FROM the beginnings of Biblical history the spiritually-minded have anticipated the advent of the reign of perpetual peace. They have foreseen the coming of the kingdom of heaven upon earth, when all mankind would live in the true sense of brotherhood, and strife and contention would be no more. The righteous have increasingly recognized the horrors of war, even though they have not been able to invoke a better method of settling contentions between peoples, and of overcoming the selfish efforts of the evil-minded. Isaiah, more clearly than many of the prophets, foresaw the coming of the Prince of Peace and voiced his expectations in appealing phrase. Of the mission of the Christ, the prophet declared, "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
What a glorious vision of peace and good will among all men! The weapons of war transformed into implements of peace, the pruning hook with which the husbandman prunes his vines, the plow with which he turns the soil—surely there can be no more peaceful symbols than these useful instruments. And they are to supersede the implements of strife when nations shall "learn war" no more.
The world torn by the recent conflict as never before is awake to the paramount necessity of doing away with warfare, that most barbarous method of attempting to settle difficulties between nations. Christians are agreed that as a relic of savagery war has no place in the economy of civilized nations. Christian Scientists, as Christian metaphysicians who look for the mental cause, are especially awake to the uselessness of warfare as a means of settling disputes, and accordingly their frequent prayers are for its abolishment, in order that the blessings of peace may supplant the horrors of war. Mrs. Eddy foresaw this great need of mankind and frankly stated her position. On page 278 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she boldly declares: "War is in itself an evil, barbarous, devilish. Victory in error is defeat in Truth. War is not in the domain of good; war weakens power and must finally fall, pierced by its own sword." A more arresting stricture upon war and its barbarities could scarcely have been uttered.
