When the advertisement for our upcoming lecture (that I had placed in one of the local biweekly newspapers) appeared just a few days before the lecture, it was full of mistakes. I felt dismayed as well as embarrassed. I prayed for myself to let go of remorse and blame-finding. I recognized the real culprit to be impersonal resistance to this important event—the presentation of Christ's healing message to the community.
As I continued to pray, I began to think about the whole situation in different terms. As Assistant Committee on Publication for my branch church, I began to "stretch" that role a bit to include what other "corrections" needed to take place. As the Church Manual By Law states, it is our duty to make all corrections "in a Christian manner" (Art. XXXIII, Sect. 2). My heart grew lighter as I contemplated the opportunity I now saw before me. I decided that I would visit the editor of the newspaper the next day and speak with her in a Christian manner about the advertisement, though I had no idea what I would say. During a Wednesday noon testimony meeting, which I attended before going to see the editor, the thought came that I should ask her if she would be willing to publish an account of the lecture. As Mrs. Eddy assures us, "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares" (Science and Health, p. 574).
The editor received me warmly and was genuinely sorry for the mistakes that had appeared in our ad. She expressed appreciation for our church's advertising its lectures in her paper. Not only was she not going to allow us to pay for the incorrect ad, but she promised that she would not require payment for our next advertisement. Then I asked her if she would be willing to publish an account of the lecture, with the lecturer's picture. She responded quickly, saying she would be delighted to publish it—without regard to its length.
