Editorial April 25, 1994 Issue

The Christian Science Sentinel—and prayers for our planet

Mary Metzner Trammell

A sentinel is a sort of checkpoint, standing watch over a fortification, scanning the horizon for the approach of friend or foe. For a friend, there's a salute and a welcome. For a foe, there's a clear signal to halt. And for an unknown, there's cautious and careful scrutiny—until it's clear just what the unknown is up to.

Mary Baker Eddy founded the Christian Science Sentinel to be a spiritual sentry, standing watch for its readers—and the whole world. The Sentinel's welcomes, its warnings, its careful scrutiny, are all directed toward the mental horizon. It's designed, in Mrs. Eddy's words, "to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353).

Why do we need this spiritual guardian? Because you and I—in fact, anyone who's trying to do what's right or beautiful or holy—are engaged in a kind of spiritual warfare. A warfare with something the Bible calls by various names—the "flesh," the "carnal mind," the "devil," and so on.

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