Structures of Divine Science 

In 1866, while living in Lynn, Mass., Mrs. Eddy met with a severe accident, and her case was pronounced hopeless by the physicians. There came a Sunday morning when her pastor came to bid her goodby before proceeding to his morning service, as there was no probability that she would be alive at its close. During this time she suddenly became aware of a divine illumination and ministration. She requested those with her to withdraw, and reluctantly they did so, believing her delirious. Soon, to their bewilderment and fright, she walked into the adjoining room, "and they thought I had died, and that it was my apparition," she said. 

She wrote about this incidence: *2

(Light shining in darkness)
When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth, - called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, - is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit.

She wrote about this discovery: *3

(Christian Science discovered)
In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.

She was also dealing with another concept, which she named Divine Science, and linked to the promise that Christ Jesus made about a new comforter. She wrote about this: *4

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.

She used the term Divine Science in its fully capitalized version rarely, one of these rare occasions is the following: *5

The leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, is Divine Science; the Comforter; the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the "still, small voice" that breathes His presence and power, casting out error and healing the sick. 

Mary Baker Eddy also made extensive references to the biblical narrative of the city foursquare from Revelation 21, in her textbook on Christian Science that she published in 1875. In these references she speaks of four cardinal points and four sides to define that foursquare structure of sixteen elements in terms of horizontal relationships and developmental columns. (see illustrations)

And she did much more than that. She designed all of the major works that she created in structural conformity with this city foursquare matrix that the Apostle John had described as descending from God out of heaven as the end phase of his vision of the end all evil through scientific and spiritual development.

The most basic elements of this interrelationship brings her most elemental works into this context. These include: The textbook on Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; her illustrated poem, Christ and Christmas, that contains the metaphor for the foursquare structure; and the stanzas of the Lord's Prayer with her addition of its spiritual sense. In their interrelationship, these three elements, all by themselves richly enhance one another, and much more so when this interrelationship is brought into the context of the formalized daily Bible Lessons that she has instituted.

It is interesting to note that Mary Baker Eddy deals with two fundamental types of science. One she terms Christian Science, which she defines as an absolute statement; the "final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing." The other type she terms Divine Science, which she calls the Comforter that brings un into all truth; evidently referring to her structural science for spiritual and scientific development; a science designed for discovery and individual growth. Evidently, her structural interrelationship of all of her works with the Apostle John's city foursquare, is Divine Science, s structural science which John presents as the end phase of his prophesy of the end of all evil.

It is interesting to note in this context that she presents in metaphor a tablet that is divided into to two halves, which splits the foursquare matrix into two. A closer analysis indicates that this is indeed what she has done, because the first two columns represent the absolute concepts (referring to Christian Science), while the last two columns represent the unfolding of the absolute in human thought (referring to Divine Science). 

It is also interesting to note that Mary Baker Eddy never officially published any formal work on the interrelationship of the vast structures that she was dealing with. It is as if she hid it "in three measures of meal," as she referred to herself (see above). Indeed, she had to do this, because all scientific and spiritual development results from discovery, from asking questions, from searching for answers, from creating and resolving paradoxes, from applying the Platonic method of searching for the truth. That is, what she provided for in rich measures. She created a framework for discovery, for scientific and spiritual development, perhaps the greatest ever created. The details and the complexity of this structure is so vast that it took a 400 page research book to document the outlined structures that has created. It is indeed a city that opens up to infinity. But it is also profound in nature, so that nothing more than just the most rudimental parts of it, as outlined above, are sufficient for healing.