Peace an Individual Demonstration

EDWIN C. BARRINGER

INDIVIDUALS may aspire, diplomats confer, governments make treaties, and international machinery be set up to avoid war between nations, but it remains for Christian Science to present the means for obliterating this scourge of mankind, as indeed all the ills that beset it. With deep simplicity, Mary Baker Eddy declares in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 340), "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."

Now, whether it be waged for territorial aggrandizement, in order to subjugate a neighboring people, to revenge some fancied or other aspersion on national honor, or for some other reason, war is but the operation of the error which claims power apart from God. Its facets are fear, hate, envy, greed, jealousy, revenge; the supposition of minds many, the delusion that man is a materially independent agent; the deception that life is in matter, the fraud that matter is substance—false beliefs one and all, not to be feared, but uncovered and thereby consigned to nothingness.

Splendid and reasonable it is that in this enlightened age every right-thinking person should abhor war. Even without the penetrating insight into the machinations of mortal mind which Christian Science affords, thinkers find the erroneous nature of any resort to arms self-evident; and on this moral issue public condemnation is nearly unanimous. But high resolve or mere lip service to a lofty sentiment does not alone suffice to mature the universal yearning for peace. Here Christian Science points the practical way.

In this, as in all issues, the Science of Mind points to the solution of the problem through regeneration in individual consciousness. In other words, war must cease in the thinking of individuals in order that it may be eliminated between nations, which are so many aggregations of individuals. Indeed, the battlefield is not the only arena for war, nor are martial music and tramping armies its only accompaniments. Within the silent precincts of every individual's consciousness—in the home, in business, in every human activity—the destructive battalions of error are ceaselessly attempting to foment strife, to drive a wedge between God and men. Armageddon comes hourly to all, and only in proportion as each person makes his own demonstration of peace and harmony can world peace be achieved.

Except in degree, what is the difference between a man seeking by unfair methods to appropriate the business of a competitor and a nation contending for the territory of another? Is not the desire of one individual to gain domination over another similar in essence to the lust of a government to extend its rule? A government deliberately setting out to conquer another in order to add to its revenues and riches expresses, in the aggregate, the wrong thinking of individuals about supply, and mistakes matter for substance. Is not every unkind thought, every spoken or unspoken false witness against a neighbor, every wrong desire, every secret or expressed phase of jealousy and envy a form of war?

The way in Christian Science to attain peace in individual experience, and also in international relations, is so logical and simple as to make war positively unthinkable. God, who is Life and Love, the only creator, fashions nothing unlike Himself; hence, as His image and likeness, man exists now and forever in the realm of the spiritual, where all is harmonious and peaceful. Since all men have in reality one God, one Father, they have one Mind; and between them there can be no strife, no friction, no competition for place or supply. Adequate supply there is for all, since Mind's resources are infinite. Principle includes universal and perfect government; man's only activity is forever expressing all good. Excepting when error beclouds men's clear perception of this true status, how can war possibly raise its ugly head?

Each individual, therefore, becomes a continuing influence for disarmament; he daily casts his ballot for "the peace ... which passeth all understanding." Or else he concedes to error a longer time in which to torment him and the world. The conquest of every unloving thought, selfish desire, unprincipled motive, depletes the ranks of error and correspondingly brings the power of Truth to bear on human activity. Daily individual manifestation of the Godlike qualities of love, harmony, right activity—unlimited supply of the perfect qualities of Mind—is the avenue through which peace flows from the individual to his neighbor, to his nation, and to the world.

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