Monthly on the cover of The Christian Science Journal Mary Baker Eddy is named as author of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." To many Mrs. Eddy is known as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, the beloved Leader and organizer of an active religious movement. But to many others she is first an author, and specifically the author of Science and Health.
The latter have reason so to think of her. In a moment of emptiness or grief, of physical despair or moral vertigo, they have come upon this book and read it. Grief has lifted; frustration has made way for new purpose; moral balance has been regained; disease, sometimes inveterate, organic, medically judged incurable, has been healed completely and permanently.
This healing virtue found in Science and Health is basic to all of Mrs. Eddy's writings on Christian Science. Any evaluation of her as author must give it full weight. Science and Health first appeared in 1875. Since 1902 all its editions have included one hundred pages of testimonies from men and women right across the United States, in the provinces of Canada, and in the United Kingdom; these, selected from many thousands available, tell of lives transformed by the reading of Science and Health. The various Christian Science periodicals too from their earliest issues have carried similar testimonies; they still carry such from all around the globe. The written word from Mrs. Eddy's pen expounds, challenges, and persuades. It also heals. It changes phenomena. It exercises power.
