By Rev. Ellen Debenport, Vice President of Publishing, Unity Magazine. Author of The Five Principles, A Guide to Practical Spirituality.
Although his name may not be familiar today, Frank B. Whitney was the creator, founder, and first editor of Daily Word. He is best remembered for one divine idea: that people seeking support from the Unity Prayer Ministry, known as Silent Unity, would appreciate an uplifting message to begin every day. He suggested a little booklet of devotionals to be sold by subscription.
It’s interesting to note that Daily Word, which became the flagship publication of Unity, was not the brainchild of Unity founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. But they surely supported Whitney’s idea. Beginning with the first issue on July 1, 1924, Whitney wrote nearly all the messages and many of the poems in Unity Daily Word for the first 14 years of its existence.
Born in Kansas in 1889—the year Unity was founded—Whitney practiced as a dentist for four years before he came to work at Silent Unity in 1915. Three years later, he became dean of the Unity Correspondence School, which had been established by Charles Fillmore to teach students outside the Kansas City area, sending one lesson at a time with student assignments returned by mail. The Fillmores considered Unity to be a school rather than a church.
Unity headquarters was operating in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and “the farm” was a weekend getaway for employees. It would be a few more years before the Tower and Silent Unity Building were dedicated at what became Unity Village—now an incorporated town with 1,200 acres.
After his first year at Silent Unity, Whitney in 1916 married a young woman just out of high school. Better remembered for her second husband’s name, May Rowland led Silent Unity for 55 years.
The First-Ever Daily Word Message.
By Frank B. Whitney, (And curated to update pronouns.)
July 1, 1924
God in me is my light and my understanding.
“God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of knowledge.” (A.V.) “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah.”
“The truth that God is the Father of all does away with the oft-proclaimed presumption that it is impossible for the finite to understand the Infinite.”—Christian Healing, Charles Fillmore.
In order to have spiritual understanding, one must first realize that they have the capacity for it. When one acknowledges that it is natural and right to have full knowledge of the Infinite, it confirms the ability to enjoy infinite understanding. A human is the manifestation of God within, and, in God’s likeness, is all-wise and all-knowing.
To believe in the real presence of God as Divine Mind in you is to identify yourself with all light and knowledge. We are primarily “mind” with unlimited mentality. We take our God-given dominion and power first through consciousness, and have full possession of all truth.
Begin today to rise out of the belief that by nature you are limited in understanding. Never think or say that anything is too difficult for you to comprehend. Think, at all times, as capable of knowing all truth. Learn to rely upon the Light of God within to make clear whatever you wish to know.
11/05/2023