Editorial December 20, 1930 Issue

Peacemakers

Duncan Sinclair

It was Christ Jesus who, in his Sermon on the Mount, spoke these words: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Thus, all who made peace were to be blessed. All who made peace were to be entitled to the sacred name of "the children of God." Jesus did not reckon peace on earth as of little account; to him it was of greatest moment, because it was the product of a Godlike state of consciousness. He taught his followers that love for God and man should be the ruling motive of their lives, well knowing that with this love in their hearts they could not fail to "follow peace with all men."

It is true that Jesus' teaching stirs up the unregenerate human mind in order to purify it. Did not he say, as Matthew records in the tenth chapter of his Gospel, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword"? But surely he was referring to the stirring up which takes place in human consciousness as spiritual truth destroys error therein. There is therefore no justification for thinking that he approved of war, as the word is commonly used. Indeed, it is absurd to think that such an ardent upholder of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man as he, could have countenanced that which, apart from the destruction of human life it entails, never fails to lower the moral and spiritual standards of mankind generally. Jesus must be regarded as altogether a peacemaker, not partially so.

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, while not shutting her eyes to the fact that the necessity might arise of supporting a righteous nation should it be forced into war through the folly of another nation, is strong in her denunciation of that nefarious method of settling national differences. On page 278 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" she writes: "War is in itself an evil, barbarous, devilish. Victory in error is defeat in Truth. War is not in the domain of good; war weakens power and must finally fall, pierced by its own sword." Then, in the next paragraph, she gives the metaphysical and Christian reason for what she has said in the words: "The Principle of all power is God, and God is Love. Whatever brings into human thought or action an element opposed to Love, is never requisite, never a necessity, and is not sanctioned by the law of God, the law of Love."

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