"The word of God, not human views, should preach to humanity," Mary Baker Eddy once told Irving Tomlinson, a man of the Word. Tomlinson was educated at Akron University and Tufts College. While serving as a Universalist church pastor, he investigated Christian Science to learn if it was true that modern-day Christians were healing in the way Jesus had.
Tomlinson went on to become one of Mrs. Eddy's secretaries and served as First Reader in the church near her home in Concord, New Hampshire. Writing about her decision for an "impersonal pastor," Tomlinson asked: "But could this startling innovation, ordaining the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as the impersonal pastor, prove a success? Could a church replace an eloquent preacher with two Readers and still continue to grow and prosper? These questions disturbed many, including myself, who having but recently left the ranks of the clergy was accustomed to a personal preacher." Mrs. Eddy, he pointed out, "asked only: What is God's direction?" Tomlinson described the Christian Science weekly Bible Lessons as a "further step in the unfoldment of the impersonal pastor" and a "gift to the world."Irving C. Tomlinson, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, amplified edition (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1994), pp.183-184.
Tomlinson recalled that during his service on the Bible Lesson Committee, a member of the committee "expressed dissatisfaction that the subjects which Mrs. Eddy had provided for the Bible Lessons numbered only twenty-six." An additional list of 26 subjects was prepared and Tomlinson was asked to present them to Mrs. Eddy.
