CS Journals

THE EARLY VOLUMES OF THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL AVAILABLE ON PDF FILES FIRST TEN VOLUMES ALSO AVAILABLE IN HARD COVER When Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866, there came a spiritual light that brought hope and healing to the world. By the turn of the century, her revelation was known worldwide. With such a dynamic beginning, it must have seemed to those living at that time that the movement would last forever. But Mrs. Eddy saw the possibility of Christian Science becoming adulterated if her pure teaching was gradually replaced with teachings foreign to her original ideas yet coming in the name of Christian Science. She once warned her students that that this Science could again be “buried in the rubbish of centuries.” It could suffer the fate of early Christianity and lose its healing message. Fortunately the revelation itself could never be lost, for Mrs. Eddy recorded it in her writings. Her life is also well documented. And the Christian Science periodicals provide a factual account of those dynamic years when the Cause was first being established – one that could not be distorted by time. She began publishing The Christian Science Journal in 1883 and the Christian Science Sentinel in 1898. Mrs. Eddy once wrote that The Christian Science Journal was “designed to put on record the divine Science of Truth.” Within its pages of each issue lies the early history of the movement. Her great wisdom in establishing this monthly periodical has saved for posterity both the writings of the early workers, and the thousands upon thousands of healings that took place as her revelation spread throughout the Christian World. Early issues of the Journal record the progress of the Church from the time that Christian Science began to receive recognition in Boston to those dynamic years when it reached its peak of prosperity as a world-wide movement. This progress can be measured by the listing of churches and practitioners that increased at a phenomenal rate. Beginning with the first issue of the Journal we find only 13 cards advertising practitioners. By 1900 there were 462 churches, 154 groups meeting in halls, and 3290 practitioners and 82 Institutes. By 1940, when the movement was at the peak of its prosperity, there were 2,834 churches and societies and 11,504 practitioners listed. This success was due to the healings that were taking place. In the Journals we find a record of healing works equal to those of early Christianity -- healings of incurable and fatal diseases, age, severe accidents, hereditary traits, lack, crop failure, broken homes, protection from accidents, and dangers of every kind. The Bound Volumes of the Journal and Sentinel are a permanent record of the healing power of Christian Science. But equally important are the articles in the periodicals. When Mrs. Eddy was editor of the Journal, she was also the main contributor. The first issues of the Journal have her editorials, Bible Lessons, and Questions and Answers, later included in Miscellaneous Writings. The later Journals have articles by the early Scientists that show how an understanding of Christian Science was growing throughout in the movement. Their contributions are metaphysical gems that we are still turning to for help and healing. Most of us are familiar with “God’s Law of Adjustment” by Adam Dickey; “The Problem of the Hickory Tree” by Louise Knight Wheatley Cook; “The Way of Gethsemane” by Lucy Hays Reynold; “Reflection” by Ivimy Gwalter. In addition are the timeless articles by Blanche Hersey Hogue, Samuel Greenwood, Julia M. Johnston, Paul Stark Seeley, Milton Simon, Dr. John M. Tutt, and many more. Based on Christian Science, these countless articles are like the Gospels, and the letters of Paul and John. Their light never dims. The Bound Volumes continue to be a well-spring of inspiration, a source of fresh ideas. When we consider the prolific writing that the early Scientists poured forth, it is little wonder that the movement reached its most successful years when these dedicated workers were supporting it. Students close to our Leader had a spirituality so warm and inspiring that the pages of these periodicals seem permeated with the presence of the Christ-consciousness. There is a purity, a sincerity, a sweet abiding goodness that we associate with the Scientists during those prosperous years, for they had demonstrated the truth that they shared with the world. That is why it is good to return to that period when the foundation of the Church was being laid and Christian Science was spreading so rapidly. To open the early Journals is to go back into the past and feel the vitality of those years when Mrs. Eddy was building the Cause and her students were taking it out into the world. As the first century of the movement passes into history, the Bound Volumes engrave on the pages of time the names of those dedicated workers who stood fast during the first stormy years as the Cause became established. They record the events that led to a prosperous and respected religious organization with branch churches throughout the world. The organization as it was then may never come again, but, like the years of early Christianity, it introduced into world consciousness a divine revelation destined to bring about the millennium. The Bound Volumes are a record of those eventful years. Because the early periodicals are so important to our movement, The Bookmark is beginning to publish and preserve these early works that were milestones in the development of the movement. They are of great metaphysical and historical importance. They are a history of the movement when it was first beginning to influence world thought. For those who long to know more about the early history of the Cause, these Journals provide a living record of it from the time Christian Science began to receive recognition to those dynamic years when it reached its peak of prosperity as a worldwide movement.