Many thousands of young men have been, and are being, confronted with this question. In the thinking of their dear ones the question repeats itself many times. It is a question that deserves a straightforward answer. Why should the young man in the vestibule of his human life, his education perhaps but partly completed, his life plans in the process of unfoldment, suddenly be taken, separated from home, family, his native land, and sent to combat a cruel antagonist in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, or on the high seas? Why? Why is it so necessary to war?

From the standpoint of spiritual Science war is barbarism. From the standpoint of present-day human thinking—and we all have a part in that—war appears to be, in this crisis of human history, a necessary means whereby to protect the steps of human progress already taken. Where should we be today if earlier generations had been unwilling courageously to defend, though with carnal weapons, humanity's advancing steps out of human bondage into freedom's realm?

Christian Scientists will do well to remember that their wise Leader, who saw so clearly the absolute truth of God's allness, also saw, as did the Master, that the period of human transition from the night of selfish materiality to the day of spiritual reality would be fraught with mighty conflicts, individual and collective. On page 278 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy indicates God's purpose for lasting peace may, in this period, "be subserved by the battle's plan," meaning that such a course may accord with her statement on page 289 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "From a human standpoint of good, mortals must first choose between evils, and of two evils choose the less; and at present the application of scientific rules to human life seems to rest on this basis."

The youth becomes so engrossed in planning his lifework, his home, and his future, that ofttimes he overlooks the fact that whether he will or no, he belongs to a family called the human race; that this family is moving steadily forward on the road of spiritual progress; that the obstacles evil presents must be resisted and overcome in ways that men now recognize; that the goal is of God's making, not of man's; that this goal is stated in the first petition of the Lord's Prayer, and in the daily prayer of every Christian Scientist "Thy kingdom come"—the coming to human consciousness of the understanding of God's now-present government of the universe and man.

Democracy is that form of human government which, with all its frailties—and we know them so well—offers no opposition, obstruction, or impediment to the progressive unfoldment in the thinking of men of a clearer idea of God, His kingdom, and His man, from which stems all human progress. This true idea of cause and effect is humanity's Saviour from the ignorant material sense of life expressed in sin, sickness, war, and death. Here is the world's one hope for full and enduring freedom. Here is the Saviour taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus and now reiterated in Christianity and Christian Science.

Democracy in human government provides then, so far as human government can, the open way for the progressive appearing in the consciousness of all men of the saving Christ, this true idea of God, of man, of Life, of law, of power, of all that really is. This open way—the highway of our God—for the progressive appearing of humanity's Saviour, the forces of materialism would now close. They would banish Christ and Christianity, rob men of the oncoming government of God, and the fuller and fuller appearing of His kingdom in the brotherhood of man, and substitute therefor the darkness of paganism, tyranny, and moral death. The issue is simple, clear. This open way to the consciousness of humanity for God's saving Christ must be protected and defended at any cost.

The youth now called to go to war is called by something more than a draft law, or his country's need. Not only is he called to defend—in the only way the human race yet sees—his nation, and the right of its citizenry to live in freedom under God, but he is called by the forces of Truth and reality to keep open the way whereby present and future generations may receive more and ever more of the knowledge of God that assures to all mankind health, happiness, justice, and everlasting peace.

Peoples and nations are on the march. They are responding to mighty forces. Whence do these forces come, and toward what do they impel? They are the forces of the one eternal Mind, which is God. They brook no opposition. They know no defeat. They impel and compel men to obey their mandate. They open the way for the coming to every human consciousness of the understanding of the all-inclusive kingdom of God, which is not a far-away theory, but the here-abiding spiritual fact.

Before these mighty issues, selfish human desires fade, mere personal plans and interests pale. The individual's duty to God and to mankind appears paramount. Christian Science helps him to see something of the fact that man's one basic obligation is to his God and Maker; that as he is willing to fulfill this obligation, he begins to see that no loss can overtake him because he gives much to keep open the way for the appearing of a better world, Truth-governed and free.

He may see something of what Jesus saw when he said, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." Did not the Master mean that the one who is humbly willing to rise above the selfish desire simply to save his material self and interests, and is willing to lose that material misconception of life and selfhood and recognize his first obligation is to God and His Christ, will find his true, God-preserved individuality in the understanding that his Life is God?

Thus whether at home or abroad he draws nearer and nearer in thought to his intelligent cause, and receives from his all-loving Father-Mother Mind the fearless, joyous, secure sense of life and continuity which the shifting scenes of earth, conventional or convulsive, are impotent to endanger or invade. The truth-filled words of Jefferson remind us that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."

Paul Stark Seeley