When our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, started the Christian Science periodicals, she conferred upon the world a blessing of inestimable magnitude. From the most modest of beginnings they have grown to great proportions. While they are several in number, they are all one in the very definite purpose for which they were conceived. In Miscellany (p. 353) Mrs. Eddy speaks of them as follows: "I have given the name to all the Christian Science periodicals. The first was The Christian Science Journal, designed to put on record the divine Science of Truth; the second I entitled Sentinel, intended to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love; the third, Der Herold der Christian Science, to proclaim the universal activity and availability of Truth; the next I named Monitor, to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent. The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind." This purpose to protect and to proclaim Truth in a way to bless all is a sufficiently exalted ideal to win the world to the gospel these periodicals preach, and such was the mission Mrs. Eddy intended them to fulfill.
The Christian Science periodicals naturally fall into two classes: (1) the monthlies and the weekly; (2) the daily. The object of the Journal, Sentinel, and Heralds is easily understood. Every Christian Scientist has learned through his perusal of them that they are given him to strengthen his faith; to bring him encouragement and hope through the riches of demonstration expressed in the articles and testimonies; to keep him informed of the advancing demonstration of the movement of Christian Science as a whole; to maintain and increase unity among Christian Scientists themselves. They also serve as the medium of communication whereby The Christian Science Board of Directors may inform the field at large of any event of importance to Christian Scientists, as well as of any step which the field, individually or collectively, may need to take in the forward march of Truth.
These periodicals always encourage the seeker for Truth to a fuller investigation of the subject of Christian Science; and they also have the purpose of reaching out to the beginner in demonstration, pointing the way for him through examples done under each and every rule. They turn all—seekers, beginners, older students—to a most earnest, consecrated study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, where alone the perfect exposition of Christian Science may be found. Still further, they are intended to shed forth the spirit of the Christ, Truth, in the world, so that the kingdom of heaven shall be more quickly realized. Their aim is thus seen to be entirely Christian in its nature, and to testify in every issue that the faith of the Christian Scientist is based on a demonstrable understanding of the Scriptures and of the life and teachings of Christ Jesus.
