Mary Baker Eddy speaks of Christian Science as being divinely revealed to her and as being historically discovered by her. Both designations are consistent, for they define the coincidence of the divine with the human, the reconciliation of revelation and reason, as it occurred in her religious experience. They stand for the inseparability of the individual and his/her ideal, as has always been the case in the line of revealed truth.
Just as the divine precepts of the Decalogue were revealed through the man Moses, through his conscious understanding of God's law, so the divine metaphysics that came to Mrs. Eddy necessarily came through her conscious human individuality. Her life experience, therefore, as the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science is inseparably linked to her immortal ideal.
That's why Mrs. Eddy's personal history—with its costly struggles and priceless achievements—can only be understood rightly through a comprehension of her writings. And that's why it's also true that her writings can't be fully understood without a right estimate of her life and its mission.
