"There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city." So we read in Ecclesiastes (9:14, 15). We do not know the name of the city or the identity of the poor wise man who by his prayers and spiritual wisdom brought about this deliverance. The story, however, is a pattern of what happened in Israel over and over again.
Many times the Hebrews, through prayer and absolute reliance on divine direction, were able to defeat numerically superior forces bent on their destruction. Gideon and his little band of picked men, armed with such unconventional weapons as trumpets and earthenware pitchers inside which were lamps, brought wild confusion to the Midianites. Jehoshaphat sent singers before his army to praise the beauty of holiness, and so disconcerted his enemies that they turned upon and destroyed each other. The prayers of Isaiah were instrumental in saving Jerusalem from the mighty armies of Sennacherib. And who could forget David, the shepherd boy, with his sling?
In every instance faith in God, in His ability to save and protect His children from harm, was proved a more potent weapon than instruments of war. Mary Baker Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 131), "The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power." This central fact has not changed. In today's world situation, as in yesterday's, the central fact is that God, good, is supreme in His own universe, that His will is potent on earth as in heaven, and that any seeming evil power can be proved impotent.
The Hebrews of old were not so spiritually advanced that they could do without armies; but their prayers, representing moral force, brought victory to their armies, even though they were numerically inferior to their enemies. The prayers of Christian Scientists can be equally effective. Today the free world is busily arming itself to resist aggression. The armies of freedom are still needed to hold refractory elements in check; but now, as in the time of the ancient Hebrews, the main reliance must be on the omnipotence of divine Love. These words of our Leader's should serve as a bugle call to Christian Scientists (ibid., pp. 96, 97): "During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the rejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection." We may note on whose shoulders the task of overcoming evil is placed. Christian Scientists are the ones best fitted to perform this service for humanity; and clearly the responsibility is ours.
The world needs to be awakened from its lethargic dream of life and intelligence in matter to a realization of the omnipotence of Spirit. The age-old error of belief in materialism, which seems to have become more aggressive in recent years, is at the root of all our difficulties. Materialism starts from a mistaken concept of God as humanly circumscribed or from a flat denial of the existence of God. Basic errors lead to false conclusions. Matter is worshiped as deity; material evolution is deemed the process of creation; and man and the universe are looked upon as purely physical. Mortals come to put their trust in material means and methods rather than in God, in instruments of war instead of in righteousness.
We need to set aside mortal theories, discount material evidences, look beyond outward appearances, if we would find reality. Spirit, not matter, is the creative force of the universe. Christian Science strongly emphasizes the fact that God is All. He is Spirit, Soul, Principle, the only cause and creator, omnipotent, omniscient, and Omnipresent Being. Nothing outside, of His infinitude can have existence or actuality. The only truth regarding materialism is that it is not true, although to human sense it may seem to be. Man and the universe, created by Spirit, express their creator; thus they are spiritual, not material. Since God is good, evil can have no place in His creation. It is never power, because it is a negation—the absence of the somethingness called good. Animal magnetism, or aggressive evil, and false propaganda may for a time seem to flourish like the proverbial green bay tree; but they wither when opposed by and exposed to Truth. Principle, reigning in the hearts of men, brings peace, order, and harmony into human affairs. These facts declared and demonstrated will stop aggression, end wars, refute vain ideologies, bring evil designs to nought, and cause Truth to be revealed to those ready to receive it in every nation.
Christian Science reveals the glorious verity that man in God's likeness is spiritual, upright, and free, not as the material senses would have, him, mortal and discordant. It further reveals that he has inherited all the attributes of his heavenly Father. Man's heritage is freedom and dominion, not submission to error. He who perceives that man reflects Truth has the God-given ability to discern the truth, and therefore cannot be deceived or held in ignorance. Knowing man to be at one with Mind, he expresses intelligence and cannot be brought into subservience to false ideology. And his understanding of his true identity as the image of Love enables him to be ever loving and protects him from being made a tool for evil designs against his fellow men. Man lives in Spirit and expresses Soul. To understand this enables one to demonstrate that his life cannot be cheaply held or lightly taken from him. Because man is the upright child of God, one may prove his freedom to walk the earth in dignity and peace.
These facts regarding man may not seem to be borne out in present-day experience. Nevertheless, by holding firmly to the spiritual truth and denying the material error we can aid in freeing those who now seem to be held in bondage.
And what of those who are in the forefront of battle? Surely those who understand man's indissoluble relation to God can be brought into no situation where the guiding hand of Principle is not omnipresent and omnipotent, where His intelligence is not present to direct them, where His love is not ready to shield and protect them, or where His truth is not at hand to light their path when the way seems dark. Victory must ultimately rest on the banners of those who are opposing aggression, upholding the God-given rights of man, and endeavoring to bring peace and freedom to the world.
The Apostle James declares (5:16), "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." True prayer reaches the heart of humanity. It is a universal language, known and loved by men in every corner of the globe. Its influence cannot be restricted by national boundaries, but must bless all mankind. Its effectiveness cannot be limited by the will of men, for it is empowered of God. In the words of a hymn (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 194):
No mortal sense can still or stay
The flight of silent prayer,
Unceasing, voiceless, heart desire
That seeks God everywhere.
The voices that are worldly wise,
With mortal modes in tune,
Are mute in that transcendent hour
When God and man commune.
