Article November 5, 1927 Issue

Plowshares and Pruninghooks

ADELA LEPAGE

NO one at the present day who takes time to think more than a little can fail to recognize that the world is going through a great crisis; and those who believe in the Bible as a book of inspired guidance and warning, and who turn to its sacred pages for help and comfort, cannot fail to see that to-day numerous prophecies therein are being literally fulfilled.

In Micah we read: "He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it." Now if professing Christians allow themselves to pick quarrels with each other, injuring one another's characters and businesses through jealousy and revenge, striving for financial and political gain through deceit, indulging criticism and coldness instead of endeavoring in every possible way to bring about understanding, forgiveness, and unity, surely it is of little avail to belong to peace societies, have peace talks, and expect the nations at large to begin to "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks."

All who thus continue war tactics among themselves are a hindrance to the advent of unity among the nations, and run the risk of earning the title of hypocrite, which Jesus gave to those who attempted to cast the mote out of their brother's eye, while failing to cast the beam first out of their own. Quoting a proverb of his day, he once said, "Physician, heal thyself." Mrs. Eddy, in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 34), writes on the subject of the power of example: "If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of his cup, they would have revolutionized the world. If all who seek his commemoration through material symbols will take up the cross, heal the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth, to the poor,—the thought,—they will bring in the millennium."

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