Two sayings of Jesus, recorded in John's Gospel, are of deep and enduring interest. One of them reads: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" (John 14:27); the other, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Christ Jesus overcame the world, leaving his peace and the method of gaining it as a rich legacy to his followers, and telling them to be unafraid, untroubled, of good cheer. He himself could not possibly have been other than at peace, since he had overcome all worldliness. His overcoming meant victory over material sense in its every form—all the suggestions of matter, the flesh, evil.
The temptations of the world— matter, the flesh, evil—are no different now from what they were when the Master triumphed over them. They still are the common enemy of mankind. Envy, jealousy, hatred, revenge, and lust remain the bitter foes of the human race. And nothing is more certain than that if any of them is indulged, inharmony results and peace of mind vanishes. Think how envy or jealousy tortures those who allow themselves to become its victim. They lose the true spiritual perspective; the actions of others are misunderstood and misjudged by them; and peace of mind disappears, leaving them stricken and pained. So it is with all the other false beliefs of evil: whoever allows himself to be victimized by them is sure to have to pay the penalty; sure to be robbed of his rightful sense of harmony and peace; sure, sooner or later, to suffer the pangs of regret.
To attain to a measure of peace of mind these enemies, these mortal mind beliefs, must be overcome in individual experience, for as Mrs. Eddy writes (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 278), "Peace is the promise and reward of rightness." A wonderful sentence that—full of meaning! And how is "rightness" to be cultivated, rightness which is the harbinger of peace? A hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 277) refers to peace as "the fruit of conquered sin." In the measure that belief in the reality of matter or evil is indulged, and the belief made the basis of sensuous indulgence, in that measure is genuine peace denied. To reach the haven of perfect peace, all sin must be overcome—all materiality, all evil.
