Article August 31, 1899 Issue

Loyalty to Our Publications

BY WILLIAM R. RATHVON.

That every Christian Scientist has an obligation resting upon him to support stanchly the several publications issued by our Publishing Society, can hardly be questioned, though the performance of such duty may be overlooked by many. Those who receive the Sentinel and Journal can testify to their helpful ministrations in regularly bringing their tithes of varied experience, of encouragement and wisdom, of uplifting thought and faithful service, but none are more ready so to attest than those who live remote from the centers of population and in regions where Scientists are not numerous. To them no visitors are so welcome, none whose coming is so eagerly awaited, as these timely bearers of good cheer.

The remarkable growth of Christian Science has been promoted by various agencies, and if it were possible to compute the efficiency of each, our publications would be found high up on the list. In our enjoyment of them we are apt to overlook a most important feature of their mission; viz., their employment as a means of bringing Christian Science to the notice of those who know little or nothing about it. They are the silent missionaries of Truth, always ready to speak, yet never speaking unbidden. They gain a hearing when the spoken word would be rejected and they penetrate the strongholds of the foe, wherein a less impersonal exponent of the Truth could gain no entrance. A well-worn copy of the Sentinel or Journal is evidence that good work has been done somewhere; it is a token that seed—good seed—has been sown, and is an humble witness that good tidings have been borne to waiting hearts. We need not count that day lost which is marked by our sending the sturdy Sentinel or the time-tried Journal to some one of unbiased thought. There need be no fear of anything being so conveyed that is not Scientific, that needs to be apologized for. Or which does not wholly conform to the teachings of Science and Health. No taint of "false teaching" can mar those pages, nor can they be made the channel of selfish aims and motives. It should be a satisfaction to every Christian Scientist to know that whatever bears the imprint of the Christian Science Publishing Society needs no further guarantee of authenticity or reliability. The fact that the Mother has designated it as the mouthpiece of her communications to the Field should of itself impel us to loyal and unswerving support.

How best to manifest that support rests with each of us to determine for himself. Financial support by subscription, moral support by distribution, and scientific support by demonstration readily suggest themselves. A faithful performance of the last will make the first two easy.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The "State Papers" of Christian Science