"Can you stop war?" This was the provocative question I asked my Christian Science Sunday School students, who were in their early teens. Their startled looks told me I had really stirred up their thinking.

I was substituting in the class that morning and did not seem to be making much headway with the students. Quickly I turned to God, the Father, and asked Him what I could say to these young people to rouse them and get a thoughtful discussion started. My question certainly startled them, but I still didn't get much of a response. So I started around the circle, asking each one a challenging question.

I asked one student, "Do you argue with your brothers and sisters?" I received a rather reluctant nod, but a nod nevertheless. I asked the next student, "Do you disagree with your parents?" That question hit home! I continued questioning and asked, "Do you find fault with your teachers?" Another affirmative reply. Still one more question, "Do you ever lose your temper?" They all agreed to that one.

"Well, then," I asked, "where does war begin? Doesn't it begin with you? Doesn't it start right at your own doorstep?" Now I had their attention, and a sparkling interchange of questions and answers began. I told them about a popular song I had been hearing, which called for peace on earth to begin "with me." We all agreed that this was so.

The Master, Christ Jesus, was known as the Prince of Peace, and his every effort was channeled to help mankind achieve the peace that is of God and comes from knowing and obeying Him. This peace is not the usual, human sense of peace, which can be little more than contentment with the material status quo. It is a wholly new, spiritual way of living. Thus Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." ^{John 14:27.} Jesus knew that worldly ways of thinking and acting would never produce lasting peace. He showed us that real peace comes from spirituality, from understanding God as He really is and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Loving them! This Christly love shuts out criticism, pride, envy, and hate. These warring elements of thought dissolve when the rays of the divine Love that is God permeate our consciousness. The prophet Isaiah said, "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." ^{Isa. 30:15.} And the Psalmist gave the divine message "Be still, and know that I am God." ^{Ps. 46:10.} The quietness, the stillness, and the confidence come from turning, turning, turning, to God and leaning on Him.

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace," ^{Science and Health, p. 506.} Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, assures us in Science and Health with Key to the scripture This is an unquestionable fact, but keeping thought exalted and calm in the face of turbulence in our lives and in world and national affairs is no trivial affair. It takes moral courage and steadfast trust in the spiritual reality of things. How do we attain such an altitude of thought? Through prayer and vigilance. We need to rule out of thought whatever would harass, vex, or seduce our thinking and thereby keep us from being a healing, peacemaking influence in the world.

Unfair criticism, harsh judgment, and self-righteous condemnation of others are three things that many of us indulge in and that we all too often try to justify, excusing these actions as standing for divine Truth and Principle. Not so! None of these characteristics contribute to peace, so let's pour in the kindness, gentleness, compassion, and love based on a spiritual sense of God and man. Christian Science teaches that the one Mind, God, divine Love, is forever sustaining and governing each of His offspring. It emphasizes the oneness of Mind, the allness of Mind, and the great need to love our neighbor by seeing him as God made him—wholly spiritual and good. One of the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal states:

Peace may not come in a moment, and we will experience storms just as Jesus and his disciples did when they were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples, feeling threatened by the violence of the storm and filled with fear, woke him, crying, "Lord, save us: we perish." ^{Matt. 8:25.} The Master arose and rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, and then rebuked the storm. Instantly the storm was stilled.

We all at times face storms in our everyday experiences. They may come in the form of turbulent business conditions, family disturbances, jealousy, envy, hate. Stormy conditions, every one of them! We still these storms to the degree we approximate Jesus' purity of thought and spiritual strength. It is our love of God, divine Spirit, and our spiritual understanding of His omnipotence and omnipresence that enable us to have the calm trust that is our "Peace, be still" to discord and unrest.

One kind of warfare that we can all take part in and win, certain of peaceful results, is the warfare with ourselves. Mrs. Eddy states: "Self-ignorance, self-will, self-righteousness, lust, covetousness, envy, revenge, are foes to grace, peace, and progress; they must be met manfully and overcome, or they will uproot all happiness. Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118.} The moments in our day will be well spent and amply rewarded as we courageously battle sin and evil wherever they appear. Our job is to lift thought to God and replace fear, hate, anger, criticism, with Christlike conviction, gentleness, appreciation of and for each other, and gratitude for God's overflowing abundance of good. This warfare with oneself is grand, and it gives one the employment that is rewarding—and the salary is unlimited! This kind of warfare brings lasting peace, and it begins with us.

Turning to God is not a sign of weakness but of meekness, of humble spiritual might. The Bible says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." ^{Isa. 26:3.} It is so much more rewarding to turn to God quietly and confidently and ask, "Father, what shall I do now?" than to hassle humanly over what needs to be done and how to do it. Here again it is a matter of practice making perfect. As we take time, in fact make time, to seek God's direction and then obediently follow that inner sense of peace, precious moments of Christlike consciousness will be ours and we will be proving that peace begins with us and spreads to all the world.