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Editor's Table JUDGE SEPTIMUS J. HANNA, CSD
Thus: Spiritually understood, the thousands and tens of thousands recorded as having been slaughtered stand in type for so many evil conditions. These are the sins or errors against which the Bible declares. The striking down of these sins, or sinful conditions, typifies the right as prevailing against the wrong; or as righteousness overcoming unrighteousness. In saying this, however, let it not be inferred that we seek to take away from Scripture its historical character. The wars therein chronicled doubtless occurred — at least many of them. There are some that seem to be allegorical; but in either case, as we have said, in their spiritual sense these recitals are expositive of conditions of error. Good, as divine Principle, in its necessary operation destroys all unlike itself. Divine Love manifests itself by removing all conditions which bring discord, that harmony may prevail. Divine Love can do this, for its purpose is only right and it is free from the slightest element of hate. Revenge, injury, conquest, desire of gain, have no place there. Thus, if we make our Scriptural exegesis impersonal and unliteral, we avoid the inconsistencies and insurmountable difficulties otherwise encountered; we have no hesitancy in arriving at the conclusion that God is not a God of war, and clearly see that the war god is of human construction. Yet, while Christian Scientists adhere strictly to the idea of God's non-responsibility for war, they at the same time recognize the conditions of human relativity. They well know, in other words, that there are degrees of human belief, and that some beliefs are vastly better than others. The higher and better the human belief the nearer approach is made to reflecting Good; or God, as divine Principle. If a wrong cannot, with the present understanding of divine law, be righted in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, it must either continue to exist or be removed by the most effective means within the present comprehension of mankind. If, for example, Spain's rulers were so steeped in the blindness of selfishness and cruelty that the sense of divine Love is lost to them, and as a result the inhumanities which for ages have been perpetrated in Cuba were to continue indefinitely, then the United States could only remove this incubus from their neighbor by the most effective means within its present aggregate understanding. Had it, in its governmental capacity, been sufficiently endowed with the Christ-spirit to have wrought out the problem in accordance therewith, the war might have been avoided. Not possessing this spirit, it must either have continued a quiescent witness of Cuba's sufferings and Spain's inhumanities, or have resorted to force of arms, as it has elected to do. We do not now assert that it had become an imperative duty for our government thus to interfere. This is a question respecting which many good people have had serious doubts, but the gauge of battle having thus been given, it becomes now a question of relative good, and every consideration of right and humanity, to say nothing of inherent love of country, demands that all good citizens lend their support to that side which is standing for the highest good. In this sense Christian Scientists can afford to be, and are, patriotic. They are, indeed, patriotic in a larger sense than the outside world can now comprehend. They can perform, and are performing, duties in behalf of their country that will count for more than they could now make unbelievers see. Nor will they shrink from any needed duty in the premises. Meantime they will hope for a speedy end of the unhappy tragedy, and continue undismayed in their realization that, sooner or later, the Christ-teaching will prevail in human affairs, and that the time will come when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Christian Scientists will do all they can towards fostering that spirit of international arbitration which was recently attempted between this country and England, and which ought to have been successful.
The Christian Science Journal, June, 1898 |
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