Recent discoveries in the field of physical science compel us to recognize that the safety and progress of the race depend on righteous thinking and the resulting constructive use of these discoveries. Harnessing atomic energy to means of destruction has hastened the conclusion that we must direct every thought to the promotion of peace, if we are to realize the promise of future progress latent in the progress mankind has already made. On the international scene emphasis has been shifted from the use of material force to a search for other means of compulsion in the relations of nations. The realization is coming to statesmen and men on the street alike that the only controls which can be effective will issue from right thinking rather than from physical restraint.
Such a conclusion was advanced a number of years ago when Mary Baker Eddy said (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 209), "No greater hope have we than in right thinking and right acting, and faith in the blessing of fidelity, courage, patience, and grace." We may note that she places right thinking first, and it is certainly first in importance, since it alone can produce right acting. We can indeed be grateful that there is widespread and growing recognition of this fact by those who are trying to solve the problems of the day. Truly "man's extremity is God's opportunity."
One student of Christian Science who was situated in the Pacific theater of war found himself so absorbed in discussions of current events at the time when the atomic bombs were used that he became confused. The destruction seemed so widespread that fear and dread were allowed to possess his thought, and he could not see how he might relate his thinking in Christian Science to the situation. However, he was able to remember many times in his experience when fear had loomed very large but had been met with the spiritual truth and successfully vanquished. So he saw that there was no reason why this fear and confusion should not yield also.
