IT is probable that few of the Master's sayings have been less understood by the world at large than the seventh beatitude. To make peace, in the generally accepted meaning of the phrase, is to bring about an agreement between two people, or sets of people, who are apparently at variance. This may involve the making of concessions on both sides for the sake of what seems to be the general good, or it may be merely the glossing over of conditions yet fomenting, by the cry of "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." To the Christian Scientist, however, the seventh beatitude means something widely different from this. He knows that peace is made just to the extent that the spiritual fact of man's unity with God, and therefore of his unity with his fellow man, is apprehended and maintained, in spite of all appearances to the contrary; for the spiritual fact discerned and retained operates as spiritual law in the arena of human affairs, and must of necessity establish improved human conditions.
Any one who has ever been the means of wiping out the lie which calls itself dissension between brethren, by his clear perception of the spiritual fact, knows something of the blessedness of which the Master spoke. Indeed, one is blessed just to the extent that he comprehends the statement which Mrs. Eddy makes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 71): "Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense." It is merely a lie, that which claims to be and is not.
We sometimes thoughtlessly speak of others as "channels for error." A channel is that through which something passes; furthermore, nothing could pass through a channel unless there was some force behind it to propel it. Therefore, directly we admit the existence of a channel for evil we have admitted the existence of something apart from God which has the power of self-expression. Evil has in reality no power of self-expression, for the good and sufficient reason that it has no self to express. The power of self-expression belongs to God alone. Divine Love alone is intelligent, therefore Love alone has the ability to select and determine its expression. The recognition of this fact will aid in destroying any specific claims of evil, and at the same time help to cleanse any seeming channel through which evil has claimed that it could express itself.
