In this issue of the Christian Science Sentinel will be found excerpts from a most interesting and inspiring report to The Christian Science Board of Directors from a Wartime Minister. We commend its earnest perusal by every reader of our periodical. It seems fitting in this connection to quote two pertinent paragraphs from a letter to our Wartime Ministers from the Directors:

"A Christian Scientist is a true patriot because he is learning what true patriotism is, and his real helpfulness to his country and to his fellow men of all nations increases in proportion to his understanding of Christian Science.... Therefore every encouragement should be given the servicemen with whom you come in contact not to shirk their responsibilities under present war conditions, but to be strong, reliable members of our armed forces, leavening the ranks with their clear, fearless thinking."

A true patriot, lover of mankind, and supporter of every righteous cause was the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. Ever abhorring war, she nevertheless spoke out boldly when the collective thought of a nation knew no better way to subdue ruthless material forces than recourse to the sword. At the time of the Spanish-American war she wrote (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 277), "But if our nation's rights or honor were seized, every citizen would be a soldier and woman would be armed with power girt for the hour."

Love of one's motherland is inherent in the human breast.

So run the familiar lines of Sir Walter Scott. At this great hour, however, patriotism, love for and devotion to one's country, takes on a deeper meaning for the Christian Scientist. When peace-loving nations are wantonly attacked, when their peoples are forced to take up arms in defense of homes and the ideals of Christian freedom, the Christian Science patriot must needs become a crusader for Principle, a lover and helper of all mankind.

"A lover of the enemies one is attacking?" someone may ask incredulously. Even so. Every spiritually-minded parent will agree that the meting out of wise, just punishment to a disobedient, willful child is the most loving thing that can be done for the child. Children who are early taught that disobedience to the law of Love and Principle brings inevitable penalty, are truly blessed and protected, and are best loved by their parents. If mesmerized peoples, blindly following fanatical, militaristic leaders, trample on sacred covenants, violate every known tenet of international decency, overrun helpless, innocent countries, and plunge the whole planet into the hellish caldron of war, if such peoples, having drawn the sword, are made to suffer by the sword, does not this point to the ultimate fulfillment of Love's purpose infinitely just, delivering and saving mankind from its errors?

The soldier who is a patriotic Christian Scientist can know that he is fighting impersonal aggression, oppression, the mesmerism of brutality—in a word, all that is anti-Christ, all that opposes the free. Christian way of life. Does he need to hate in order to be a good soldier? Does a parent hate the child he is punishing? Not if he is truly loving, impersonal, and wise. If a child senses anger in the thought of a punishing parent, the redemptive work of the penalty is largely undone.

The prophet Amos shows the seeker after Truth the one thing he can hate. We read, "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate." The soldier, therefore, who is striving to be a Christian Scientist and to cleanse his thinking of hate and revenge should be clearer and calmer mentally and better able to carry out orders, to manifest good judgment and quick, incisive action. He is not content merely to gloat over an enemy plane shot down or an attacking party wiped out by his shellfire. Through Christian Science he can discern, because of the very awfulness of modern conflict, that the world is being awakened to and hastened toward the realization of that happy, millennial day foreseen by Tennyson when he wrote:

Our young men and women going forth today like crusaders of old need the sustaining, consecrated attention of their elders as never before. They need to be written to frequently, sent helpful, inspiring Christian Science literature, and, most important of all, to be remembered definitely in our earnest mental work and prayers. Some of the service men and women need moral courage to take a stand for Principle, to be able to say "No!" to many subtle suggestions of error and to be proud to take such a stand. Are we holding up their hands by realizing that man exists as the very expression of the power of Principle and Truth itself? Do we know daily that God's man can never be homesick, frightened, confused, or alone? Before allowing sleep to overtake us at night, do we strive to realize that a mantle of divine protection is thrown about these young patriots who are standing "between their loved homes and the war's desolation"?

A soldier who had been helped by articles in our periodicals wrote to one in the Editorial Department: "When your article...reached a soldier training in the Missouri hills, it healed him of a physical difficulty. The same soldier is writing now to express gratitude not only for the healing, but for the other articles,...which are always sustained in spiritual buoyancy." He continues: "The boys in the barracks are practically all asleep now. Tomorrow they shall go out again to intensive training for combat service. I wish I could begin to express what even a little reflected love does in the ranks. Every sentence, touched with love, helps defeat the old animal magnetism." He concludes, "You may know that this soldier will always be trying to live Christian Science."

Dear God, help us all not to be "disobedient unto the heavenly vision," but to go forward, one mighty, united body, singing songs of deliverance for the whole human family!

John Randall Dunn