Malachi the messenger

As we launch into a new month of reading, the beautiful poem by Vera Goring Thomas from the archives of The Christian Science Journal at JSH-Online provides a splendid starting point for our book, Malachi. 

From the May 1951 issue of The Christian Science Journal

Malachi 

by VERA GORING THOMAS

Who was Malachi?
Shepherd? Prophet? Statesman?
Who can say?—
Voicing enduring truth, precious, vital, immanent, then
As today.
Malachi—messenger pseudonym or name?
Let it suffice, he came—
Came with a vision foreseeing the coming of John.
The cleanser, baptizer, the voice from the wilderness
Calling upon
All to repentance, to wake to the message he brought,
Physical purity, symbol of purified thought.
The link with Old Testament prophets who came to portray…
That consciousness chastened through turning from matter's display.
The forerunner of spiritual consciousness hidden until
The heart yields to God, knowing only His purpose and will.

Who was Malachi?
One who loved purity, urged all to know
That into grateful hearts, purged, reaching to God,
Would flow
The healing truth, the joy to know and prove
The Father's changeless love.
And who foresaw, though centuries apart,
One who would say. "Blessed
Are the pure in heart." 

Those with access to JSH-Online and/or the bound volumes in Reading Rooms will be interested to read the healing of granulated eyes in the January 1889 issue of the Journal. It was written by Loren Chowen who quotes this passage from Malachi:

And try Me now in this, saith Jehovah of Hosts,—
Whether I will not open to you the Windows of Heaven,

And pour out upon you a blessing.

Happy reading and discovering,

Julie Swannell