In the Preface of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard” (p. xi). For more than forty years following her discovery of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy devoted herself to the task of “plant[ing] and water[ing] His vineyard”—founding and establishing the activities and institutions necessary to spread her discovery and educate mankind about the healing power of divine Science. She founded an international church, a publishing society, an educational system, a network of Christian Science practitioners, a board of lectureship, and an international daily newspaper, to name some of them.
In 1908, she also established the office of the Christian Science nurse by inserting a new By-Law in the Manual of The Mother Church. It explains, “A member of The Mother Church who represents himself or herself as a Christian Science nurse shall be one who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in a sick room, and who can take proper care of the sick” (p. 49).
The Christian Science nurses saw that this discordant picture was an illusion of the material senses and not the truth of being.
