Centuries have passed since the night when the Saviour was born and shepherds heard the heavenly host saying (Luke 2:14), "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." But the truth of that message continues to overcome contention and will do so until God's peaceful kingdom is fully known to mankind. Today many nations are anxiously declaring their desire to contribute to world peace, and individuals are working to bring about the end of senseless destruction. The great need is that men and nations first make their peace with God. Only in this way will they find themselves permanently at peace with their neighbors.
One makes his peace with God by accepting the great truths of Christian Science, which reveals man as God's image, His reflection, and declares that every child of God possesses all that belongs to the Father by reason of his status as reflection. But God's creation consists of ideas, not material objects which mortals desire, grasp for, divide up, and quarrel over. Material objects represent states of the carnal mind and are only that false mind's way of defining God's creation. Hence, the disposition of matter cannot determine peace, but a true understanding of creation can. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Pulpit and Press" (pp. 21, 22), "Only what feeds and fills the sentiment with unworldliness, can give peace and good will towards men."
The enemy of peace is the material sense of life that holds mankind in a state of worldliness or materialism, the false sense which sees substance as matter instead of Spirit, God, and which sets men against each other in a struggle for material advantage. Once this evil sense is recognized for what it is, the ruthless modes of selfishness and unfair competition give way to the desire to cleanse one's thoughts within and to know creation as God makes it.
