I had been studying Christian Science for a little over a year when a fellow Christian Scientist presented me with three Christmas gifts: a bottle of perfume, a box of chocolates, and a three-month subscription to The Christian Science Monitor. I was pleased with the first two gifts, but not so pleased with the third. I politely and sincerely thanked my friend for all three gifts, but I was disappointed. “A gift of a newspaper?” I thought.
In retrospect, I realized my friend had given much thought to these gifts. His reasoning went something like this: The perfume was a luxury; the chocolates were traditional; and the Monitor provided me with a daily gift in the mail each day. This was a unique combination of gifts and a loving a gesture on his part, even though I didn’t yet fully appreciate the subscription. But in time, I did come to value the subscription to the Monitor even to the point where I was giving gift subscriptions to others.
The Founder of the Christian Science periodicals, Mary Baker Eddy, addressed the thought of subscribing to the periodicals in the By-Law, “Church Periodicals,” which reads: “It shall be the privilege and duty of every member, who can afford it, to subscribe for the periodicals which are the organs of this Church; . . .” (Church Manual, p. 44).
