Peace on earth is not an impossibility. It can come as the inevitable result of the understanding and practice of the Christ, Truth, which Jesus brought to light for the guidance of mankind. The truth of man's perfect and peaceful being in God can be tested and proved in Christian Science.

Peace, being individual, is not a product of church or state, not a consequence of human organization. It is one's acceptance and living of Christ Jesus' doctrine that the infinite goodness of God is ever available to men. It is that state of consciousness in which love and peace reign, even if war rages without.

The peace we are capable of achieving is more than the absence of armed conflict between individuals or absence of conflict within an individual. It is concord, harmony, tranquillity—the freedom from agitation, disturbance, or fear that results from spiritual understanding. It constitutes heaven, God's kingdom.

The world has not found a sure way to peace. Alliances of the most powerful nations have not always maintained peace. The most solemn international covenants and treaties have not proved totally reliable. People—you and I—need to establish peace in our individual thought and lives before it can permeate the nations.

Christian Science shows that mortals are discordant because they mistake the unreal for the real. Attitudes that give reign to greed and selfishness, and which cause people to ask, "How much can I get?" rather than "How much can I give?" are not real because they don't stem from God, Love.

Jesus plainly declared that he did not come to send peace on the earth but a sword. ^{See Matt. 10:34;} He made clear the impossibility of establishing peace on earth on the false foundations of material limitations and worldly ties.

The establishment of true peace on earth results from the elimination of sin, disease, and evil, for these are what produce the opposite of peace. If we are demonstrating God's power over these errors, we are, to some extent, demonstrating peace in the world.

Christian Science proceeds from the standpoint of Spirit's infinitude, and maintains that peace and harmony are real and their opposites, war and all discords, are unreal, a delusion. Demonstrated Christian Science can destroy war and its supposed necessity, and can eliminate sickness, pain, weakness, injury, incapacity, by putting them wholly into their proper classification as illusions of material sense, the opposite of the realities of spiritual sense. When evil seems to rob one of his God-given peace, the remedy is to know that God's kingdom, spiritual ever present, is man's true dwelling place.

The complete demonstration of Christian Science will do away with war and all conflict, but for men to accomplish this, the first commandment must be followed: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." ^{Ex. 20:3;} God is Spirit, and His creation is spiritual and perfect. In His expression, perfect man, there is no hate, no fear, no animosity—only love and serenity. This love that is a pure expression of the Father—when we understand and live it—can dissolve the bitterness that brings war and thereby introduce "on earth peace, good will toward men." ^{Luke 2:14;}

"Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation," Mrs. Eddy says, God's gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind." ^{Science and Health, p. 1;} One cannot truly pray and not have a sense of love in his heart. What is it to love? To see the man God created; to correct, in our thinking, wrong beliefs about man; to strive more earnestly to reflect this love in our daily activities. This loving will bring peace on earth.

Scientific prayer is not a mere flash of inspiration or of brief ecstasy. It is consistent right knowing that transforms human life. Such prayer is not what we say but what we do. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of Truth and Love? If so, then the way will grow brighter 'unto the perfect day.'" ^{ibid., p. 496.}

When material beliefs have been conquered in a degree, a life that is inspired by prayer in Christian Science can be peaceful. Such peace is the reverse of the belief in life as physical, sometimes full of hostilities, a mixture of good and evil. If we would have peace, we must not be controlled either by a belief in war or a fear of it. We must correct hatred, and discord with love and harmony; nothing else will bring permanent on earth.