Truly it has been said that when Mary Baker Eddy gave the name of Christian Science to her unique metaphysical system she challenged the religious and medical thinking of the entire world. Christianity in one doctrinal form or another had long been the dominant religious belief of Western civilization. But to announce that Christianity as revealed to her was a teachable and practicable Science meant that the healing and saving power of God, established on a demonstrable basis, was now available not only as universal religion, but as universal medicine.
Metaphysics, which means beyond or above physics or the physical sense of things, had for centuries been a subject of abstract academic exercise or pursuit, and always on a humanly mental basis; but that a wholly spiritual metaphysics, transcending not only matter but the material mind itself, should be reduced to practical utility in the solving of everyday problems was something entirely new. Accordingly, if Mrs. Eddy's contribution to the health and happiness of mankind were to be summed up briefly, it could be expressed as follows: she fully defined metaphysics as the Science of infinite Mind, its attributes, its relations, and its infinite universe of divine ideas, and then applied her understanding of it in healing practice. She thereby advanced metaphysics to the dignity and verity of demonstrable Science. In this unique accomplishment Mrs. Eddy was the acknowledged pioneer.
Our Leader knew that she was taking a necessarily new and forward step in revealing to human consciousness the truth of God and man; and she took that step alone and unafraid. Writing subsequently in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she said (p. 109), "I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration."
On pages 184 and 185 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy tells us how her metaphysical treatment pierced the curtain of mesmeric belief and enabled her to heal quickly a case of tuberculosis of the lungs. The patient had breathed with particular difficulty when the wind was from the east. As our Leader silently prayed, the woman's breathing became natural and normal. She then told the woman to look at the weather vane. To the patient's surprise, the weather vane pointed due eastward. Thus the woman learned that it was not the wind that had caused her difficulty, but the fearful belief that it was. She saw also that Mrs. Eddy's spiritually metaphysical treatment had quickly changed that belief to an abiding sense of health and harmony.
This meant, of course, that the teaching and practice of Christian Science are entirely helpful and good. By this we mean that they are in complete accord with the spiritual, divinely benevolent nature of the universe, including man, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. Mrs. Eddy had already proved conclusively that this Science was fully capable of bringing about not only bodily healing, but moral regeneration and spiritual enlightenment, and that these glorious results could henceforth be obtained in the everyday experience of all of its sincere students.
As the two words "science" and "Christianity" are commonly used, science has to do primarily with things that are seen, but Christianity with things that are not seen; science with reason and practical experience, but Christianity with religious faith and sentiment; science with the material universe, but Christianity with the new heaven new earth of Spirit. Since the discovery of Christian Science and the publication of Science and Health it has become increasingly evident that spiritually scientific reasoning and Christian love cannot be antagonistic to each other, for both must be found to be unified in a Science that is Christian and a Christianity that is Science. Because Truth is infinite, or all-inclusively one, Science and Christianity must be one in essence, for only divine Truth understood is capable of answering every question and meeting every human need.
Although most of us will gladly admit that natural science has done much by way of ameliorating human drudgery and supplying material conveniences, it still affords no hope of arriving at a uniform basis for healing the sick and overcoming wrongdoing, dispelling poverty, and comforting the broken-hearted.
Our Master gave us the measuring rod for all Christian discipleship when he said (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." Surely, Jesus would not have issued his commands to heal if they were not to be understood and obeyed. Evidences in the Gospels, Acts, and the epistles show that a point beyond faith is spiritual understanding, and that it was through this understanding of the wholly spiritual nature of all that truly exists that Christians were expected to demonstrate the healing power of God in what have been mistakenly referred to as miracles.
Now, there must always have been a way by which this lost element of healing could be discovered and so restored to Christianity—a way by which reason and revelation could be reconciled and thus together made practicable to mankind, and it remained for Mrs. Eddy to discover this way and, appropriated enough to give to Christianity its "new name" (Rev. 2:17; 3:12). Referring to her discovery in Science and Health, our Leader writes (p. 107): "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing."
Christian Science is being proved daily through healings of all manner of disease, discord, and limitation. This is evidence that the discovery of this Science of infinite Mind and its infinite self-manifestation is the coming of the promised Comforter, the second appearing of Christ, or the final revelation of Truth, foreshadowed by the prophets and foretold by the Master. The understanding of this comforting, healing, saving Science demonstrates divine Principle, infinite Mind, even that all-embracing spiritual presence and power which includes, on the one hand, all that actually is, and excludes, on the other hand, as provably unreal, all that merely seems to be.
Writing on pages 146 and 147 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of the age in which we live. This system enables the learner to demonstrate the divine Principle, upon which Jesus' healing was based, and the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of disease." Thus it was that, by revealing infinite Mind, including its universe of divine ideas, as the starting point of her unique and practicable metaphysical system, our Leader proved herself to be not only the most spiritually-minded woman, but also the most scientifically-minded woman, that ever trod the earth.
