Article June 21, 1952 Issue

THE PEACE THE MASTER LEFT

JAMES K. WESTOVER

The peoples of most nations today are convinced that the continued welfare of the human race depends upon mankind's ability to cultivate and establish peaceful proclivities and to abandon the warlike propensities which in a marked degree seem to have taken possession of human reasoning. A total and final cessation of hostile thinking and practices is the uppermost need today. Some of the greatest thinkers of our time are engaged in promulgating and examining numerous plans which seek to bring a permanent end to national and international conflict.

Just prior to his crucifixion Christ Jesus gave to his followers a message of comfort which can be supremely influential for the good of all posterity as mankind analyze it and make it their principal desideratum. The Master had been talking about the coming Comforter, the harmonizing "Spirit of truth," which was to be available wherever and whenever mankind should be receptive to it, and he concluded his remarks with, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (John 14:27). He was careful to add that this peace which he was giving them was not in any sense the uncertain peace that results from man-made treaties and forbearances. The Christ-idea of peace, he assured them, was not bestowed "as the world giveth." His followers, therefore, need have no troubled hearts or fearful minds if they would but accept and retain the peace of God, the ever-presence of peaceful good, which he had been proclaiming. Thus would they find the Comforter already in their midst.

Mary Baker Eddy has pointed out in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that it is God who provides the remedy for international strife. She writes (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.' " Like the Master, Mrs. Eddy advocated no reliance upon man-made laws. She recognized their falsity. The fallibility of matter and of materialistic theories had been constantly demonstrated by Jesus as he journeyed among those who had placed their dependence upon false gods, such as war and revenge. Like the Master, she taught that the first requisite to peace and harmony, individual or national, is to cease dependence upon mere human strength. She saw man as the representative of God's infinite qualities of love and truth and knew that men need but to practice these Christly attributes in order to experience the peace of God, which passes all human understanding.

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