Early in the history of the Christian Science movement Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, stressed the necessity for a newspaper published and edited by Christian Scientists to counteract the evil influence of the unscrupulous press of that time. Not until Christian Science had encircled the globe and become a world movement did she found the last of the Christian Science periodicals, The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper. In the leading editorial of its first issue, Mrs. Eddy wrote that she had named all the Christian Science periodicals, and she explained (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353): "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." A few days prior to the publication of its first issue, Mrs. Eddy wrote as follows (ibid., pp. 352, 353): "My desire is that every Christian Scientist, and as many others as possible, subscribe for and read our daily newspaper."
Part of the work of a Christian Scientist is to correct his thinking on world affairs, and from the standpoint of this corrected thinking to go forth and heal mankind of its fears and false beliefs. Mrs. Eddy founded The Christian Science Monitor as an indispensable aid in this work, and it was to further her purpose of world salvation that she urged each of her followers to read the paper for which she set such a high standard.
Each issue of the Monitor contains enough reading matter to fill an average-size novel. The belief of some people that they should read all of this may keep them from even opening the wrapper. St. Paul, however, admonishes (I Cor. 14:40), "Let all things be done decently and in order." Order is basic to Christian Science, and therefore necessary to its demonstration. Order is found in the balance which is maintained throughout the paper, making the reading of it always helpful, restful, uplifting. But however orderly and attractive the Monitor may be, its readers will not obtain full benefits from it if their reading is not also orderly. This is not so much a question of time, as of regularity. Regular daily reading of the articles which interest us, and scanning of the headlines for any other item whose information may be helpful to us, will bring us rich blessings.
