The company of those who publish

Geraldine Schiering

Before a magazine is launched, the market is defined as well as the magazine's purpose. When Mrs. Eddy started the Christian Science Sentinel, she explained that its purpose was "to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353). On its cover are the words of Christ Jesus, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch" (Mark 13:37).

Periodicals from The Christian Science Publishing Society have a spiritual as well as a humanitarian mission. Although they are not commercial enterprises, financial stability is necessary to conduct the affairs of business. Magazines require both a subscription base and a general sale to the public in order to be successful.

Subscribers not only help themselves through the healing message in the magazine, but they also help the publisher carry out its mission. The word subscribe means to sign with one's own hand, or to set down one's name as a token of a promise to give something, such as money. Each individual who subscribes to these publications is underwriting the production of the periodical and the fulfilling of its mission.

Carved on the side of the building that houses The Christian Science Publishing Society is this inscription, taken from the Bible: "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it" (Ps. 68:11). Today, the individual who subscribes to the Sentinel, as well as other publications of the Publishing Society, joins with the editors, writers, and production staff to maintain the Sentinel's noble purpose. Each subscriber is an essential part of the company of those who publish the vital organs of this Church.

Geraldine Schiering
Atlanta, Georgia

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