In 1866, Mrs. Eddy made a great spiritual discovery, which revealed the allness of God, or good, and exposed for all time the nothingness of evil. As the deep significance of this discovery, which she named Christian Science, dawned on her thought, she confirmed its beneficent power with proof after proof. She boldly challenged the validity of theories accumulated and honored for centuries by mankind, entrenched beliefs of medicine, physiology, and hygiene, as well as the inflexible and often merciless doctrines of scholastic theology.
This was a major event in the history of humanity's spiritual development, a discovery destined to break the bonds of wearisome speculation about human existence, its cause and purpose. The necessity of imparting this discovery placed Mrs. Eddy in the role of a leader. To those who followed her in the difficult early years of her teaching and practice of Christian Science we owe much gratitude, for without them the Christian Science movement would not exist as we know it today. The majority of them knew that they were not rallying around a magnetic and forceful personality but were enlisting to support the mission of one whose selfless search for the alleviation of human misery had led her to the revelation of the actual Science of being.
Loyal students of this Science are quick to acknowledge Mrs. Eddy's leadership. However, no acknowledgment of Mrs. Eddy as our beloved Leader, grateful and sincere as it may be, is sufficient unless we are truly following her teachings by striving to lift ourselves out of the material sense of things into the demonstration of life in God, Spirit.
