In spite of jealousies, feuds, and wars, humanity has been seeking a basis of agreement, even though this may not have seemed to be its desire. Often, of course, a despot has tried to impose on the world by force his own will as a basis on which he would have all unite regardless of their inclinations. Whenever a tyrant has succeeded in suppressing rebellions and disorders and in consolidating his kingdom by a reign of terror, his achievement has not endured, for the belief in materiality as a foundation on which to build has no power to unify people or conditions of thought. The force that unifies is Principle, and what continues in unity throughout eternity is idea, not matter or mortality. Principle and its idea, in fact, is the basis of agreement which all must seek and demonstrate.
Of what avail have been the treaties and tribunals of the past, and for what can we hope from those which are evolving now as a result of the war? On page 121 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy declares, '"Human tribunals, if just, borrow their sense of justice from the divine Principle thereof, which punishes the guilty, not the innocent." Every arrangement for order, or law, in affairs has succeeded in proportion as it has embodied Principle, not the desires and opinions of mortals. Whatever of thinking and acting has been based on Principle in the past has remained, while whatever has rested on the belief in matter has in the end passed away or been transformed beyond recognition.
Since a treaty cannot, of course, enforce itself, after it has been accepted by the parties who have formulated it, all must work out its meaning in practice, by depending not merely on the letter of its provisions but more on the Principle of its idea. To say this is to state a truism in Christian Science, which must eventually be recognized by humanity in general if treaties are to fulfill their purpose. A treaty is an attempt to state a basis of agreement between nations, and as such is a beginning rather than an end. When a treaty has been ratified, its value still has to be proved in experience. Thus, of the settlement that was arranged at the close of the war between Russia and Japan, Mrs. Eddy says, beginning on page 281 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," "The treaty of Portsmouth is not an executive power, although its purpose is good will towards men."
