Most Christian Scientists know the words with which Mrs. Eddy describes the mission of The Christian Science Monitor: "The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353. We accept these phrases as applying to our newspaper, even when we aren't consciously probing their profound meaning; but do we also apply them to ourselves? We can, and if the Monitor is to fulfill its purpose, we must.
Just as a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, is inconceivable apart from its members' demonstration of the Christ, so the Monitor is incomplete without spiritually-minded readers. Its mission is our mission, its healing purpose inseparable from our own.
Some Scientists speak of the Monitor as The Mother Church's "missionary" arm, inviting comparison with the missionary model of other denominations. The comparison may in some ways be apt, but do we fully accept its spiritual implications? If not, we may think only of postal systems around the world doing our legwork for us, delivering newspapers to benighted peoples—lighting up their presumed spiritual darkness through, perhaps, the daily religious article.
