Editorial February 24, 1940 Issue

Peace Plans

George Shaw Cook

Even now, in the midst of war, people are looking forward to peace, and quite rightly so. There is much discussion on the part of statesmen, journalists, philosophers, economists, religionists, and others as to the best means of establishing a more permanent sense of peace in and among the nations. Various methods are offered for consideration, most of which are based upon theories which it is hoped may bring to pass an enduring peace, through mutual agreement, sacrifice of national pride, and willingness to set up some kind of political machinery which will serve to stabilize society and restrain aggression.

Such efforts are highly commendable, but are not sufficient. The methods proposed provide for a step in the right direction, but they do not constitute the ultimate solution of the problem. These plans are based upon a concept of peace which is little else than a more or less temporary cessation of warfare. They contemplate an arrangement, arrived at through agreements and pledges, to refrain from war and to live in outward amity. This sort of arrangement, if justly conceived and honestly lived up to, would be far preferable to the condition in which the world finds itself at present, but it falls short of the higher sense of peace which a standard dictionary defines in part as follows: "A mental or spiritual state in which there is freedom from that which is disquieting or perturbing."

Mental or spiritual peace, being a state of freedom from disquieting conditions of thought, can emanate only from a divine source. It can come from no less a source than God, divine Mind. It is of such a concept of peace that the Psalmist said, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." And Christian Science teaches that true peace can be attained only through the understanding of God as divine Principle, and through willing and intelligent obedience to His law.

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