ON October 19, 1961, a meeting will be held in the Extension of The Mother Church in the interest of the Christian Science Sentinel. Similar meetings will be held in all branch Churches of Christ, Scientist. This appears to be a suitable time for re-evaluating the Sentinel and for reconsidering the purpose which our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, designed for it.
Describing in the order of their publication the various periodicals she founded, Mrs. Eddy says, "The second I entitled Sentinel, intended to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353) The large number of messages to the Field which Mrs. Eddy published in the Sentinel shows to what extent she used this periodical in order to keep in touch with the Church members. At certain times they needed instruction or encouragement; at others they needed defense; at others perhaps correction. Carefully Mrs. Eddy guarded the revelation of God she had received. Her messages were eagerly awaited by those who honored her Leadership.
Today, through the articles contributed by members of The Mother Church, one may still find opportunity to honor Mrs. Eddy's Leadership, for every article includes citations from her writings suitably applied to the human problems and conditions of the times. Through these articles the continuing inspiration and unfoldment of Christian Science are recorded for the benefit of the world. And the testimonies, not necessarily submitted by Church members, give evidence that the Christ, Truth, has been revealed in its impersonal and universal aspect as Christian Science.
The world is changing rapidly under the impact of divine Science. The Sentinel interprets these changes and helps its readers maintain a steady attitude in the face of them. Changes taking place in science, theology, and medicine—the three measures of meal in which the woman of Jesus' parable metaphorically hid leaven—testify to the quickening effects of Truth upon human beliefs. In various fields of human knowledge workers are eagerly seeking the truth in particular frames of reference. Christian Scientists know that honest investigation will lead to increased enlightenment. But they also know that the divine Science of being alone holds the ultimate solution for all problems of investigation.
The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, provides answers to the questions of today's thinkers regarding God, Christ, man, prayer, and spiritual healing. It provides answers involving dominion over our material environment and reveals the true meaning of matter, cause, law, substance, space, time, and energy.
While the Sentinel constantly sets forth the truths that correct false beliefs, it does not necessarily do this in direct refutation of mistaken concepts. Many of the truths needed in this age are simply and directly stated in the Sentinel and left to do their own corrective work. Perhaps the seeker for truth does not realize that the very simplicity of the Science explained in the Sentinel is what he needs and should look for. Not complex knowledge of matter, but the Christly understanding of its temporal and shadowy nature will scientifically release mankind from bondage to matter and give them dominion over it.
The simplicity of the teachings of Christ Jesus confounded the learned men of his day. And the simplicity of the knowledge of reality published in the Sentinel may confound the learned men of this period. But the test of Truth is in its effects, and many reports of healing come from persons who have read the Sentinel and found in its issues the truths that have given them dominion over their environment.
The Sentinel, holding "guard over Truth, Life, and Love," protects and preserves from misrepresentation the scientific understanding of God, which has come to our times through Mrs. Eddy's discovery. The Sentinel guards against the inroads not only of ordinary worldliness but of false and distorted metaphysics that would try to confuse humanity.
The motto for the Sentinel which our Leader chose from the sayings of Jesus (Mark 13:37), "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch," to be studied in its Scriptural context in order to be understood in its full significance. In the thirteenth chapter of Mark is recorded the prophetical warning of the Master that a great upheaval of thought would come to the world. False Christs would appear, nation would rise against nation, earthquakes, famines, and sorrows would plague the race. Mortal minds would manifest disloyalty, betrayal, hatred.
In his prophecy Jesus said (verse 10), "The gospel must first be published among all nations." And he explained that the upheavals accompanying the spiritualization of human thought should be seen as signs indicating the coming of the Son of man, the appearing of the understanding of the Christ-idea in its full power.
Probably no trick of the carnal mind needs to be watched against more closely than that of its tempting Christian Scientists to become apathetic regarding the means of spiritualization and protection that our Leader provided: the publication of the gospel of Truth among the nations of the world.
Indifference to our God-given means of spiritualization in a materialistic and threatening age, when spirituality is our only refuge, is a serious mental state. A failure to appreciate the power of divine ideas would indicate a materialistic tendency that demands attention. Nothing is so important, so demanding today as willingness on the part of the Scientist to let the leaven of Truth work freely in his consciousness.
Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 329), "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." The Sentinel is doing its part to forward the leavening process. It is leading great numbers of readers to recognize God's allness, the perfection of His man, and the power of the law which holds them in inseparable unity. Appreciation of the Sentinel and its mission is one contribution we can make to the attaining of a society freed from the restraints and superstitions of a traditional, unscientific, materialistic past.
