IN the book of Isaiah we find a wonderfully graphic and poetical description of human conditions at the time when peace shall come to take the place of war and right to displace all wrong. The prophet says: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." He then pictures a battlefield "with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood;" and in the very midst of this a child is born who is called "Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Of the permanence of the new order we are assured in these words: "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, ... to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even for ever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
Almost as far back as human history goes, we find records of war and oppression, but in the case of the Jewish nation we are told that their bondage to alien powers always followed their disobedience to divine law, and that their deliverance came through some one who was clear-sighted enough to know that spirituality alone brings freedom, and who was able to inspire the nation with the hope and courage which always attend spiritual vision. Thus we read in the book of Judges that the children of Israel "did evil in the sight of the Lord," and in consequence of this departure from God, good, they were for twenty years "mightily oppressed" by Jabin, king of Canaan. This' king was a great military power, for we read that he had "nine hundred chariots of iron;" while the Israelites were not a warlike people, and we are told that there were "divisions" among them. But there was in the land a prophetess, Deborah, who heard the voice of God, and at the right hour she called the people to rise, and "assert their freedom in the name of Almighty God," to quote our revered Leader's words (Science and Health, p. 228). This they did, and great was the victory over their cruel oppressors; but it was not won by numbers or by military prowess. In their song of triumph we are told that "the mountains melted from before the Lord," that the rains descended and swelled the river Kishon until it overflowed its banks and covered the plain where the nine hundred chariots of iron were ready for battle, sweeping the enemy before it. Well sang Deborah on this occasion, "O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength!"
Let no one here suppose that Christian Science teaches that God destroys any of His creatures, as in the case cited, which is a graphic account of that self-destruction of error, so frequently illustrated in "the crude footprints of the past;" whereas Science teaches that "there should be painless progress, attended by life and peace" (Ibid., p. 224). The psalmist says: "He [God] maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire;" and in Revelation we read: "In righteousness he doth judge and make war."
