Can we possibly imagine how she must have felt? It was the morning of the resurrection, when Mary Magdalene had come to Jesus' tomb and discovered that her Saviour was actually alive. He had not been destroyed. And she heard the clear angel message "He is not here: for he is risen ...." For Mary Magdalene and Jesus' other followers, many of whom had been crushed to despair by their Master's crucifixion, the reality of the risen Lord now restored their hope and offered a promise of new life for them as well.

The founder of the Christian Science Sentinel, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote extensively on the spiritual implications of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she explains: "Through all the disciples experienced, they became more spiritual and understood better what the Master had taught. His resurrection was also their resurrection. It helped them to raise themselves and others form spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities."

Infinite possibilities—isn't that what Jesus' life was always holding out to humanity? Those who were willing to follow the Master's example witnessed the effect of his teaching and healing work breaking through old of thinking that had suddenly become outmoded in the face of genuine spiritual purpose. Jesus' work was overturning every sort of limited expectation about life and forging a new direction that would ultimately change the course of human history.

In fact, each time someone was healed through the Christian power of divine Love, history was changed. No longer could material assumptions about reality be regarded in the same light as previous theories had advanced. If God, infinite Spirit, was in truth a present power, whose creation was governed by dependable laws, then man's essential goodness and wholeness could actually be demonstrated. And with the proof of healing, matter and evil couldn't possibly have the substance that human opinion had traditionally granted them. Christian healing and regeneration proved be spiritual. And for mankind, nothing could ever be as it had been. With the resurrection of Jesus all things were "become new."

The Apostle Paul had himself been so transformed by the power of Christ, Truth, resurrected in his own heart, that he would write those words recorded in the Bible which still sing through the centuries: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The promise of such newness infuses every aspect of human existence with the larger hope that our lives can and do have real meaning. That no matter who we have been or where we have been previously, there's a path before us with Christ that will make what we now do with our lives actually count for something. We can have a healing influence on our friends and neighbors, our communities, our world.

Such healing influence has long been a central purpose for this magazine as well. From its first date of publication in 1898 (known then as The Christian Science Weekly), the Sentinel has made every effort to offer spiritual encouragement, light, and a new vision of God's goodness and transforming power to its readers. And today, too, the Sentinel feels a renewed sense of its purpose, a renewed dedication and resolve to its original mission as explained by Mrs. Eddy, when she wrote of the magazine as "intended to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love ..." (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany).

You will have noticed that the Sentinel has a change in its masthead this week. The new Editors are committed to moving forward and continuing to provide Sentinel readers with practical spiritual insight that can make a meaningful difference in their lives and bring the healing touch of Christ.

Over the years, this magazine has honestly confronted the serious issues facing our society. We feel we have at least raised the hope that solutions can be found through prayer and an understanding of man's true relationship to God. The Sentinel has cast a searchlight on the significant large-scale problems, such as homelessness and poverty; racism; unemployment; child abuse; the health-care crisis; moral decay in society; strife in families and between nations; global pollution. And we have also addressed the more "personal" concerns in individual lives—hopelessness; fear; the sense of existing without direction or meaning; insecurity; grief; sickness; sin; and countless other daily challenges to human experience.

Our approach, however, has never been to magnify these issues but to try to bring them into perspective, to confront the challenges realistically, and then to search together for practical solutions in the light of Christian Science. From the beginning, the firsthand reports of healings at the back of the Sentinel have provided a cumulative record which, we feel, demonstrates—often modestly and sometimes dramatically—that the renewing power of prayer clearly continues to be effective in every arena of life.

At this Easter season, the Editors are particularly grateful for this renewing power of prayer. And we're grateful to you, our readers and all the contributors to these pages, for your part in supporting our efforts to bring the healing truth of God to mankind. We're convinced that the risen Christ, brought to the hearts of humanity, still has as much force as ever to heal and redeem—to fulfill the New Testament promise "Behold, all things are become new."

William E. Moody