Editorial July 7, 1917 Issue

Divine Judgment

Annie M. Knott

In the second chapter of Isaiah's prophecy we find a declaration of truth which is of intense significance to the student of Christian Science at the present hour. It reads: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." As these words are pondered the troubled human sense looks over the world's great battle field and asks how long it must be before this prophecy is merged into fulfilment. Most of us are acquainted with the words themselves, but perhaps we have failed to notice the statement which immediately precedes them and which declares that God will teach us of His ways and that "out of Zion shall go forth the law." Then the prophecy goes on that God "shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people;" and until this spiritual fact is gladly accepted in human consciousness we shall look in vain for the end of war and the reign of righteousness and peace.

On page 281 of Miscellany Mrs. Eddy says, "War will end when nations are ripe for progress." This brings us back to Isaiah's statement that God "shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people." Personal sense might tell us that we individually could decide what nations and peoples most needed the divine judgment and the divine rebuke, whereas we should each of us turn toward the light of divine Truth and gladly welcome its illumination and the consequent rebuke as to our own thinking. If we have harbored a false concept of peace in our individual lives, and have sought to evade the demands of divine justice, we need to be thoroughly aroused to the vital issues of the present time in order that the weight of our influence shall inevitably and invariably be on the side of righteousness and right. In the twentieth chapter of Revelation we have a vivid picture of the divine judgment,—God seated upon the throne with men and nations arraigned before Him, and we read, "They were judged every man according to their works."

Some people object to Christian Science on the ground that it deals so constantly with the individual, and they complain that Christian Scientists do not express the interest in world problems, foreign or domestic, which they think all should do. Here it may be said that Scientists are not lacking in this interest, but they agree with the apostle, who declared that judgment must "begin at the house of God," which to Christian Scientists means that the divine idea operating through their consciousness must make everything right therein before they are ready to recognize and express the righteous judgments of Truth. As they study their Leader's writings and demonstrate the truth therein taught, they become fully aware that righteousness, whether expressed by themselves or others, is the only power in the world; and they also know that the correction of all false or even mistaken views of human conditions must come to themselves in the first place as the rebuke of Spirit, dispelling all mortal illusions and revealing the divine harmony which has never in reality given place to discord of any sort.

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