The Church of Christ, Scientist, exists for the healing and redemption of mankind. Its church services, Sunday School, Reading Rooms, its Publishing Society, issuing literature in many different languages, its Board of Lectureship, its Committees on Publication—all carry the message of the Christ, Truth, to the far corners of the earth. Each of these activities has its obvious and important place in the movement; each is a definite, indispensable part of the whole; each is inseparable from the others in purpose and fulfillment.
Christian Science is based upon the teachings and practice of Christ Jesus. It is the Science of Christianity, the Comforter promised by Jesus, "even the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17). Its mission is universal. "Go ye into all the world," the Saviour said, as recorded in Mark (16:15), "and preach the gospel to every creature." "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils" (Matt. 10:8) were further instructions of his.
With loving understanding of mankind's hunger for continuous testimony of the efficacy of Truth in human affairs Mary Baker Eddy, the great Leader of the Christian Science movement, established the Christian Science periodicals. These periodicals have sometimes been called missionaries of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As such they carry the message of spiritual healing "into all the world," even as Jesus commanded, blessing mankind everywhere.
The Christian Science Journal, issued monthly, the Christian Science Sentinel, issued weekly, and The Herald of Christian Science, published in nine different languages and in Braille, issued monthly or quarterly, all contain testimonies of Christian Science healing—testimonies illustrating the practical application of this Science to the needs of mankind and written by men and women in grateful acknowledgment of the healing of disease and pain, of sorrow, want, and sin.
Another of the periodicals is The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper. In these days, when that which happens on one side of the globe is known almost immediately on the other side, and when men may talk with men across great oceans and continents, may travel by land, sea, and air and stand face to face within incredibly short periods of time, there is need that the truth concerning human relations and events be accurately and impartially recorded in order that proper evaluation of such events may be possible. "The object of the Monitor " according to Mrs. Eddy (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353), "is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind." That it would literally go into all the world with its news and its message of practical, brotherly kindness and integrity and raise the standard of human thinking and living was her hope and confident expectation.
This business of men and nations living together seems to be a very complicated affair. Evil, under various names, seeks to hide itself behind lofty-sounding phrases, hypocritical protestations of progress and security, and arrogant claims of deific power. Mankind's acceptance of such claims as legitimate accounts for all the tragic problems of the day. The Monitor does not stand aloof from these problems; it faces them honestly and fearlessly, knowing that God alone governs men, nations, and events. No advertising contracts guide its editorial policy or bias its presentation of the news. As Christian Scientists see the Monitor as their Leader visioned it, as they lift it up in their consciousness, all men will be drawn unto it. Its purpose, however, is not a mere transcription of news: it is the presentation of this news for correction and healing. To uncover and destroy sin through the demonstration of Truth, thus awakening mankind from a false belief in the presence and power of evil to the glorious realization of the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, good, is the mission of all the Christian Science periodicals and of the Christian Science Cause as a whole.
What becomes of ignorance in the presence of knowledge? What becomes of error in the presence of Truth? They simply vanish as darkness before the light. They are not, because, in reality, they never were. The earth was never flat. When the proof of this was established, the concept of a flat earth and the belief in one vanished, even though for centuries countless numbers of men and women had accepted such a belief as true.
"The Church," Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583), "is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, therein casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick."
The Christian Science periodicals aid in making known "the demonstration of divine Science." They are messengers of hope and healing to all who are hungering and thirsting for good. They publish the glad tidings that the power of God is ever demonstrable to meet every human need and that no problem is so difficult, no burden so heavy, no pain so intolerable that the Christ, Truth, cannot heal it. They bear witness to the truth of God and man; they dispel the chaos and fear of mortal thinking with the radiant light of God's all-inclusive, perfect love and law; they lead thought to the fundamental facts of life as taught and demonstrated in God's holy Word, the Scriptures, and its precious companion, Science and Health, which is rightly called the key to the Scriptures. "Love opens the eyes of the blind, rebukes error, and casts it out," Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 210). The counterfeit of Love, which would ignore or gloss over error and its manifestations, is not really love at all, any more than misguided mother-love, which spoils and pampers a child, is the expression of true mother-love. The periodicals have no use for counterfeits or expedients. Guided and governed by divine Principle, these messengers of good are mighty spokesmen for Truth throughout the world.
The Scriptures say (Ezek. 21:27): "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." This overturning is not the destruction of people; it is the uncovering and destruction of error that leaves the individual inviolate, pure, and perfect. Destructive forces, no matter what their name or guise, are proved powerless by the realization of the presence of irresistible, indestructible, and omnipotent Truth.
Each department of the Church of Christ, Scientist, has its rightful place in the perfect whole of our Leader's revelation of demonstrable Christianity, and in the establishment and fulfillment of God's law of infinite good operating here and now for the healing and blessing of all nations and peoples.
