Near the middle of the last century a missionary went to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. He made his home on the Isle of Aniwa. There he discovered that at certain seasons the rainfall was very light, and oftentimes there was much suffering among the natives for lack of water to drink.

He determined to dig a well. The natives said that he was insane, that water did not come from the earth, but from the sky. They refused to give him any aid. Alone, he set to work. Down through the soil and hard gravel the well was dug. Finally, the bottom of the hole became moist. He summoned the native chiefs about him, dug a little farther, and was rewarded with a flow of clear, fresh water. Never again has anyone had to go athirst on the Isle of Aniwa.

The incident illustrates the far reaching contribution made by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, to the human race. Her great thirst for the things of God led her to search for many years for the living water of spiritual Truth, the wellspring of reality provided by God for all men. Of the Master's work she has written, "He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 313). So it can be said of her. Patiently and persistently she dug beneath the material surface of thought and things and found the spiritual cause. On the surface of human consciousness she found the creed-limited thinking of orthodoxy, and the mystical theories of material medicine.

The surface things failed to satisfy. She found the orthodox beliefs of theology and medicine to be doubtful in their promises, and to fall short in their performance. Both averred that relief from physical ills must come more from matter than from God. Mrs. Eddy turned in a direction from which most men said little if any good could come in a practical way.

Her discovery in its fullness was not made in a moment, in a day, or in a year. Her healing in 1866, through reliance on God alone, was an important milestone on the way. Through it she reached the certain conclusion, after many years of searching, that Mind is the only cause, and that every effect is mental. She knew that her complete reliance on Spirit, God, had produced her healing of an injury which physicians were not able to heal. But what the law was, and the way of its application, she did not yet fully see.

With patient persistence she pursued her search. For three years she literally lived with the Bible. Of this vitally important period following her healing she writes: "I then withdrew from society about three years,—to ponder my mission, to search the Scriptures, to find the Science of Mind that should take the things of God and show them to the creature, and reveal the great curative Principle,—Deity" (Retrospection and Introspection, pp. 24, 25).

Many have been courageous when working and fighting with others for a cause they knew to be just. Not many have had the courage to turn in the opposite direction from the thinking of those about them, to search alone for the living waters hidden beneath the strata of hardened, darkened material thinking.

Aristotle gathered together much that is basic in human knowledge. Columbus discovered a continent. Edison discovered certain useful material forces. But Mrs. Eddy discovered the divine forces of God on which the life, health, and happiness of man depend, and by which his well-being is eternally assured. At first almost all opposed, or were indifferent to, her epoch-making discovery. Only a few welcomed it. Today her message is being pondered by multitudes. The impact of her discovery on human thought increasingly influences the teachings of theology, medicine, methods of education, and the lives of men and nations.

Mrs. Eddy did not evolve or invent Christian Science. She discovered it. Christian Science has always been. It is the one Science of being—God's Science. The prophets saw something of its basic truths and foretold its fuller appearing. The Master understood and proved it to the full. His promise of the later coming of another Comforter, which would lead men into all truth, Christian Science fulfills.

The greatness of Mrs. Eddy's work we only begin to realize. In human history it has no parallel. Her revelation of God's Word and law in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" explains the practical, usable truths of the Bible so that the child or adult can at any hour begin to prove the unity of God and man, and find his place in Truth's heaven. To open the highway of thought to God's kingdom, to prove that the Master's works were natural and now repeatable, to show God's constant and impartial love for every individual in every clime and race is the gift of this God-inspired benefactor of humanity.

Christian Scientists love their great Leader. Their love deepens as they understand more of her priceless gift to mankind. They have proved enough of the truths stated in Science and Health, seen enough allegedly incurable diseases cured, and wretched lives made joyful, so that they know that in this revelation of spiritual reality God has spoken. Mrs. Eddy heard and recorded for us all what eternal Mind is always saying to His children. She was Truth's scribe and revelator.

As Christianity can never be understood apart from the teachings of Christ Jesus, so Christian Science can never be understood apart from the teachings of Mrs. Eddy. The messages are inseparable from the messengers. Their messages, because they declare the allness of God, blend and are one. They are the two witnesses, enabled by their spiritual qualities of thought to proclaim to men, to prove to men, the omnipotence of God and the spiritual sonship of man.

In describing what he foresaw of the oncoming revelation of spiritual reality, Zechariah voices the question and gives the answer which is vitally important to every member of the human family. He writes: "What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? ... Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."

Paul Stark Seeley