On July 28, 1908, the farsighted and wide-awake Leader of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy, sent a handwritten message to The Christian Science Board of Directors, which read in part: "I request The C. S. Board of Directors to start a daily newspaper called Christian Science Monitor. This must be done without fail." Erwin D. Canham, Commitment to Freedom (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958), p. 22; That note set in motion the establishment of a unique newspaper. It is unique because of its object and purpose, which are, according to Mrs. Eddy, "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind" and "to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p 353;
The idea for a daily newspaper was nurtured in Mrs. Eddy's thought for quite a while before she gave the authoritative and unmistakable command to establish our newspaper "without fail." Today members of The Mother Church have a special opportunity to support The Christian Science Monitor—their newspaper.
I once sold nine Monitor subscriptions in three minutes. A new real estate broker asked me to speak to her group of real estate agents on the subject of enthusiasm. Immediately after the talk I asked if I could take another three minutes to tell them of something that would bless their lives forever. I asked if they were satisfied with the sources through which they learned their news each day. Only one of the ten people present was satisfied. I held up a copy of the Monitor and told them that this paper would satisfy them because it told the unbiased truth. I asked how many had heard of the Monitor; everybody in the room had. I told them I'd be glad to place subscriptions if anyone wanted to subscribe. Nine people wrote out nine checks for nine subscriptions. The tenth person was already a subscriber.
