Editorial November 27, 1948 Issue

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Helen Wood Bauman

On Thanksgiving eve, forty years ago, the first issue of The Christian Science Monitor came from the press. This was a momentous occasion, for it evidenced God's love, His mercy, and His justice, embracing and blessing all. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, had seen for a number of years that a daily newspaper was needed to report accurately the news from the standpoint of the truths of being which Christian Science reveals and to challenge the materialism of the age. She stated her purpose in founding the Monitor in the leading editorial of its first issue, where she said (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353), "The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."

Mrs. Eddy's intention that the Monitor should heal and unify mankind is the inspiration of its policies today, and its Christianizing influence is increasingly felt. The Monitor illustrates the moral force of righteousness, It reflects Truth by practicing truthfulness and justice, and Love by its mercy and helpfulness. It exposes evil fearlessly, for its policies are based upon the teaching of Christian Science that error is unreal, nothing, because underived from God. Its progress rests upon the vitality of the good it embodies. To every unbiased reader it stands for integrity, reliability, courage, accuracy, humanity—spiritual and moral elements which multiply with use, for they have their source in divine Principle, God.

After four decades of fulfillment of our Leader's purpose, one looks back upon her address given in Chicago twenty years before the Monitor was launched and finds prophetic words which hint the tender hope in her heart awaiting future unfoldment. Here she said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 100): "The spiritual monitor understood is coincidence of the divine with the human, the acme of Christian Science. Pure humanity, friendship, home, the interchange of love, bring to earth a foretaste of heaven. They unite terrestrial and celestial joys, and crown them with blessings infinite."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The Glad Tidings of Membership