Mary Baker Eddy describes how she felt after being healed of life-threatening injuries from a fall on the ice: “Being was beautiful, its substance, cause, and currents were God and His idea. I had touched the hem of Christian Science” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 23).
This experience was a game changer, for it changed her life and consequently the lives of countless others from that time forward. She had been seeking a better understanding of God and of how Jesus healed, and by God’s good grace and the receptivity in her heart, she had caught a substantial glimpse of God’s presence and power.
This emergence into light redeemed, restored, and resurrected her experience in such a profound way that we are still blessed by it today. “Being [is] beautiful,” and those who are seeking a higher power and healing through the teachings of Christian Science will also find that “its substance, cause, and currents [are] God and His idea.” We too can emerge from darkness into light.
Today, our love for God and man is moving us forward into new areas, new channels.
In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes: “A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms” (p. 128). The ever-accelerating pace of new technologies is increasingly mirroring the immediacy and infinitude of spiritual action.
For example, new instant communications on tablets, phones, watches, computers—today’s digital tools—are reaching and will continue to reach spiritual seekers yearning for the message of the Comforter, Christian Science. Many are finding that message online. These tools need not be our masters but our servants. They can support in-person church activities, though it’s important to note that they cannot replace them.
Getting into the digital community doesn’t need to be much different from any other church activity if we think of it in terms of “extend[ing] the atmosphere of thought.” It’s simply another way of sharing that which is most precious: the “pearl of great price” that cannot be buried or remain out of sight.
What truly matters is the motive that lies behind the activity. That motive is love. Without love, there is no real substance behind any church activity. Jesus said: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). If we begin with the motive of reflecting God, Love, the “added things” may include more people coming into Reading Rooms, finding and reading Science and Health, and attending church services and lectures.
Divine Love will always find a way to reach the receptive heart, and we may find expected good in unexpected places. If Love is irresistible to us, it will be irresistible to others, too. If we see divine Love as active and attractive, others will, too; for when we welcome Love, we will have a willingness to share the love and gratitude that is in our hearts.
According to Irving C. Tomlinson, an early worker, “Mrs. Eddy admonished a student never to forget to be grateful for the privilege of talking Christian Science to someone. Then she went on to say that when she was in Lynn in the early days, she wanted so much to talk to someone who would listen on the subject of Christian Science. She heard of one who lived five miles away. She walked there to find the woman so bitter against Christian Science that she shut the door in her face, so she walked the five miles back” (Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, Amplified Edition, pp. 41–42). She knew humiliation and rejection but it did not faze her. She just kept on going.
When we share Christian Science, we are following Christ Jesus’ instruction to go “into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Now as never before, the community is global, reaching every corner of the planet. Today, our love for God and man is moving us forward into new areas, new channels, new challenges—but it’s the same message. Its substance, cause, and currents are beautiful and they are timeless.
It’s important to note that we reach the spiritually hungry through our hearts as well as our heads. Love and Mind are both synonyms for God, and divine Mind and its intelligence is operating everywhere, just as Love and its compassion and affection are. It is Christ, the true idea of God, that calls the hungry heart—and feeds it. It is Christ, still on the scene, drawing and attracting the receptive thought. The Christ is being expressed in the community continuously, so don’t be surprised at the wonderful things you might find when you share Christian Science.
Let’s not forget that Christ, Truth, is the light of the world and is with us every moment, everywhere. It is with us in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, in Christian Science Reading Rooms, and in our church services. The light of Truth is shining, enlightening, and inspiring. Before that light, the dark shadows of dullness, resistance, apathy, fear, are washed away.
Mrs. Eddy saw well over a hundred years ago that once the seed of Christian Science was sown, it would spread. She wrote, “The fact remains, that the textbook of Christian Science is transforming the universe” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 372). When our hearts are full of love and compassion for our fellow man, Life, Truth, and Love provide the means of spreading that seed and good news. It will find the receptive heart and bring forth fruit, in God’s own way and in God’s own time.
