Editorial August 11, 1945 Issue

After the War, What?

John Randall Dunn

There is every reason why the human family should have an increased measure of hope and comfort in this year of our Lord. Even before the cessation of "war's alarums," earnest folk from more than twoscore nations have met in wholesome conference to reason together. Having seen in the European and Asiatic holocaust the most fiendish and costly conflict of all time, humanity at long last has awakened to the necessity of joint action in dealing with the scourge of war.

In her book, "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 285), Mary Baker Eddy records a matter of unusual interest in view of the recent San Francisco Conference. Nearly forty years ago, the Civic League of that city invited Mrs. Eddy to attend the Industrial Peace Conference about to convene there. Gratefully acknowledging the invitation, Mrs. Eddy added: "I cannot spare the time requisite to meet with you; but I rejoice with you in all your wise endeavors for industrial, civic, and national peace. Whatever adorns Christianity crowns the great purposes of life and demonstrates the Science of being. Bloodshed, war, and oppression belong to the darker ages, and shall be relegated to oblivion. It is a matter for rejoicing that the best, bravest, most cultured men and women of this period unite with us in the grand object embodied in the Association for International Conciliation."

From the foregoing it can be seen how deeply in accord with every righteous peace effort was the Leader of the Christian Science movement. Her followers would do well to read all that she has written under the caption "Peace and War" in the book from which we have quoted. The ideal of lofty citizenship which Mrs. Eddy sets before her students in "Retrospection and Introspection" is likewise worthy of pondering. She writes (p. 70): "The right teacher of Christian Science lives the truth he teaches. Preeminent among men, he virtually stands at the head of all sanitary, civil, moral, and religious reform."

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