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Science and Christian Healing.
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51
As far as can be determined, Mary Baker Eddy never formulated a specific name for it, though it emerges as a foundation for much of what she has achieved. The closest terminology that one might apply as a comprehensive descriptor, may be "the Science of divine metaphysics." She used the phrase "divine metaphysics" on some occasions. She also reserved another phrase for even more rare requirements, which is the phrase "Divine Science" with both words capitalized. She used this phrase only twice in all of her writings. One such use is in connection with Christ Jesus' promise of a new Comforter that would stay with mankind forever. She wrote: "This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science."*(Science and Health 55:29)
There is no place in her writings in which she mentions the outlined structure directly. The only hint that something significant exists beneath the surface, is given through the dual use of that biblical reference that speaks of a key of David: "...he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth."*(Revelation 3:7)
The prophet Isaiah once used language like that: "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."*(Isaiah 22:22) Perhaps Isaiah was pointing to the far off Messiah, to the Christ, the implicit aspect of divine Science which was presented to humanity by Jesus of Nazareth.
After Jesus' days, the Apostle John picked up the text again and gave it a more universal relevancy in his book of Revelation, adding these words to Isaiah's text: "Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it."*(Revelation 3:8)
A structure for development towards infinity.
The science that is attached to the structure that Mary Baker Eddy has pointed to, that she thus identifies with the phrase "Key of David" is evidently universal in its application, nor is it given in fully developed and completed form, so that the development work must be done individually and continuously throughout all ages. Without a completed structure on hand, the horizon remains open for a development in Science that is structured, but is open to the infinite to take mankind far beyond even Mary Baker Eddy's own field of vision. Had she presented the structure in completed form, finished and finite, she would have closed the door to any further development. Instead, she has merely outlined the structure that is to be built, although this extensively in its fundamental architecture with many precise details provided and in a manner that is coupled with an apparent demand that the structure outlined is to be built individually, by which work its higher dimensions will be defined.
What she has provided in this manner is a scientific structure that is not limited by what she herself has achieved. It has been given an open architecture that furnishes an interface for infinite development for all times to come. The structure that she has outlined, therefore, provides never a doctrine, which is impossible in an open structure, but a framework for discovery. What she provides is not a form or formula, but an incentive to search deeply, scientifically, honestly, and to translate the fundamental principles discovered into structures for the advance of civilization.
One could call what unfolds from it, the Science of divine metaphysics, for this is what its end result will ultimately be. Its healing will be the healing of man. Its thrust will be for the ascend of man and the advance of civilization. One thing is certain, seeing that its roots go back to the early stages of mankind's spiritual awareness, its manifest cannot be narrowly religious in nature or selective in its benefit for humanity, but must supersede all structurally confined religious systems, even those that were founded by the very creator of the structure that opens up the door to universal infinity, or reality, and have an universal impact in raising the status of humanity.
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