Everything any of us needs to learn to practice Christian Science is contained within the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, which bring to light the most vital, spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. But whether we are new or seasoned students of these teachings, as we strive to put them into practice, it’s both helpful and comforting to learn how others are doing the same. We’re grateful that, along with the complete statement of Christian Science in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy was animated by divine Love to provide the means by which Christian Scientists could both hear others’ inspiration and healings and share their own. Those means are the magazines she established, to each of which she gave its own mission. In her words, “The first was The Christian Science Journal, designed to put on record the divine Science of Truth; the second I entitled Sentinel, intended to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love; the third, Der Herold der Christian Science, to proclaim the universal activity and availability of Truth; . . .” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353).
Those missions will never change. Today, it falls on us to advance the fulfillment of those missions. “Us” certainly includes those of us who edit and publish the articles and audio you read and listen to. But it also includes you, spiritual seekers working to put the teachings of Christian Science into practice in your own lives. Since the inception of each magazine, readers have also been contributors.
Mrs. Eddy wrote of her students, “Methinks, were they to contemplate the universal charge wherewith divine Love has entrusted us, in behalf of a suffering race, they would contribute oftener to the pages of this swift vehicle of scientific thought; for it reaches a vast number of earnest readers, and seekers after Truth” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 155–156). Through her writings, it could be said that all of us are her students, and we owe it to humanity to write or record for the periodicals she established.
