The evening's television news was airing a report about a controversial military missile. There it was, soaring through the clear atmosphere with its shimmering trail of white cutting across a deep blue sky. A moment went by before I awoke from a feeling of exhilaration to the sober realization that this thing did not exist for the purpose of demonstrating the beauty of space flight! Like the rest of its type, it was designed to be aimed at and wreak devastation on a target—something or someone "over there," identified as "enemy."

In a world thirsting for genuine peace, the words of James in the Bible express what so many feel: "My brethren, these things ought not so to be."

How deeply we yearn to rid the earth of instruments of destruction. But how do we really—really—get at the fundamental cause of conflict and weapons of war and genuinely eliminate the fear and animosity that fuel conflict?

Perhaps there is an insight into the existence of missiles that can show us the root cause of war in such a way that it can be seen how we each can do what we really want to be able to do—play a concrete part in the banishment of all missiles from the face of the earth!

It's no surprise that this supremely practical, singular insight is demonstrated in the life of Christ Jesus. The study of Christian Science leads to an inevitable realization: where else are we ever going to find universally workable, just solutions—radically simple, penetratingly real, heartwarmingly right—except in his demonstration of how God's supreme law of love applies to human life? Christian Science takes the teachings of Jesus out of the realm of remote philosophy and shows them to be the healing, peace-giving truth that humanity hungers for.

It was in my daily walk, literally, as an urban pedestrian, that I began to see an often unrecognized responsibility each of us has for the elimination—or perpetuation—of missiles.

My reaction to the lawlessness and danger of selfish driving conduct in my city escalated until I was "shooting" virulent, hateful thoughts at those drivers! You may suspect exactly what that led to—my looking around one day, after being nearly hit, for a rock or bottle or anything to hurl at the departing offending vehicle! This was too much. This was not characteristic of me. It was not what a walk through one's neighborhood was supposed to be all about. I prayed. And through prayer became startlingly aware of something. Right there—I needed look no further—apparent in stark definition, was the very essence, the inception, the basis of missiles. I perceived that any "missile" launching, whether of fists, stones, bullets, ICBMs, satellite-based laser beams, or a pot (we tend to hurl whatever's available to our situation, budget, or technology!), is only an extension of—and inseparable from—the hurling of vengeful, spiteful, punishing thoughts. It's that simple and that profound. As long as you have the one, there will inevitably be the other.

Hating and revenge-seeking are unquestionably outside God's loving law of good, wholly contrary to the peaceful nature of divine reality. Through persistent prayer I was healed, I'm grateful to say, of that resentment and hate. Speeding and reckless driving are wrong. But self-righteously reacting with revengeful thoughts and things is at least as wrong. Judgmentally sending forth vindictive thought-missiles would only compound a heated situation, not heal it.

Prayer in Christian Science awakened me to the kind of healing response that is my privilege and duty to contribute to the mental atmosphere of my community—the acknowledgment that divine Love is ever present, embracing all; that neither lawlessness, selfishness, nor revengefulness is true of God's man, the man made by God in His own image and likeness as revealed in the Bible. It was the consistent acknowledgment of divine Truth, of the governing presence of God, and the understanding of the true nature of all men as being Love's pure, constant likeness, that brought real change to my outlook and response to others. Christian Science helped me feel man's divine goodness so genuinely that the unchristian reaction and inclination to resort to hurling something—first thoughts, then things—was washed permanently away.

If we are ever to eliminate the outward expression of violence, don't we each need to eliminate, be healed by Love of, the underlying mentality from which violence is impelled?

A noble and idealistic goal, some may say, but an impossible one. Well, I had experienced it firsthand. I had seen a degree of hatred and resentment defused by prayer in my own life. It showed me how we all can begin to prove the peacemaking power of divine Love.

An experience of Jesus' offers a remarkable and telling demonstration of spiritually impelled "disarmament." "A target" had been identified and condemned. The justification for a fatal strike was well established, but those ready to attack, moved by ulterior motives, turned to one more "authority," an authority whose judgment they intended to mock and overrule.

The account is in the book of John. A woman had been caught committing adultery. The traditional law commanded that adulterers be stoned to death. Before carrying out this sentence, the scribes and Pharisees had brought her to Jesus, related what the law said, and challenged him, "But what sayest thou?" Many malicious, destructive thoughts were poised and armed, the potential force behind multiple missile-stones.

Jesus didn't launch a defensive barrage of bargaining, rationalizing, or pleading. Nor did he react with a counteroffensive of personal wisdom or withering criticism.

At first he was silent. When he finally spoke, he spoke with a divine wisdom and authority that disarmed the ugly, apparently no-win situation. "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." One by one, the hostile group slipped away, leaving the woman to Jesus' custody. "Hath no man condemned thee?" he asked. Then, he who was without sin and presumably therefore eligible to cast a stone, reached out and uplifted her life with the healing impact of divine Life and Love. He freed her, saying, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

A thought-provoking question presents itself: Did those touched by Jesus' example ever again participate in a stoning? Surely some did spread something of this new feeling, this life-changing perception that there is something other than the cruel conventional way, by their more humbled thought and gentler lives. Something amazing had occurred, and all through spiritually enlightened thought, not rationally targeted, well-aimed missiles of rhetoric or stone. A tense confrontation, apparently destined to end in bloodshed, was divine Love-resolved, and every receptive heart gained a better sense of life.

True, this is an ideal, ultimate way. But a divine ideal is not meant to be resigned only to a far-off, who-knows-when eventuality. It is clear from the Master's teachings and works that it is meant to be brought more and more now into the forefront and immediacy of our daily living. So if we're tempted to "target" and fire off pointed, harsh, punishing thoughts of any degree of harmful intent at another, wherever we are—whether walking city streets, in school halls, at home, on playing fields, at our offices, driving our highways—we can prayerfully cease fire. We can be alert and not participate unintentionally in this misguided mentality that resorts to and evolves other and all types of missiles. Such alertness, prayer, and disarmament don't contribute to a deterioration of law and order but keep one safe, strong, and active in maintaining that atmosphere of love that antidotes and dispels the self-righteousness, thoughtlessness, and vengefulness that inevitably evolve conflict and weaponry.

By loving and obeying Christ's teachings, earnestly desiring to follow Jesus' example out of love for God and humanity, we can make progress at eliminating the whole range of hostile thought, from the merely cold through the mildly stinging to the heavyweight hateful. This will develop our ability truly to love, as well as respond to the God-inspired wisdom that needs to come into human lives to heal not only hatred and fear but the lawlessness that would threaten public and private well-being.

To be "armed" and impelled more and more by unselfed love reflected of God, renders our hearts and thoughts incapable of launching any ill will. Neither the slightly offensive "Why, you bum" nor the terribly explosive and malicious thought or act can emanate from us, and we will be making our individual, tangible contribution toward eliminating the whole range of physical missilery.

In her Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy furnishes an inspired insight to all who would follow Christ's way in ridding the earth of every form of missile: "We should measure our love for God by our love for man; and our sense of Science will be measured by our obedience to God,—fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all; imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought."