History records the achievements of many women who have been called great. The record of none surpasses the achievements of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and the Leader of the Christian Science movement. The nearly forty-five years of her devoted service to the establishment of the Cause, following her momentous discovery in 1866, are immeasurably great in the richness of love expressed, the scope of work accomplished, and the fruitage evidenced.
Her mission, to bring the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus, was threefold, as indicated by the three titles she reserved for herself—Discoverer, Founder, Leader. Her life up until her discovery had been preparing her for the great work ahead. The trials of widowhood, grief, desertion, and ill health and her years of fruitless searching in the realms of medicine, religion, natural science, and philosophy made her turn from all of them and through consecrated study of the Bible be ready and waiting when the revelation of the Comforter came.
The years that followed her remarkable healing from the effects of a fall were years of consistent and humble prayer and study, by which she secured for future generations the revelation of Truth vouchsafed to her. There was persistent opposition from the start. She taught that there was no reality in matter, and natural scientists scoffed at the idea. She taught that disease could be healed by prayer alone, and the medical faculty assailed her. She taught that God did not make evil and that He does not permit it in His universe. This teaching caused theologians to oppose her from the pulpit and in the press. But the world's resistance to Truth could not and did not daunt her. She must fulfill her mission.
