Frank B. Whitney’s Divine Idea
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, until his death in 1938. The name was shortened to Daily Word in 1937.
Whitney’s obituary in the Kansas City Star recalled, “The editor carried into his writings and work for the Unity School of Christianity a natural buoyancy and optimism.”
Beginning with the first issue on July 1, 1924, Whitney wrote nearly all the messages and many of the poems in Daily Word for the first 14 years of its existence, until his death in 1938.
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.
“These lessons will give every student a training in the demonstration of prosperity, as well as health, and with each lesson he will manifest the teaching in health, harmony, and understanding,” the Fillmores told Unity magazine in 1909.
Whitney led the correspondence school from 1918 to 1924 until he began Daily Word. Lessons by mail continued until 1973 when more students were able to travel to Unity Village for study.
Nothing but Open Land
Unity Village was nothing but open land when Whitney started Daily Word. 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.
While he was editor of Daily Word, Whitney wrote four books for Unity: Creed of the Dauntless (1930), Open Doors (1932), Mightier Than Circumstance (1935), and Beginning Again (1938). His writing also was included in Be of Good Courage (1953) and the hymnal Wings of Song (1984).
After his first year at Silent Unity, Whitney in 1916 married a young woman just out of high school, Clara May Hoagland, who the same year succeeded Myrtle Fillmore as director of Silent Unity. Better remembered by her second husband’s name, May Rowland went on to lead Silent Unity for 55 years.
The First-Ever Daily Word Message
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 man 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, man must first realize that he has capacity for it. When one acknowledges that it is natural and right for man to have full knowledge of the Infinite, he is but confirming his own ability to enjoy infinite understanding. Man is the manifestation of God within, and, in His 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. Man is primarily mind and is necessarily unlimited mentality. He takes his God-given dominion and power first through consciousness, and, consequently, must 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 of man as capable of knowing all truth. Learn to rely upon the light of God within to make clear whatever you wish to know.
This article was excerpted from the book 100 Years of Daily Word (Unity Books, 2023).