ITEMS OF INTEREST December 25, 2006 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

with contributions from Lisa Miller, Ross Douthat, Debbie Glasser

Occasionally, readers ask why a particular subject was covered on these pages. "Items of Interest" actually restored, in a new form, a feature of this magazine that Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy included in its earliest issues, from 1898 forward. During those pioneering years, the periodical's first page (sometimes first two or three pages) was devoted to "hard news" items culled from national and overseas news sources. The items' subjects ranged from war and diplomacy, to business, agriculture, and trade, to scientific subjects such as a full-page report on the discovery of the "Roentgen Ray" (X-rays) in the April 6, issue.

These republished items also included "exchanges"—denominational news drawn from magazines published by other churches. Even after Mrs. Eddy launched The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, the Sentinel's news item pages continued to be published for several years, well into the second decade of the 20th century.

In restoring "Items" to the Sentinel, our desire was to alert readers to developments of interest to anyone who might want to apply the spiritual insights found in the magazine's other pages to praying about specific issues of national and international import. We will continue to focus on reports showing how the fields of science, theology, and medicine are being leavened by Mrs. Eddy's 1866 discovery and the revival of Christian healing that her discovery launched.

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