The centennial of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, is a milestone in the history of Christian Science, transcending denominational significance. This book has brought to human lives throughout the world deeper insight into man's potential, his true spiritual nature, as the beloved expression of the infinitely loving, ever-present, and all-powerful Father-Mother God.
Mrs. Eddy offered the Christian Science textbook to receptive hearts of all persuasions and races everywhere. What the book sets forth is not a personal philosophy, but the revelation of the Science of Christ, which all may demonstrate in the degree it is spiritually understood. Speaking as it does with divine authority, it makes demands on the reader. It calls for a degree of receptivity and humility, and a willingness to devote deep and prayerful study to things of Spirit. It does not offer entertainment, mere intellectual exercise, or support for complacency, but the promise of regeneration and transformation of human lives, and the redirecting of thought and action into more Christly channels.
"To those leaning on the sustaining infinite," Mrs. Eddy writes in the opening lines of the Preface, "to-day is big with blessings." And such has been the case. From this book has come forth a religious teaching relying consistently on spiritual means alone for healing and established on a worldwide basis. The promises of the Bible, including the healing example of Christ Jesus, have been demonstrated as vibrant reality in the lives of its adherents, and the power of God as more than adequate to cope effectively with today's demands. Over the years, thousands who have yielded to the divine law that underlies these teachings have had burdens of grief, sin, and spiritual impoverishment lifted from them, and physical soundness restored. Lives have been dedicated to growth in spiritual understanding, and to its natural and inevitable overflow of healing ministry to others.
