Article December 1, 1997 Issue

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SENTINEL

1898—A Hundred Years of Watching and Holding Guard—1998

The Editors

As the 1930s drew to a close, the planet watched the first events of World War II. Groups in several countries around the world began distributing copies of the Christian Science Sentinel to service personnel. This continued through the war and even after it ended in 1945. The literature distribution subcommittee in London alone gave out over 250,000 copies.

One British serviceman wrote, "I am stationed with the Fourteenth Army in Burma. The other day in the jungle I came across a copy of the Christian Science Sentinel. I read it from cover to cover, and was most interested in it. I have never read anything which was so sincere and simple to understand" (The Story of Christian Science Wartime Activities 1939–1946, Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1947, p. 364).

After almost forty-four years of appearing in a broadsheet size, the Sentinel was transformed into a 7½" by 5 3/8" digest size in 1942. The Sentinel was more portable for service personnel, and although its appearance was quite different, its content remained true to its original mission, "to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love" (Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353).

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