Sometime around 700 bc the prophet Isaiah said, “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).
Fast-forward to the early 20th century and Isaiah’s words, if read as a literal prophecy, still weren’t realized. But something remarkable had happened. The Science behind the healing power demonstrated by Christ Jesus had been discovered by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866. By the early 20th century this transformative power so native to the early practice of Christianity was being proved anew by countless individuals. Yet Mrs. Eddy saw beyond the need for individual healing. She saw that the power that enabled Jesus to reform the sinner; heal those who were blind, deaf, or diseased; and walk unharmed through violent mobs intent on killing him, must also be applied to world problems, including war.
Indeed, Mrs. Eddy deeply considered that broader prayer. In the May 1908 issue of this magazine she wrote, “For many years I have prayed daily that there be no more war, no more barbarous slaughtering of our fellow-beings; prayed that all the peoples on earth and the islands of the sea have one God, one Mind; love God supremely, and love their neighbor as themselves” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 286).
