World Peace
The student of Mrs. Eddy's writings can scarcely fail to discover the positive assurance with which she looked to divine Science for the solution of all human problems; for the settlement of all differences between nations no less than for the healing of mankind of the beliefs termed sickness, poverty, and sin. Divine Science she saw as the universal remedy to be applied under all circumstances to all situations where evil seems to separate and harass, and thus disturb the peace which belongs to the divine dispensation termed the kingdom of heaven; and while our great Leader stated again and again that only through the regeneration of human consciousness, that is, through its Christianization, would the possibility of war and contention be finally destroyed, yet she recognized that divine Principle finds expression in certain movements which lessen the possibility of war, while at the same time the Christ, Truth, is doing its work of healing the individual consciousness.
Mrs. Eddy even went so far as to express her whole-hearted support of a specific means for the composition and conciliation of international differences, and that means is arbitration. On page 284 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," in a letter to the Concord Daily Patriot she writes, "But here let me say that I am absolutely and religiously opposed to war, whereas I do believe implicitly in the full efficacy of divine Love to conciliate by arbitration all quarrels between nations and peoples." Thus clearly did our Leader express her full confidence that divine Love is the impulse prompting the efforts to establish arbitration as the means of settling difficulties between nations and peoples. There can be no doubt that her inspired words are as applicable to present-day situations as they were to world conditions when she wrote them.
May we not, then, as Christian Scientists, find in Mrs. Eddy's words justification for our whole-hearted support of the efforts for arbitration which are being sent forth from various chancelleries of the world? And, moreover, we may with our scientific right thinking enter upon the promotion of these righteous efforts to establish peace, thus bringing to bear the infinite power of divine Love to solve the world's problems. In this way, Christian Scientists will perform their part in establishing the millennium which Mrs. Eddy foreshadows on pages 96 and 97 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she speaks of the final struggle between good and evil. Of this she says: "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection." Obviously, the maintenance of law and order involves peace between nations no less than domestic harmony; and Mrs. Eddy was thoroughly convinced as to the part Christian Scientists should play in this great work of establishing permanent peace, whereby all strife would end.
The life and teachings of Christ Jesus had the high purpose of bringing to mankind the sure sense of God's fatherhood and its inevitable corollary, the brotherhood of man. The gentlest of men, he taught and exemplified the power of love to destroy error in its every phase. No one knew better than he the nature of the claims of evil which so generally actuate mortals. He was the wisest analyst of the so-called mortal mind. To him the human heart was like an open book; and he was the world's greatest peacemaker. The state of peace on earth he knew to be the best condition for mortals in which to work out their salvation successfully, that is, to gain their freedom from the slavery of materiality. Out of this understanding he uttered the precious beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." For mortals to engage in the work of establishing peace is, then, to enter upon the task of establishing man's true identity as the child of God. It is to set one's self, through the recognition of the universal Father-Mother God, to the task of disestablishing the false sense of self, of doing away with selfishness in its every phase. This process promotes the reign of law and order as the divine fact, and eliminates the seeds of strife—hatred, enmity, jealousy, and fear, all concomitants of material selfhood.
The keen observer of the times must be cognizant of the great movement, world-wide in its compass, which is getting under way for the elimination of war as a means of settling disputes between nations and peoples. It is coming to be more generally recognized than ever that good does not come out of evil; and that is barbarous, indecent, and utterly unchristian. When once these facts come home to the true Christian, it must of a necessity stir a lively desire to be rid of war. It is because of the awakening to the horrors and barbarism of war through the operation of divine Principle that the general movement against it has been given new impetus.
With their knowledge of Christian metaphysics, Christian Scientists are equipped to engage most successfully in this campaign which has for its high purpose the outlawry of war. While their work is fundamentally mental, however, as in all human undertakings, right thinking will be followed by such footsteps as are unfolded to them. That our Leader did not deem it wise for the nations completely to disarm at present, she has made perfectly clear. But spiritual understanding will hasten the day when armaments, even as a police force, will no longer be needed, when righteousness will reign, and the peace that "passeth all understanding" shall be established to remain forever.
Albert F. Gilmore
