Mrs. Eddy's followers believe that her discovery, in a manner, has repeated the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Ghost to man. She says:
This understanding is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost,—that influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecostal Day, and is now repeating its ancient history. . . .
In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.[1]
In Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy further says of her Science and her ministry:
Above the fogs of sense and storms of passion, Christian Science and its Art will rise triumphant; ignorance, envy, and hatred—earth's harmless thunder pluck not their heaven-born wings. Angels, with overtures, hold charge over both, and announce their principle and idea. . . .
No works similar to mine on Christian Science existed, prior to my discovery of this Science. Before the publication of my first work on this subject, a few manuscripts of mine were in circulation. The discovery and founding of Christian Science has cost more than thirty years of unremitting toil and unrest; but, comparing those with the joy of knowing that the sinner and the sick are helped upward, that time and eternity bear witness to this gift of God to the race, I am the debtor.
In 1895, I ordained the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Science Text-book, as the Pastor, on this planet, of all the churches of the Christian Science Denomination. This ordinance took effect the same year, and met with the universal approval and support of Christian Scientists. Whenever and wherever a church of Christian Science is established, its Pastor is the Bible and My Book.
In 1896, it goes without saying, preeminent over ignorance or envy, that Christian Science is founded by its discoverer, and built upon the Rock of Christ. The elements of earth beat in vain against the immortal parapets of this Science. Erect and eternal, it will go on with the ages, go down the dim posterns of time unharmed, and on every battlefield rise higher in the estimation of thinkers, and in the hearts of Christians.[2]
To Christian Scientists, therefore, Mrs. Eddy's discovery or revelation was a great turning-point in the history of the
