Bostonians sometimes talk about Christian Science as if it were a place. Many of them associate it with the architectural complex surrounding The Mother Church. If you ask for directions to Symphony Hall, for instance, someone may tell you to "go up Massachusetts Avenue till you come to Christian Science—and then turn left." And if you read an ad in the paper (as I did the other day) about a new restaurant that's "across from Christian Science," you know it's just across the avenue from the Church.
Of course, Christian Science isn't a place. It isn't confined to Boston or to the United States or even to planet Earth. The Science of Christianity is spiritual, universal. Its truth always has been, and always will be. It isn't just a denomination or a set of rules or a creed.
So what is Christian Science? You could say it is the laws of God— laws that are forever and everywhere. Mary Baker Eddy, whose book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures explains these divine laws, once described Christian Science as "God's right hand grasping the universe,—all time, space, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; constituting and governing all identity, individuality, law, and power." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 364
