Where is there an individual who is not desirous of finding peace? Nations pray for it; fight for it; men and women make great sacrifices in an effort to attain it and find only an approximation of it, for individuals and nations can attain perfect peace only by knowing what it is and whence it comes. Peace is not based upon human understanding or human reasoning, nor is it the result of human conditions or material circumstances.
Christ Jesus possessed and preserved the true sense of peace throughout his entire life and ministry. His was "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7) and which attested his complete fidelity to the Christ, the spiritual idea of God, his true selfhood. To come into the Master's presence was to feel the serenity and security of well-being, the conscious sense that all is well with God and man. We have his promise, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (John 14: 27). But we earn and win this peace only by manifesting the same consecration to good, the same undeviating devotion to Principle, and the same constant and consistent reflection of Love that marked his life and example.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isa. 26:3). Here is stated the divine requirement, the perfect pattern for peace. The peace of real healing comes when one's thought is stayed not on the flesh, but on Spirit. According to Christian Science, the mesmeric confusion of physical sense testimony, presented both as cause and symptoms, is only the subtlety of the serpent. Health appears when one's mind is stayed on Truth, for health is the normal activity of good, of Truth in consciousness. Thus to have one's mind stayed on Truth is to come into agreement with what is true—with what is real —and to refuse to be impressed by or give consent to symptoms of any kind. "Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously." So writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, on page 392 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
