With longing and earnest desire the thoughts of men turn to peace at this time when conflict throughout the world is making confusion. As the hungry long for food and the parched ground for the dew, so do men and women desire to find once more the ways of peace. Not without divine guidance can peace be found, however, and we may well ponder the promise in Isaiah, which says: "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee."
There is a continuing parable teaching us to look for good from a source above the human. Morning by morning comes the light and the kindness of the sun as from above, and when to the dusty and wilted plant its refreshment comes, by the gentle rain that falls from heaven, it is revived. Jesus used this parable to reveal the impartial and universal goodness of God, and from it taught his disciples that they ought to be likewise impartial in loving enemies, offering blessing for cursing, and doing good to those exhibiting hatred— all this, he said, "that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Having thus learned to look for good from above, and understanding what James brings out, that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," ought it not to be clear that our true teaching and guidance must also come from above? No one knows better than the earnest student the truth of the saying of the preacher, "Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." What libraries of human records there are which remind one of the words of Jeremiah: "They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity." How infrequently an ordinary course of education brings joyful inspiration and heavenward aspiration. Is it not a usual experience that what with toil the student learns, he must later often labor to forget? When he learns true wisdom, the wisdom based on divine Principle, he recognizes how much of materiality and sensuality there is in the classics, how many unprovable guesses there are in human philosophies, and how little of divine light there is in human histories. He is reminded of the warning and promise given by Habakkuk, when he says: "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
Let it not be assumed that objection is raised to true learning or the efforts of the scientific investigator. Mrs. Eddy says plainly: "Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought" (Science and Health, p. 195). And she emphatically says further: "Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal. It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we deplore,—the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the nauseous fiction."
