Editorial June 29, 1918 Issue

"The hoar fight is forgotten"

William P. McKenzie

The quotation which heads this article will be found on the tenth page of Mrs. Eddy's published poems. Its author was both poet and prophet, but she never took poetic license to declare other than truth, and as a prophet she spoke truth at the very moment when people were saying, It is not so. The prophet testifies of the unseen verity, the appearing fact, which eventually all shall know, from the least to the greatest.

The unavoidable, irresistible struggle for liberty has had its vicissitudes. It will finally be interpreted to the world by those who speak the language wherein Christian Science was proclaimed and explained. Ever since the Bible was translated into English, the effort to establish freedom has had promise in it. Why? Because the struggle has become less personal, not as king against king, or barons grouped against a king, or people struggling against a bishop. It has become the effort of those who dimly grasped Principle, struggling up and through the hindrance and persecution of those in no wise understanding it, hence misled to serve the carnal mind in order to preserve its cruel dominion. This carnal mind is well illustrated in the career of the unscrupulous prince of this world who boasts of robbery, cultivates suavity in lying, and makes treachery his delectable art. Such a one was he whose published ideal was, "One takes when one can, and one is wrong only when obliged to give back."

From among those who found such ideals of kingly license commendable came foreign speaking heirs to a throne supported by men for whom the English Bible was the standard of their speech. Of the spiritual import of the Bible they may not have grasped a great deal, yet somehow they breathed freer breath because of it. Already many had gone from them to a new land as pilgrim fathers (and pilgrim mothers), calling the Bible their Magna Charta. In spite of attitudes of religious tyranny in this new-forming society, the leaven of liberty worked quickly, transforming men in spite of old habits and customs. So when the time for quick decision arrived, behold, they stood forth with courage. Their stand was against a king brought up to believe that a king must rule or ruin. His kingly power was visibly supported by mercenary soldiers, sold for a price by a princeling who had this power over subjects. The end of the contest was as it had to be, and a great republic began to be born.

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