Why have so few people found peace, when men have prayed for it through the centuries? Because they have sought it where it can never be found. They have searched for it in matter rather than in the things of Spirit.

Our Master, Christ Jesus, left the human race this comforting assurance (John 14:27): "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." Since he realized he was controlled by God every moment, he found this peace in his complete submission to the government of God, to the rulership of His Christ.

Mary Baker Eddy makes plain through Christian Science how we may bring ourselves under this rulership of the Christ and experience here and now the peace which Christ Jesus left with us. In instructing her followers how to heal the sick, she says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 416. 417), "Teach them that their being is sustained by Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace, and harmony in God, divine Love." Since peace is found in divine Love, the individual finds peace in learning to love. He who loves, as the reflection of Love, is the likeness of Love, and in this Godlikeness he recognizes himself as the child of God's care, at rest in His omnipotence.

As we express the qualities of the Mind that is God, we experience the harmony and health which are eternally ours by divine right. Who that has felt the spiritual attributes of affection, compassion, gratitude, faith, honesty, meekness, tenderness, and purity stir in his heart, has not felt the glow of an unspeakable peace? These graces of Spirit are lights from heaven which shine in darkness and expel from the consciousness of him that admits them the dream shadows of doubt and fear, of disease and death, of sin and grief—of all, in fact, that would rob him of his peace. They constitute that spiritual-mindedness which is constantly aware of God as the tender Father-Mother Love, who is infinitely joyous, and whose law is one of joy to His universe of perfect, complete, harmonious ideas.

The peace that "the world giveth." however, is not peace. The carnal mind's belief in matter would separate us from God, the one source of man's bliss and well-being. Dependence upon matter leads to pleasures that are pain, to joys that are sorrow. They lose their peace who seek it in wealth and worldly honors. Human doctrines, orthodox creeds, and materia medica have not solved the great problems of being. These man-made systems cry, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." They are dreams of mortal sense, which induce belief in security where there is danger, and foster hope and reliance where there should be distrust. They cause the people to depart from the spiritual idea, which alone bestows health and harmony. In the language of Jeremiah (25:27), they "think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams."

Sin of every sort—false appetites, selfishness, resentment, idle conversation, and aimless criticisms of others—is a foe to peace. It silently allures its victim into servitude and suffering, until he is rescued by the Christ Science.

Christian Science presents the glorious fact, however, that all foes to peace have in truth no more dominion over man than over his Maker. They are alien to Truth and Truth's idea. Corporeal sense alone is afraid. Its fears and unrest can never touch man—man, the immortal and joyous son of God. Having no law through which to operate and no mind in which to exist, they can be rendered null and void in human experience. The law of God, of Soul, expunges the false testimony of material sense from human consciousness, while the law of Love restores spiritual sense, which is forever at peace.

Divine Love alone, acting through spiritual law, can lead men and nations out of this erroneous sense of existence into the spiritual, into the promised land of Christian Science, where man is seen to be forever at liberty and free to do God's will. This divine leading and ruling restores happiness and harmony to human thought and action. It imparts strength where there was weakness, courage where there was fear, ensures success where there was failure, and bestows comfort where there was mourning.

This fact was recently proved by a new student of Christian Science who, because of her proficiency in her work, was being persecuted by the jealousy of her fellow workers and her immediate superior. In time she lost confidence in herself, began to fear the loss of her position, and was about to resign. She was told by a Christian Scientist that it might be wiser for her to remain and strive to express more patience and love towards her associates. Presently her fears gave way to courage, and she grew daily in strength and assurance. Shortly afterwards she was promoted to the head of one of the largest departments of the business, which she is now managing successfully and with increasing happiness.

Iniquity and tribulation seem greatly to abound in these latter days. Mortal mind holds up to human view ugly pictures of destruction, desolation, and cruelty. Christ Jesus admonishes us not to let our hearts be troubled, however, when these things come, for he assures us that then we "shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). This prophecy is being fulfilled. In this dark hour a great light is shining—the light of Christian Science. It is piercing the darkness and presenting the imperishable glories of heaven and earth and man. "Follow the directions of God as simplified in Christian Science," says our Leader, "and though it be through deserts He will direct you into the paths of peace" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 361).

Individuals who would find the peace which the Master left us must, therefore, follow the teachings of the Comforter whose coming he promised. These teachings, which he said will lead "into all truth," present man—the only man there is—as the son of God indestructible in Life and joyous in the Father's limitless love. Those who demonstrate these teachings lose a sense of fear for friends and loved ones and rejoice in the forever fact that even though they may be at the battle front or in prison camps, their only true life is safe in His omnipotence. These times demand renewed gratitude and loyalty to our Leader. Those who stand on the side of Science and faithfully follow her will be led out of the bondage of sense into the sinlessness, serenity, and joys of Soul, and here and now find rest beside the still waters.

The individual who finds peace through Christian Science contributes to the peace of his home, his community, his country, and to that of the world. He thus brings peace among nations nearer realization. The instruments of organized international co-operation are valuable aids to maintaining peace at this period of human history, but Christian Science alone can destroy the mental causes of war and establish peace on a scientific basis.

As Christian Scientists the world over find through divine Science the peace that Christ Jesus left with us, they will hold crimes against men and nations in check. Peoples will then live under the God-promised "covenant of peace."