructibility of individuality is a Christian concept, but this concept requires spiritual understanding, as taught in Christian Science, to comprehend its demonstrable meaning. Christian Scientists gratefully observe that some other systems of thought (limited probably to some other Christian denominations) do recognize the dignity and permanence of individuality. Nevertheless, Christian Scientists know that their religion is alone in its revelation of God as the one divine, individual Mind and of man as the individual idea by which this Mind expresses itself.
On the point of uniqueness, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, definitely declares her religion to be indebted in no wise except to the teachings of the master Christian and the spiritual illumination contained in the Bible. Mrs. Eddy knew this Science of Christianity to be the Comforter which Jesus predicted would come and would lead into all truth. After explaining that she had demonstrated its efficacy in making health individually manifest and in contributing to longevity and good morals, she affirms its self-supported Christian status in the following words (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 126):"And I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles."
Christian Scientists do not take lightly this integrity of their religion, this self-containment, this freedom from adulteration. They recognize their obligation, first, to keep it unadulterated in statement and definition, and, secondly, to demonstrate its beneficence in human experience as the effect of their clear understanding of its absolute basis.
