Circle of Christhood
The Study of Joel Goldsmith's Infinite Way
Star Bulletin Editorial by Joel Goldsmith
September 1951
Editor The Star-Bulletin: This is occasioned by the reader-contributed editorial in the September 1 Star-Bulletin, entitled "Welcome Home, My Son."
In this age when sincere efforts are being made to bring about world peace, would it not be well to recognize that education must be a large factor in this work and that one of the first duties of educators is to help remove the supersitions from the world's theology?
In this editorial we read: "but it is God's sweet will that yours be a silent return."
How can wars be ended if even newspapers continue to circulate such superstition? Why end wars if it is "God's sweet will" to destroy life in this manner?
Why attempt through legislation, consecration or education to end God's sweet will?
Since we are to believe that it is "God's sweet will" for men, boys, women, and children "to return in this silence" of death - why end wars?
Why pray for your men in battle, if it is "God's sweet will" for them to return in the silence of death? Should we attempt, even through prayer, to thwart God's sweet will?
And the insane, and maimed, wounded and diseased in the veteran's hospitals - are these too, God's sweet will?
Is there no one in this modern age to tell the truth that death, insanity, amputations - none of these are God's sweet will for His children?
Will no one reveal to the world that wars but represent men's failure to govern peacefully?
War is man's failure - not God's will.
Men are taught to strive and pray for peace- and then are told that death in war is God's sweet will.
Oh God, open the eyes of men so that they might judge; free mankind of the shackles of supersition, that it may be known that God's will is peace and life eternal.
Joel S. Goldsmith
Diamond Head, Hawaii
WAR
Of all the so-called errors on earth, war is the belief most likely to ensnare the Christian Scientist into accepting an illusion as reality. The reason for this is that there always seems to be two sides; one on the right side defending "democracy," "modern society," "Christianity," "freedom," while the other, on the wrong side, would destroy these precious gifts from God to man (which gifts, it would seem, God is not able to preserve without the help of defenders). I am not referring exclusively to either of the "World Wars" because these same conditions have existed in all wars throughout the ages.
Christian Scientists cannot say, "A thousand shall fall at thy (my) side, and ten thousand at thy (my) right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee (me)," unless they see through the snare of a right side and a wrong side and realize that there is no such condition as right and wrong because there is no war, no error, no sin, disease or death: God IS All; God IS omnipresent; God IS the only life and being, and in THIS LIFE WHICH IS ONE there can be no conflicting forces, energies, or desires.
Christian Science teachers and practitioners throughout the world, daily assure their students and their patients that there is no disease; that the appearance of such is but the false testimony of human sense; that they are not to fear error nor believe in its reality or power. They are taught and they teach that God is the only Mind. Shall they not be consistent and remember that, as this divine Mind is the universal Mind, and therefore the mind of individual being, there is no lack of intelligence and love in this Mind, and therefore these qualities of love, intelligence, harmony and peace ARE THE ACTUAL AND ONLY STATES OF BEING HERE AND NOW, regardless of human testimony to the contrary.
Only in the degree that we, as disciples of Truth and Love, maintain in our consciousness this truth of being, shall we be lifted up so as to "draw all men unto me," and thereby cause all men to see and be at peace.
"I know no life divided,
O Lord of life, from Thee;
In Thee is life provided
For all mankind and me;
I know no death, O Father
Because I live in Thee;
Thy life it is that frees us
From death eternally."
(Christian Science Hymnal)
Does this indicate that there is a person, a power, an ideology or a system of government whereby the life, well-being or continuity of good is threatened? "IN THEE is life provided";—"THY LIFE it is that frees us." This life IN GOD and OF GOD is not at the mercy of "man whose breath is in his nostrils." Therefore, "I will not fear what flesh (man) can do unto me."
Let us be sure that we are not ensnared with the belief that there is warfare between good and evil, God and the devil. There is no evil. There is no channel, no target, no victim of evil. God IS All. God is "All-in-all." God is the Principle of all being and there can be no lack of Principle anywhere or in any being. In the infinitude of God's being there can be only the eternal presence of His love, His life, His wisdom, His guidance, and this Truth, enthroned in individual consciousness, is the Saviour and protection from the belief in a presence and power apart from God.
The moment we accept the belief that there is greed, mad ambition, personal will, ignorance, and that we need to battle these, war with them and set up elaborate defenses against them, we are on the same level of thought with this evil. This should not in any way prevent those who accept evil as real from having armies and navies, and even having defensive war itself, but it does mean that we, as disciples of Truth, have reached the understanding of Christ sufficiently to say, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord"—"for the battle is not your's, but God's." It means that we have arrived at a state of consciousness which does not war with error, does not argue with evil, but recognizes that there is no error because, "as in heaven, so on earth,—God is omnipotent, supreme."
Jesus said, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." To take up the sword in defense, is to acknowledge the presence of an enemy, a power and a presence apart from God; it is to believe in the reality of right and wrong, good and evil. This is a snare and a delusion.
As a Christian Scientist and a member of the U.S. Marine Corps in World War I, I was troubled in doing my daily "protective work" because it seemed inconsistent to believe that I could seek and receive the protection of God for myself, when I was so heavily armed with implements of war from which any so-called enemy coming near me was bound to suffer. Seeking light on this point, I was led to the words of Jesus: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for all"—I could go no further because I saw clearly that my protective work was the realization and understanding that ALL men are "the children of God: And if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ"; that ALL men abide in His life—"Hid with Christ in God"—"in the secret place of the Most High." In my nearly two years of service, I was never called on to fire at any man, nor to be fired upon. Ever since then I have realized the universality of God, good, in whom is no evil and who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity."
The First Commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," which we understand to mean: thou shalt not believe in any power, or presence other than God. "God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power." Then where or what is this evil to be fought or destroyed, except in the belief that God is not everywhere and that something apart from Him IS present and has power? "Choose you this day whom ye will serve."
From the book The Letters, 1932-1946
"This book reveals the foundation for the great unfoldment which later came to me in my work, and which is now unfolded in my deeper writings: The
Lovingly yours
Joel S. Goldsmith"
