A glance through Science and Health will show that this book includes many quotations from the Bible. A deeper study of it will reveal that there is hardly a page without some scriptural reference, even though an actual quotation may not be mentioned. But a thorough examination of Mrs. Eddy's use of Bible verses in this book must convince the student that quotations are not merely inserted in the text to corroborate her theories, or to add weight to her arguments, but that their underlying spiritual meaning is the actual substance of her message, and that a purpose of the whole book is to bring out this divine idea, or Science of Christ.
Mrs. Eddy writes: "The truths of Christian Science are not interpolations of the Scriptures, but the spiritual interpretations thereof. Science is the prism of Truth, which divides its rays and brings out the hues of Deity." Retrospection and Introspection, p. 35; A sincere reader of her book, the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, must find it aptly named, because it will inevitably open up to him the deeper meaning of the Bible stories and teachings. It becomes to him a key to their significance as practical guides and healers in the modern world.
But Science and Health does not undertake to interpret individually every book, chapter, and verse of both the Old and New Testaments. It deals in considerable detail and depth with a few passages, and also provides a glossary of more than a hundred biblical terms, giving their metaphysical meaning so that, by substituting the spiritual meaning for the material, Bible statements are illumined and their deeper significance made plain. This serves as a useful guide to a reader who wishes to dig out for himself the spiritual interpretation of other sections that are not examined in depth in the textbook.
