Although statesmen have worked for peace, soldiers have fought for it, and many have prayed for it, its achievement sometimes seems to be farther away than ever. Are we not entitled to a permanent, definite, scientific peace? And is it not evident that since neither economics, politics, nor force of arms has as yet achieved peace, the perplexing problem of strife needs to be approached from a spiritual basis? Any world problem or any national problem is the sum of the thinking of the individuals affected by it. This problem, to be solved, must at first be overcome in individual thought. If the problem is one of strife, the consciousness of the individual has to be pacified through the only method available: the replacement of confused thinking with scientific understanding of spiritual facts.

The whole issue is most understandingly clarified in the following passage from the epistle of James (3: 16-18): "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." These lines provide a wonderful plan for any peace conference. The writer has applied their truth in business discussions and at committee meetings, and it has unfailingly established peace in individual thought.

Christian Science shows us how to apply and demonstrate peace. Its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," written by Mary Baker Eddy, contains rules by which peace is brought to the consciousness of the individual. The contribution of Christian Science to universal peace will be achieved in the measure that peace is established in every heart.

In her answer to the question, "What are the demands of the Science of Soul?" Mrs. Eddy includes this passage (Science and Health, p. 467): "It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ."

Peace established by God is inherent in the perfect divine creation and exists from everlasting to everlasting. It is discerned by the individual as soon as he accepts the oneness of Mind. This oneness implies Mind's allness, rules out plurality, overcomes opposition, and nullifies contention. Since there is only one Mind, there can be only oneness of purpose, oneness of volition, oneness of action, and oneness of results. Infinite oneness, all-pervading, all-power, makes duality impossible, uncovers the imaginary nature of everything that seems to start from duality or lead to division. Where there is no duality there can be no opposition; where there is no opposition there can be no strife. In infinite Mind there is only one infinite kingdom, one infinite creation, one being, one purpose, one action, one result.

The one creation could not contain warring nations, wrangling factions, or quarreling individuals. In the oneness of the one Mind there never arises any contention. In the oneness of intelligence there is no place for any misunderstanding; in the oneness of infinite divine substance is no unjust distribution. Understanding the oneness of Principle unites human endeavors on the basis of divine action and omnipotence, which disarms malicious aggression and establishes the government of divine Truth, Life, and Love.

Before we can see this truth universally demonstrated, peace has to be practiced in our individual lives, right at our dinner table, in our office, our conference room, right in the town hall of our community. The one who pacifies his thinking by bringing it in line with the divine guidance of infinite Mind, by the assimilation of infinite intelligence, by the consistent practice of the rules of infinite Principle, inevitably arrives at the point where confusion and its apparent effects yield completely to a permanent inward and outward peace.

In the oneness of divine creation there is only one family, united in love. The office of the Christ is to reveal this, and as we accept this revelation we become fellow workers in the Father's business. Understanding the nature of the one all-inclusive Church, we unite in the healing work as demonstrated by Christ Jesus and as taught by Christian Science.

The one kingdom can have no adversary, nor can it be attacked by any enemy, because it is the kingdom of divine consciousness individualized in man. In the oneness of Mind there is only one law, which can never be broken either by ignorance or by malicious intentions, either by individuals or by groups of individuals. Peace being a divine fact, unrest, insecurity, and strife are necessarily unfactual counterfeit suggestions, delusions, which can never penetrate the realm of the real. This understanding of the nature of peace dissolves whatever may suggest strife.

The gaining of this peace in individual consciousness, not through the subduing of an enemy but through the overcoming of enmity, leads to healing, to the awakened consciousness which knows that peace is. Peace, spiritually understood, is absolute and incontrovertible, actual, tangible, and concrete. Safe above the maze of abstract misconceptions of it, peace is final and unassailable for all time to come. Peace always has been, and peace is.