The Christian Science Monitor! What is it? How did it evolve? It represents a Christlike movement of thought operating in the world of journalism with the intent to bless mankind—the spiritual goal that Mary Baker Eddy set for it.
She established the Monitor in November, 1908, after a baseless newspaper attack on her and her movement had resulted in a lawsuit against her in the courts of New Hampshire. The suit was eventually withdrawn and dismissed by the court. Perhaps the launching of the Monitor a year later was in part her answer to such unprincipled and gaudy journalism. Strict integrity—truth in news, in editorials, in advertising—was to be a paramount goal. By meeting her accusers in the courts she had proved again the power of Truth to make itself felt everywhere. And it was characteristic of her love for mankind that she wanted to share her vision of Truth's omnipotent ever-presence.
But how could she present it in terms that the world would understand? Her answer: A newspaper. It was to be a newspaper so based on Truth itself that its influence could be felt at a conference of nations, at national policy levels, at the bargaining tables of labor and management, in community councils, in the home. For years she had seen the need for such a paper. Now God, divine Love, had directed the hour at which she was to launch it and the name she was to give it.
