Let us suppose that a schoolteacher finds herself in a backward community among sadly ignorant people. Without doubt she will be able in time, by example and precept, to banish some of the prevalent mental darkness. It is also reasonable to suppose that after a while many of her beneficiaries will manifest great love for her and gratitude for her labors. What would be difficult to picture would be another group refusing to study with her, advancing as their reason the notion that her students expressed too much love for and appreciation of the teacher!

Strangely enough this very argument is raised, again and again, by many people who sadly need the joyous, health-bringing message of Christian Science. The stock objections are that Christian Scientists give undue praise to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and that her name is mentioned too frequently at the Sunday services and with too much affection at the Wednesday meetings in our churches. Some unfortunately biased individuals even recur to the antiquated cavil that Christian Scientists worship their Leader. Let us examine, fairly and dispassionately, these stumbling blocks which ignorant or malicious mortal mind would place in the path of the seeker after a demonstrable truth.

When I first became interested in Christian Science, I announced to a friend that I was eager to attend a church service of this denomination. The friend replied that she was a Christian Scientist, but was not a follower of Mrs. Eddy. I did not know what she meant by that, but accepted her invitation to attend a meeting with her. We went to a house where were gathered a few earnest people. During the meeting I listened expectantly for some message about Christian Science, but did not hear the name mentioned. Shortly thereafter I recounted this experience in a letter to my mother, and stated that very evidently Christian Science did not have much of a following in this city. Promptly came a reply from my mother. She had heard of a thriving Christian Science church in that field, and felt that I had not been rightly led.

She asked me if I had heard readings from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I replied that I had not. Back came this sound counsel: "Until you hear a Reader announce that his church or society is a branch of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, and that he will read from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, you have not found genuine Christian Science." Since that moment, whenever I hear Mrs. Eddy's name announced in a Christian Science church. I experience the sense of satisfaction one has when he finds stamped upon a piece of silver the hallmark of sterling.

As for the claim that Mrs. Eddy's followers entertain for their Leader an attitude of thought bordering on idolatry, the suggestion is absolutely without foundation in fact. Read this clear, definite pronouncement from Mrs. Eddy's pen (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 308): "Whosoever looks to me personally for his health or holiness, mistakes. He that by reason of human love or hatred or any other cause clings to my material personality, greatly errs, stops his own progress, and loses the path to health, happiness, and heaven. The Scriptures and Christian Science reveal 'the way,' and personal revelators will take their proper place in history, but will not be deified."

Here Mrs. Eddy uses a term which reveals her true status—that is, a revelator. She never claimed that Christian Science was a so-called brain child of hers. She discovered, or brought to light, this spiritual truth. Through a lifetime of prayer and earnest seeking for the healing light of the Christ, she became not only the Discoverer, but also the revelator of the Christ, Truth, to this age. In her great work we see the fulfillment of a prophecy of Jeremiah: "The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man." A dictionary definition of "compass" is "to grasp with the mind." Truly has the pure, spiritualized thought of this Christian woman compassed—grasped with the mind—the sublime truth about God and the real man, the truth for which the thinkers of all time have sought—the truth that makes free.

In the twelfth chapter of Revelation we also find this figure of speech—a woman "clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet," who "brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations." In Science and Health (p. 561), among several arresting statements, Mrs. Eddy gives this interpretation of the reference just quoted: "The Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love. To John, 'the bride' and 'the Lamb' represented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth."

What a Soul-illumined, stupendous thought! After all these centuries of varying mystical interpretations, Mrs. Eddy has explained, with crystal clarity, the woman in the Apocalypse; and they who have glimpsed this truth, this "correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea" which is the "woman clothed with the sun," and in this spiritual illumination have seen the darkness of some sin or sickness dispelled—these are they who know that the one who revealed this healing idea must have consciously walked and talked with God.

Understanding the revelator, one can understand the revelation. Should it be a matter of wonderment that a multitude of enlightened, uplifted men, women, and children are thanking God for the Science of Christianity and for its spiritually-minded Discoverer?

John Randall Dunn