I RECALL THE FIRST TIME I WENT HORSEBACK RIDING. The runs were exciting and unsettling. I had to really hold on. This is something I could also say about my spiritual journey. The ride from a materiality-based to a spirituality-based approach to life can be stirring, and it's good to hang on tight.
I think of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, as someone who understood this. She recognized that thought determines one's experience and that well-being can be maintained only as a result of embracing one's spirituality and understanding the spiritual journey. She also recognized that throughout this inevitable spiritual journey, humanity needs help maintaining awareness of all this—needs help to hang on.
Mrs. Eddy's recognition of humanity's need probably relates closely to why she wrote her textbook on spiritual healing, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and, among other things, why she established a Church and wrote its Church Manual. She explained that the contents of this Manual of The Mother Church Manual. "a help that must be supplied to maintain the dignity and defense of our Cause ...." Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 148. Certainly this Cause—Christian Science—is worth defending because it relates so intimately to life's spiritual journey.
