Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/106

72 their position is this: that Mrs. Eddy obtained the radical principle of her Science,—the cure of disease by the power of Divine mind,—from Quimby; that she left Portland with manuscripts which formed the basis of her book, Science and Health; that she publicly figured for several years after Quimby's death as the teacher and practitioner of his system; that she had, herself, before 1875, repeatedly acknowledged her obligations to him; and that since the publication of the first edition of Science and Health, in her determined efforts to disprove this obligation, she has not hesitated to bring discredit upon her former teacher. They do not maintain that Quimby is, in any sense, the founder of the present Christian Science organisation; they do declare, however, that had Mrs. Eddy never visited Quimby, never listened to his ideas or studied his writings, such an organisation would probably not now exist. On the other hand, Christian Scientists repudiate any suggestion that Mrs. Eddy, or their ecclesiastical establishment, is in the slightest degree indebted to the Portland healer.

Christian Scientists believe that Mrs. Eddy received the truths of Christian Science as a direct revelation from God. She came to fulfil and to complete the mission of Jesus Christ. Jesus, that is, possessed only partial wisdom. "Our Master healed the sick," she writes in Science and Health, ". . . and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to his students; but he left no definite rule for demonstrating his Principle of healing and preventing disease. This remained to be discovered through Christian Science." "Jesus' wisdom ofttimes was shown by His forbearing to speak," she writes, "as well as by His