The book I’ll never stop reading

Have you ever loved a book so much that as soon as you finished it, you started at the beginning again? “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, the textbook on Christian Science, is just such a book for me.

There are many statements in it that point readers to a clearer understanding of God’s unchanging love for all and our relationship to God – an understanding that brings healing.

Based on the Bible, especially the ministry of Christ Jesus, the explanations advanced in Science and Health were rigorously put to the test by its author before the book’s publication. When Mrs. Eddy began to apply what she had discovered from her study of the Scriptures, she experienced transformation and healing. And she realized she could successfully pray for and teach others, as well.

Putting her discovery and its application into a book enabled Mrs. Eddy to share this Science of Christ with others. She wrote, “You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture” (Science and Health, p. 547).

Indeed, anyone can turn to this book, along with the Bible, and pray with its inspiration and readily demonstrate the Science contained in its pages.

When my husband and I received the call that our daughter had gone into labor with her second child, we headed to the hospital to care for my oldest grandchild (then not quite two). Sitting in the waiting room, I began to feel unwell and wasn’t sure if I could fulfill my upcoming duties. When our son-in-law said it would be a little while before we’d be needed, I went to sit in the car and pray while my husband bought us some dinner.

In addition to reading through Science and Health consecutively on a regular basis, I often find needed inspiration by opening it at random. So I let my copy of the book fall open and saw a passage that I had read many times before, but that now held fresh meaning for me: “Hold perpetually this thought, – that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being” (p. 496).

I began considering, without letting other thoughts interrupt me, that the Christ – the divine Truth that empowered Jesus’ healing works – is present here and now, just as it was 2,000 years ago. Christ communicates spiritual ideas that enable us to prove that God’s healing goodness is always operating, always active, always right at hand. God is supreme good, and we are His spiritual offspring, always under His tender care. Yielding to this truth dissolves whatever seems to be opposed to it.

The divine Principle, Love – two other names for God – reliably provides us with the capacity to discern spiritual truths, understand their relevance, and accept and apply them.

As I prayed, an expanding sense of freedom emerged in my thought, and the pain, fear, and feelings of uselessness dissolved. By the time my husband got into the car with our dinner – he hadn’t even been gone 15 minutes – I was completely well. We ate and returned to the hospital, where my grandson was soon born. After a brief visit, my older grandson and I went to his home and had a lovely and active few days. The inspiration from that healing continued to energize me over the next couple of weeks as I supported this sweet family.

Science and Health is filled with passages, based on biblical teachings, that can meet our needs at any moment. This column and other Christian Science publications are filled with verified reports of healing that occurred through putting into practice the book’s timeless theme of God’s omnipotence.

Science and Health explains, referring to Christ Jesus, “Our Master said to every follower: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!... Heal the sick!... Love thy neighbor as thyself!’ It was this theology of Jesus which healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which heals the sick and causes the wicked to ‘forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts’” (pp. 138-139).

Reading the Bible along with the inspired explanations found in the textbook of Christian Science illumines Jesus’ teachings and their practical relevance today. It’s not something one ever gets to the end of. A deepening clarity of one leads to a fuller grasp of the other.

This is why I keep reading Science and Health.