Editorial January 14, 1967 Issue

"God's disposal of events"

Helen Wood Bauman

In 1905 the war between Russia and Japan was still being fought. In the June 17 issue of the Sentinel of that year there was published a letter by Mary Baker Eddy requesting the members of her Church to pray daily for a settlement of this war and for God's blessing on both nations. In the July 1 issue of the Sentinel there followed another message requesting that the members cease special prayer for the peace of nations and pointing to the fact that God will bless all peoples. This request by Mrs. Eddy was evidently misunderstood, for the July 22 issue contained an explanation that her second request was not that the members should cease praying for the peace of nations but that they should pause in special prayer for peace.

These letters were later published in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (pp. 279–281). In the last one Mrs. Eddy said: "I cited, as our present need, faith in God's disposal of events. Faith full-fledged, soaring to the Horeb height, brings blessings infinite, and the spirit of this orison is the fruit of rightness,—'on earth peace, good will toward men.' On this basis the brotherhood of all peoples is established; namely, one God, one Mind, and 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' the basis on which and by which the infinite God, good, the Father-Mother Love, is ours and we are His in divine Science."^{My., p. 281;}

Today, amid the confusion of human opinions regarding the military operations in Vietnam, Mrs. Eddy's counsel seems especially applicable. This is a time to have "faith in God's disposal of events." Not that we should cease praying for the peace of mankind, but that we should demonstrate with diligence and with depth of comprehension the fact that God, divine Principle, is in full control of all creation and that man cannot err from His wisdom.

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