Editorial July 20, 1918 Issue

Heralds of Healing

William P. McKenzie

In days gone by the heralds were the officers who proclaimed great tidings of war and peace. They also were the messengers going between rulers, and hence their persons were "invested with a sacred and inviolable character." The Herald of Christian Science proclaims truth, publishes righteousness, and announces through records of healing how "God hath visited his people." It is not a strange thing but a matter of helpful kindness that heralds should speak the tongue of those to whom the message is sent.

When Mrs. Eddy made request that the Publishing Society should issue a translation from the periodicals into German, her thought of love reached out to a great nation having in its formative stage great need of the illumination of divine Principle. Difficulties in the way of the publication of this periodical, which seemed at first insuperable, were overcome at last, and Der Herold der Christian Science began to be regularly published in 1903. The readers for whom it was intended did not speak a uniform language and so there were at first many controversies over translation, but gradually, through its continued publication, there was gained such a consensus of opinion regarding the use of words that within nine years after its appearance a translation of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" could be made into German, and the message which came from Mind for the enlightenment of all mankind was made available for this empire at the very time when clouds of materialism were darkening its sky.

The point to be remembered now is that the herald is inviolate and free to bear his message of truth, righteousness, and healing, whether there be war or no. Christian Scientists and others surely are not giving due thought to the opportunity they have if they class a Christian Science periodical as an enemy publication, because it has its message translated into the language of those who are foes. Is it not a privilege of the Christian to love his enemy, that is, to give him opportunity for the curing of his enmity and for learning about God? This good will has all conceivable distance from condonation. Love really unfolds the meaning of the words, "Our God is a consuming fire." The pure in heart rejoice in the cleansing fire of divine Love, but to those who love evil it is wrath and judgment. Christian Science declares the consuming of sin, not the condoning of it. In her Communion Address in 1899, Mrs. Eddy asks, "Now what have you learned?" (Miscellany, p. 124), and then continues: "The mystery of godliness—God made 'manifest in the flesh,' seen of men, and spiritually understood; and the mystery of iniquity—how to separate the tares from the wheat, that they consume in their own fires and no longer kindle altars for human sacrifice."

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