With the coming of the rare June days the most beautiful things in nature throng us with their tender appeal; recalling the Master's words, "If God so clothe the grass of the field,. . . shall he not much more clothe you?" The fields and flowers tell only of Love and of peace, never of hatred or strife; and yet, in the midst of these blossomings, there are mortal and sanguinary conflicts for right and, alas! too often, for wrong; though the Master said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin [much less, contend for their rights]: And yet I say unto you. That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
How far both men and nations have strayed from the realization of the harmony and peace expressed by the flowers of the field, let the earth—stained with blood and deluged with tears—bear record. Saddest of all is the fact that war is waged in the name of "The Prince of Peace."—Divine authority claimed for fratricidal slaughter! Even the words of Christ Jesus, spoken at the last supper, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one;" in which he clearly taught that his disciples should use only spiritual weapons, as he had always done; even these are shorn of their true meaning and taken as an endorsement of war and its horrors. It would seem that Peter, then wavering between truth and error, evidently misunderstood his Teacher, and he was rebuked when he attempted to defend Jesus by cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant. The Master, ever consistent with his own teaching, said, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" He then showed them that the weapons of his warfare were not material, but spiritual. He touched the man's ear, and healed him; and this records the last case of healing in Jesus' earthly ministry. The "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," was Jesus' only weapon, and even in that awful hour, after the agony in Gethsemane and the bloody sweat, he did not neglect this one opportunity to prove the healing power of the divine Truth he had revealed in all his mighty works, and at the same time to impress indelibly on human consciousness his oft-repeated lesson of forgiveness.
Down the long years come the living words of the Master, and we may rejoice with a joy unspeakable that their meaning grows clearer to us each day in the light of Christian Science. In this light we see that, in spite of all error, the spirit of the Christ is being more and more recognized; the demands of divine Principle more and more obeyed. We may confidently look for the abolition of war when it is regarded as not only un-Christian but unmanly. A hundred years ago it was considered proper for a man in good society to strike another who offended him, sometimes in the presence of women. Now, this would be regarded as not only brutal but disgraceful,—indicative of an utter lack of the self-control which differentiates the man from the brute.
