In the Gospel of Matthew, wherein it is recorded that Jesus addressed the people about him from a hillside in Galilee, the world reads precepts simple and tender in the spirit of their ministration, yet so exalted in ideal that they promise to cut away, in their performance, all the selfish sin of human kind. Among the activities which Jesus defines as blessed by the Father, stands one which speaks great quietness of heart: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."
While peace may be taken, in its narrower meaning, to indicate just a cessation of hostilities or an establishment of neutrality between factions or individuals, the Christian finds peace to be more than a negative condition, he finds it to be a quality of mind and heart distinct in its nature and decisive in its effect. The Christian Scientist further finds that the peacemaker is more than a person; that a condition of thought which makes for peace is the real peacemaker; that this peacemaking presence may animate any individual who grows to love the way of peace; and that he who will submerge his sense of personal rights in the community rights, yield his self-interest to the general welfare, and surrender his human will to the spirit which desires the greatest good for the greatest number, is a messenger of peace in thought and deed. He who brings peace whereever he goes, must delight in the spirit of peace, sacrificing gladly the instincts of self which by their very nature wage constant warfare against peace. He must be a loving standard-bearer, lifting on high his ideal of "good will toward men" that it may overshadow every earthly consideration. In short, he who bears peace to his brethren must be imbued with nothing less than that spirit of consecration which loves and lives the peace it talks about.
Peace is not a cause; it is an effect. The psalmist discerned the source of peace when he declared, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them;" the wisdom of Solomon detected the human need for divine Love when it was written, in the Proverbs, that "a soft answer turneth away wrath;" and Christ Jesus defined the modus operandi of a peacemaking spirit when he admonished his disciples, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."
