The Peace of God

Duncan Sinclair

Christ Jesus was born in Bethlehem. His birth had been foretold many times by the prophets of the Hebrew people; and so important was the event that the star of Bethlehem shone forth to celebrate it and to guide the wise men to where the babe was laid, while "a multitude of the heavenly host" burst forth in praise to God for His unspeakable gift to the sons of men, that gift which would bring to them the peace of God which passeth understanding. The Savior had come in the fullness of time to glorify God, the Father, and to bring peace to the world, by teaching men the love of God and how to embody that love in their relations with their fellow-men.

How many centuries have gone since he who was cradled in the lowly manger and afterwards became the great Revelator of Truth to his own and all succeeding ages, demonstrated to the multitudes who thronged his steps, as he traversed his native land, the power of God to heal all manner of disease and sin, and taught them how to gain the peace of God? Over nineteen centuries. And is it not pathetic to think that even now, nearly two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, the world still finds itself often the sorely tortured victim of its own evil beliefs? Individuals there are who certainly have attained to some measure of the peace of God; but as a whole, mankind remains much as it was when the Roman held sway over Palestine and the Hebrew paid tribute money to Cæsar.

When comforting his disciples and promising them "another Comforter," "even the Spirit of truth," as John records in unsurpassably beautiful language in the fourteenth chapter of his gospel, Christ Jesus said to them: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." It had always been thus with Jesus. He was constantly assuring his followers that the peace of God would be theirs, if they but hearkened to the Word of God and lived in conformity with His revealed will. But what is the will of God, obedience to which brings peace to the human heart? First of all, however, one must be enlightened as to the nature of God. God's nature must be understood; and it is this understanding which Christian Science gives.

Christian Science declares that God is infinite Truth, Spirit, Mind, Love; that spiritual existence alone is real; and, consequently, that so-called matter is a false sense of reality,—an illusion of what men call material sense. Moreover, Christian Science declares that so-called material sense is the source of all inharmony, the seeming cause of every human woe. Destroy this false sense, replace it by spiritualized consciousness, and the problem of human suffering is solved. And spiritualization of thought can be brought about only through the Christ, Truth,—that is, by the understanding of the perfect spiritual idea emanating from omnipresent divine Mind. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 264) Mrs. Eddy says: "Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love." One, then, is living spiritually,—that is, doing the will of God,—when he is reflecting divine Truth and Love, embodying in his thought the perfectly good spiritual ideas of God, and endeavoring to prove in his living that matter is devoid of intelligence, substance, and power. In other words, our peace is in proportion to the spirituality of our lives.

Mrs. Eddy beheld the world more convulsed, perhaps, than ever it had been before, in a terrific struggle. How could it be otherwise, after her great discovery of the allness of good and the unreality of evil had begun to dawn upon the adamantine materialism of the age? On page 96 of Science and Health she says: "This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace." Note how she couples Science with peace! And are we not witnessing, even to-day, something of this conflict and this peace? They were bound to come. The world had had presented to it the Science of being, the absolute truth about God's allness and perfection, and had been told by Christian Science that matter or evil is unreal; hence the fierceness of the storm. Those who know not the truth, as Christian Science reveals it, stand in dismay at the discord; those who possess a measure of spiritual understanding, and who are trying their best to demonstrate or put into practice what they know, are experiencing, even now, a measure of the peace of God.

There is but one way whereby men can enter into the enjoyment of the peace of God. It is the way of divine Science. All the false beliefs about God and His perfect creation must be swept away; men must learn the truth about the spiritual cause of all real existence and the fallacious nature of every material thought. "If men understood their real spiritual source to be all blessedness," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 329 of Science and Health, "they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace."

Peace, then, the peace of God, must be striven for. Every victory over the flesh—the material sense of things—is ushering in this peace; and we can be certain that whenever the last belief in the reality of matter has been overcome by the Christ, Truth, then the peace of God that passeth human understanding, and which was heralded on the plains of Bethlehem on the first Christmas Eve, will reign supreme over all the earth.

Duncan Sinclair.

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The Star of Bethlehem

December 23, 1922

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