It is reasonable that the Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, would hold glorious views of her discovery. In fact, she valued it beyond every other body of concepts on earth. She writes of it in the most stirring, sometimes apocalyptic, terms, expressing convictions about it that are far beyond any set of man-made beliefs. To this woman, in her midlife years often standing alone in her views, Christian Science is “the acme of Science [and] the crown of Christianity” ( Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 252); “the pure evangelic truth” ( Retrospection and Introspection, p. 65); “the Science of God” (’00, p. 6); even “the Mind of God” (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 22).
She presented Christian Science as “the sovereign panacea” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 407) to human woe, and speaks of it boldly as one who knew so clearly what it is that she could not honestly utter otherwise: “It should seem rational that the only perfect religion is divine Science, Christianity as taught by our great Master; that which leaves the beaten path of human doctrines and is the truth of God, and of man and the universe” (Message to The Mother Church for 1900, p. 4). It is apparent that the theology of Christian Science was thought by its Discoverer to be the unique phenomenon of the age, the truth that was destined to transform the race. In fact, she stated of Science and Health, “The fact remains, that the textbook of Christian Science is transforming the universe” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 372). She saw it as the Comforter promised by the Master (see Science and Health, p. 55) and described it majestically as, “not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is 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).
Those who come to know Christian Science even in a degree the way its Founder knew it, love it with an uncommon devotion and an understandable fervor. They feel its majesty and might in the depths of their being, or at the depth of their spiritual awareness. Not out of arrogance, but out of what they feel is a simple integrity, many are convinced that it promises the most sacred universal redemption for the world. As a result, in many cases they pull themselves away from a common interest in things in the world to an uncommon absorption in this theology. They are transfixed by truth, and not mesmerized by any opposition to it. They allow what they discern as its unique holiness to uplift their sense of reality beyond any matter-based universe to discern God and His allness. They detect spiritual objects and persons in the very places where matter appears to dominate. It is as a spiritual telescope, seeing far beyond the apparent. And they commonly feel they are rewarded for their humble obedience in at least two ways: one is what they often refer to as a modest repetition of the sublime Christian healing the Master performed, in the broadest sense of that word, and the other even greater reward, is in what many describe as a precious closeness to God as universal good. More could be said, but perhaps this is enough to hint at the Discoverer’s awe in what she described as, “the greatest and holiest of all causes” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 177).
