St. James tells us that patience must have her perfect work. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, waited twenty-five years for the fullness of time in which to bring forth her cherished ideal of a newspaper; a newspaper which should illustrate the coincidence of the human with the divine, and show the practicability of Jesus' prayer, "Thy kingdom come . . . in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).
Is it not marvelous, considering the importance of the role The Christian Science Monitor has had to play in the evangelization of the race, that our Leader had to possess her soul in patience while the time ripened and all things converged upon the birth of this babe in her spiritual travail! By many a word and act she emphasized her sense of the great importance of the part this member of the fourth estate must play. The world is witnessing the fulfillment of the Psalmist's words, which are on the facade of the Christian Science Publishing House (Ps. 68:11), "The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it." Hear the imperative words of Christ Jesus (Mark 13:10), "And the gospel must first be published among all nations." This is why The Christian Science Monitor had to be an international newspaper.
Christian Science is the universal religion, and as such it has its place in the establishment and maintenance of world peace. Christian Science meets the heart's great need, and without hearts at peace there can never be world tranquillity. Can we not, then, begin to grasp why our Leader set such store by the founding of The Christian Science Monitor? Can we not see the consonance of her great conception with Jesus' injunction (Matt. 24: 14), "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations"?
Let us consider how the Monitor preaches the gospel. Additional to the daily religious article, every page, every department of the paper, is in accord with the teaching of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where the author, Mrs. Eddy, writes (p. 486), "Earth's preparatory school must be improved to the utmost." Because progress is the mandate of Mind, it is as mandatory upon the individual Christian Scientist, as upon the editors, to keep the Monitor abreast of the times.
We cannot evade or ignore a mandate of Mind. Our great missionary to the world is a missionary to each of us. Christian Science has given us a comprehensive sense of God through the prominent synonyms of Deity and has thereby opened our thought to a progressive knowledge of God and His creation. Thus we can come to know God increasingly and illimitably, not merely by the synonyms, but by the expression of the synonyms in their qualities.
The Monitor daily interprets, analyzes, and chronicles the world's events, both those that are current and those of the past that are timeless in meaning. Each Christian Scientist can progressively decimate the evil and intensify the good by dividing between what is evil and subject to denial, to reversal, and to replacement, and what is good, what is spiritual reality.
The Monitor daily fulfills its mission and ministry to the world and to each of us. To illustrate, let us take the synonym Soul and see how through the attributes of Soul the Monitor preaches the gospel. The qualities of Soul are as important to news as those of Principle, Truth, Love, Life, Spirit, and Mind, whether the news glorifies God or calls for correction of error. It is good to detect evil and replace it with eternal truth. Every phase of human life needs to be seen as consonant with each synonym of God or else needs to be reversed and replaced with the true ideas of God. The Monitor stands for, and each Christian Scientist should stand for, the triumph of Truth over error and the ultimate monopoly of good.
Now what departments of the Monitor are particularly devoted to Soul and its likeness? According to Science and Health a basic quality of Soul is radiance. Radiance is of course the dissemination of rays. Rays of what? Surely Soul's rays are those of the eternal harmonies. The most casual reading of the Monitor reveals this radiance in the departments of music, of art, of letters, of science. Indeed every page fairly scintillates with the qualities of Soul.
The Soul qualities which our paper so faithfully radiates are vital in setting the high standard of excellence so widely recognized and acclaimed by discerning journalists who voted The Christian Science Monitor among the three greatest newspapers in the United States. These qualities should be as readily recognized by every Christian Scientist, recognized and demanded.
Science and Health tells us (p. 60), "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul." Is it not wise for us to turn to our Monitor for aid and guidance in our search for happiness and security in Soul? The very human need that has brought most of us into Christian Science—health—is a quality of Soul. The qualities of God, good qualities, are freely the gift of God. They are obtainable and cultivable. They need only to be sought to be found and to bring infinite blessings.
Only the mesmeric, sleep-inducing workings of mortal mind would produce an apathetic attitude in any individual that has experienced the healing power of Christian Science. The blessing of health restored by Soul is but one of Soul's infinite resources. Equally open to one for the seeking are all the other contributories to the satisfaction everyone desires and seeks.
The search for satisfaction in the ways of mortal mind and matter is disappointing and vain. There is journey's end for everyone who seeks to be satisfied and to realize in a measure the potentialities of the expression of Soul. The Master demonstrated his understanding of divine Science. He did not exhaust its applicability to human needs.
The history of the human race is the story of cultures. The progress of mankind is recorded in its geological and archeological discoveries as well as in history. It is the story of the cultivation of individual thought and energy. Each of us should realize the incumbency upon him of that demand for culture. Each needs the cultivation of the qualities of Soul in his own life, in a progressive appreciation of art, of music, of letters, of science.
Each aspect of Soul belongs rightly to man. The Christian Science Monitor gives us daily the opportunity to love and, if need be, to learn to love the beauty, the dignity, the freshness, the bliss, the peace, the tranquillity, the mounting joy and happiness of Soul's expression. The Monitor offers courses in every proper department of education, a veritable university extension, a liberal education.
There is no essential difference between opportunity and responsibility. It is our duty to respond to our opportunities. A right sense of self-interest impels the seizure of opportunity. Let each ask and answer himself: What am I going to do to keep pace with the Monitor's forward motion? After all, it is my Monitor, and I must keep up with what belongs to me.
Let each one say to himself: If I am not alive to world events, I will awaken. If I do not love music, I will learn to love it. If I do not now appreciate good literature, I can acquire that good taste. I will broaden my appreciation of the Monitor's world evangelism. Let us read it for the news of the day, read it for daily cultural advancement, read it for daily education in earth's preparatory school, read it for metaphysical analysis and import of the news. Let us subscribe, read, support. Let us realize why our Leader rated the Monitor so high among her great works. Let us lend our enthusiasm to its mission and ministry and give to the Monitor the substance of our spiritual consciousness. Let each be an action factor in its destiny and grasp the potential of the Monitor for betterment in the world and therefore in each life.
Then let us agree to enter into the closet of individual secret prayer, prayer for enthusiasm, wisdom, and effort. Let us seek to enlarge and increase our understanding of the spiritual idea from which the Monitor came into existence and for which it stands and functions. That spiritual idea is the Christ and its office is to heal and save.
To be in rapport with the Christly animus and activity of The Christian Science Monitor is to deny effectively all doubts of its integrity, its adequacy, and the fulfillment of its possibilities. It is to cast out all fears that we shall be apathetic, disinterested, or interested more in other things. It is to correct any beliefs that we, or others, do not have time or money or desire for the wealth of entertainment, education, information, and amusement in the pages of our paper.
The definition of "Christ" in the Glossary of Science and Health reads (p. 583), "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." Christ in us will be not only the hope of glory, as Paul declares, and the surety of salvation, but also will send us out from the secret closet to the achievement of God's open rewards. Our daily deeds are as important as our daily study, and these two can never be divorced or exist apart. Christ Jesus said to this point (John 13:17), "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
