PEACE ON EARTH

IN all literature there is nothing, perhaps. more familiar to the Christian world, or more exquisite withal, than Luke's recounting of the vision of the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem when the angel brought to them word of the birth of Jesus. Nothing has ever been written which appeals to the thought of humanity with a greater sense of joy and hope. How simple and yet how beautiful is this picture of the faithful shepherds, "keeping watch over their flock by night;" and "the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid."

Then came the comforting assurance that they were not to fear, because the angel brought "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." After that there was the wonderful news, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord;" and the final marvelous praising of God by the "multitude of the heavenly host," saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Here is the story of what may be called the greatest event in all human history, and the one which is fraught with deepest interest and value to all mankind. Here is a recording of the coming of the Christ, who is to save all people, and who is to glorify God "in the highest," bringing "on earth peace, good will toward men." In this occasion, which marked the beginning of what is known as the Christian era. we have a tremendous impulsion in that insistent march towards the spiritualization of all things,—that march which will never cease until all men shall have reached the understanding of the Christ, Truth, and peace on earth shall be universally understood and realized.

If most men were asked if they desire peace, they would be apt to answer emphatically in the affirmative. Indeed, to-day there are few things more talked of; and some believe they are doing all they know how in order to advance peaceful conditions in the world at large. What mankind, as a whole, does not yet fully discern is the fact that peace on earth can be brought about in only one way. It is only as men awaken to the necessity of following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus that universal peace can become an assured fact. Even this is, however, beginning to be recognized by an ever increasing number as the only way of salvation for the world from its manifold difficulties; and herein lieth a great hope for this age.

Christ Jesus was the one who proved under every condition that peace resulted for him and for others only in the degree that the will of God was understood and obeyed. He it was who under every circumstance victoriously demonstrated that the peace "which passeth all understanding" resulted from his triumph over that which is unlike God. He never looked for it in materiality; but as he met and mastered the claims of mortal existence he won the peace which alone satisfies.

Unselfishness was one of the most prominent keynotes in his life among men, and it was as he conquered all the beliefs in a selfhood apart from God that men were universally blessed through his example and demonstration. Without Christian Science mankind could not understand that unselfishness means the overcoming of self-will, self-love, and self-justification in each human consciousness. Mrs. Eddy defines these, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 242), as "the adamant of error" and "the law of sin and death." It was through triumphing over these universal claims of evil that Jesus gained the continually recurring peace which finally resulted for him, and must result equally for all, in the peace which knows no end.

Perfect peace is won by degrees. It does not come for the mere asking. It does not come alone for the seeking. It is one of the added things which result from seeking "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." Paradoxical as it may seem to be, peace often comes only as the human mind sacrifices what it calls peace. Mrs. Eddy, in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (pp. 12, 13), in speaking of her founding of "the institutions and early movements of the Cause of Christian Science," writes, "In this endeavor self was forgotten, peace sacrificed, Christ and our Cause my only incentives, and each success incurred a sharper fire from enmity."

She who walked most closely in the footsteps of our blessed Master, recognized, as did he, that peace which is to endure can be won only as mortals are willing not so much to seek it, as to seek the overcoming of that which precludes its realization. While the fullness of peace can come to all men only as every mortal fault is destroyed, our pathway is continually being cheered by some degree of its presence. For each victory won, each wrong proved unreal, must be followed by some measure of the blissful consciousness of God's nearness and power; and this is the true meaning of peace.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 227) our beloved Leader gives us a vision of this when she says, "The sublime summary of an honest life satisfies the mind craving a higher good, and bathes it in the cool waters of peace on earth; till it grows into the full stature of wisdom, reckoning its own by the amount of happiness it has bestowed upon others." How true this is; and yet how rarely have men measured their own by the good they have brought to their fellows! How seldom have they gained the wisdom which knows that only unselfish living can ever bring lasting satisfaction! And still, the Christian Scientist understands full well that he knows blessedness only as he reflects that which blesses. He has had it proved to him over and over again that he never knows true peace except he win it as "the fruit of conquered sin," as he triumphs over some selfish tendency, as he overcomes some arrogant claim of a mind and a will apart from the divine.

As another Christmas season approaches, when all the Christian world is turning its thought towards the birth of Christ Jesus, his mission to the world and to the individual, could there be a more appropriate time for Christian Scientists to realize anew their responsibility in proving by their unselfed living that the Christ is here to-day in our midst, fulfilling through Christian Science the promises the angels sang in the "long ago"? If each and every one of us—even as did our Leader—will forget self, sacrifice peace, have Christ and the Cause our only incentives, who can tell how rapidly the whole world shall be won to Christ and Christian Science, and peace on earth be universally known!

Then let us all pray with Charles Wesley:—

Ella W. Hoag.