Editorial November 13, 1920 Issue

Friendship in War and Peace

Gustavus S. Paine

In some respects, there is not so much difference between a condition called war and a condition called peace as has been popularly supposed. In all circumstances, there must be activity. Peace is not lethargy. It does not mean a reversion to the ways of human selfishness which were even partly and temporarily put aside for the sake of cooperation in a righteous cause. The real activity for Principle, whether it be called war or peace, must continue eternally. In spite of any seeming human discord or human concord, the true relationship of man to God forever remains the same. This fundamental relationship is one of consecration, since the activity which constitutes the genuine man is wholly consecrated to its cause, to the one Principle which is infinite intelligence.

As to this fact, there can always be complete agreement. Even the one who seemingly knows nothing about Christian Science must admit, if he stops to reason at all, that there must be some cause for being alive. This cause is divine Life, true Mind, Spirit, and does not depend in the least upon any supposition of matter. The whole function of man is to express this Life harmoniously. Really he cannot do otherwise, since infinitely right cause invariably produces right effect. The basis of Christian Science is that there is only the one cause, the divine Mind, maintaining harmonious activity as its effect, the real man. All who know anything whatever of Christian Science agree as to this basis, and sooner or later every one will have to accept it as the one demonstrable truth of being. Already the many are seeing something of the fact that this is the foundation for all unity. In the presence of the one Mind and its idea or activity, every human difference of viewpoint must vanish.

The only eternal friendship rests on this spiritual basis. If one thinks of friendship as other than activity in accord with divine intelligence, one is mistaken. In other words, the true friend must always be found as infinite Mind expressed, never as matter. The way in which friendship is preserved in peace or in war is the way of dependence on this one Mind. What this Mind knows of brother, sister, or friend is all there is to the spiritual fact. The divine Mind, of course, knows nothing of any supposed differences of opinion, discords of belief, struggles of error, but rejoices in the eternal oneness of its idea. In place of any sense of human differences, true Mind knows unlimited unfoldment of variety in action. The belief in misunderstanding has to be replaced with absolute spiritual understanding, nothing less. This understanding is the knowing of Principle and its idea as the only reality.

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