The enjoyment of victory, whether by nations or individuals, generally implies that others are encountering defeat, with all that word suggests of disappointment or humiliation. However, a recognition of the higher sense of the word victory and of its spiritual significance can go far toward tempering the undue exultation often associated with material success, while at the same time bringing solace and encouragement to those who may suffer the disillusionment of failure or defeat. Such a true and constructive sense of victory is taught by Mary Baker Eddy, the revered Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
In that marvelous compendium of practical and spiritual truth we find one of the most startling and at the same time one of the most encouraging statements which our Leader ever recorded. "Truth," she writes (p. 380), "is always the victor." This statement is as pointed as it is brief, and it leaves no loophole for exceptions to its invariable rule. Truth knows no failure; for Truth, in the final analysis, is God Himself, self-existent and eternal. To the extent that men and nations realize and accept this fact they can cling to Mrs. Eddy's mighty assertion whether they be classified as victors or as vanquished. Truth is forever above and beyond all human disagreements, be they arguments or wars, and indeed knows nothing of them; for if Truth knew error, it would in some degree partake of its nature and would thus be no longer Truth.
Truth is an invariable, irreducible standard which can never be less than perfectly accurate. By its very nature and definition it is real and eternal; therefore it is self-existent and victorious. The more fully and constantly we admit this fact, the more we shall see its results in sin overcome, sickness healed, inharmony brought to an end, and death itself destroyed. Since Truth knows no limits, its victory is of universal application and far transcends the human sense of victory, which by its very assertion of joyous success for some implies dismal failure for others. The Truth which is God is over and above nationalism and even internationalism. It is the unifying Principle of all good, available to all who are willing to accept it and to be subject to its stringent but glorious demands.
