WHEN, in November, 1908, Mrs. Eddy launched The Christian Science Monitor, she wrote of it as follows (Miscellany, p. 352): "My desire is that every Christian Scientist, and as many others as possible, subscribe for and read our daily newspaper." In the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 14) she wrote, "It shall be the privilege and duty of every member, who can afford it, to subscribe for the periodicals which are the organs of this Church; and it shall be the duty of the Directors to see that these periodicals are ably edited and kept abreast of the times."
The first of these quotations, dealing more particularly with the Monitor, contains at least five points to which we should do well to pay special attention. In the first place, it may be asked why it was our Leader's desire that her followers should take the Monitor. Her reason is made perfectly obvious in her own words on page 353 of Miscellany, words which also embody the motive of her life work. "The object of the Monitor," she there states, "is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind." It was natural that she should desire Christian Scientists, who were essentially dear to her, to receive their full share of the benefit she had conferred upon the world in the publication of a Christian Science newspaper—a benefit the enormous value of which possibly she alone at that time was fully able to estimate. In her writings, her references to the press indicate the tremendous importance which she attached to its influence upon the lives and morals of mankind. She was wide awake to the baneful effect of daily doses of mental poison administered through the columns of the average newspaper; hence her wish that her followers not only should receive more comprehensive, essential, and reliable news, but should have it with as little admixture as possible of what is hurtful and unnecessary.
The second point of importance is that Mrs. Eddy specified not merely Christian Scientists collectively, but "every Christian Scientist," and as she was deliberate in her choice of words, it is certain that she meant what she said and chose her words with due consideration of what they would signify to the field. The by-law just quoted shows her to have been mindful of the question of expense, as well as of the necessity for keeping "abreast of the times." We may be quite sure that every aspect of the subject received careful attention from her, from the point of view of her near and distant followers as well as from her own; therefore it would be of the greatest help to every Christian Scientist to consider how far he or she is being obedient to our Leader's wishes in this respect. Are the well-to-do resting content with the thought that one subscription for the Monitor is enough among several members of a family, and are some others altogether asleep to the opportunity which she has opened up to them, lulled into apathy on the subject by one or another of the threadbare suggestions projected by the enemies of Christian Science,—that the paper is out of date by the time they receive it, that it is in favor of something they may not happen to approve of, or that they are unable to afford it? A brief glance at the columns of the Monitor will show that the greater part of its contents is not spoiled by keeping a few days or even weeks after publication, and that much of it may be profitably read at any time, although this should not be construed as an excuse for tardiness in sending in the paper for distribution.
