As we approach what some may regard as a highly controversial subject, I would remind you that we must attempt to see the picture whole in some such manner as the Agents of the divine Will see it, embracing the past of the nations involved (a past which is seldom good), seeing the effects of that past as they work out in the present and as they are the inevitable result of the Law of Cause and Effect, and attempting also to foresee the future in terms of lessons learnt and new habits of a better nature established (written in 1948). I would remind you also that the governing principle of this ray is conditioning all the nations and has done so with increasing potency since the year 1850. Just in the same manner as this principle of conflict controls the battling life of the aspirant and of the world aspirant, the entire human family, so it must [621] inevitably control the life of nations to a greater or lesser degree, according to their materialistic or their spiritual status, according to the type of energy which may be expressing itself through them, and according to the age of the nation under consideration. From certain angles, the youngest of the nations are Germany and Italy, for they only arrived at nationhood in the nineteenth century; the oldest nation with the clearest unified record is Japan. The United States of America is always regarded as a young nation, but from the angle of a unified central government, the two Axis Powers are still younger, and this has had a definite bearing on their activities.

In the world at this time the two aspects of this fourth ray - the aspect or Principle of Conflict and the aspect or Principle of Harmony - are struggling to bring about the liberation into equilibrium of mankind. Until quite lately, the Principle of Conflict has grown increasingly in power, yet as a result of this conflict a definite trend towards harmony can be seen emerging in human thinking; the concept of harmony through the establishing of right human relations is slowly coming into recognition. The activities of mankind, and particularly of governments, have been ignobly selfish and controlled by the concepts of fighting, aggression and competition for untold millennia; the territories of the planet have changed hands many times and the earth has been the playground of a long succession of conquerors; the heroes of the race - perpetuated in history, stone and human thinking - have been the warriors, and conquest has been an ideal. The world war (1914-1945) marked a culminating point in the work of the Principle of Conflict and, as I have shown, the results of this work are today inaugurating a new era of harmony and cooperation because the trend of human thinking is towards the cessation of conflict. This is an event of major importance and should be regarded as indicating a turning point in human affairs. This trend is impulsed by a weariness of fighting, by a changing rating as to the values in human accomplishment, and by a recognition that true greatness [622] is not expressed through such activities as those of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon or Hitler, but by those who see life, humanity and the world as one united whole, interrelated, cooperative and harmonized. Those who struggle for this world unity, and who educate the race in the Principles of Harmony and of right human relations, will some day be recognized as the true heroes.

The factor that must and will relate the Principle of Conflict to the expression of harmony and bring about the new world order, the new civilization and culture, is the trend and the voice of public opinion, and the opportunity offered to people everywhere to bring about social security and right human relations. It is not the government of any nation which will bring this about, but the innate rightness of the people themselves when they have been educated to see the issues clearly, the relationships which should be established, and the immense subjective unity of mankind. This will not come about without an intensive period of planned education, of a truly free press and radio - both free to speak the exact truth and to present the facts as they occur, without being controlled or influenced by governmental interference, pressure groups, religious organizations, or by any dictating parties or dictators. The sin of the Roman Catholic Church is its effort to dictate to people what they should think - theologically and politically - what they should do, read and wear; this, to a still greater extent, is the crime of Russia. The mass of the people in the strictly Catholic countries are not as free in their thinking as are those living in the Protestant lands; the Russian people know no freedom and have no opportunity to form their own point of view; commercial interests and expediency impose restrictions in other countries. By means of these sources of control, the growth of true understanding is prevented, distorted or stunted.

Curiously enough, the intention of the dictating agents, in both the Catholic Church and in Russia, is basically good; they believe that the uneducated masses are not fitted to decide for themselves what they should hear, think or [623] decide; they must therefore be protected - in the one case by decrees and prohibitions from the Vatican (via the organized priesthood) as to right attitude and right action to be followed without questioning; and in the other, by withholding the truth as to events and happenings. But men are awakening everywhere and - given some sound leadership, which at present is not to be found in any country in the world - they can be trusted to swing the tide into a great harmonizing and unifying movement.

As we study the effect of the Principle of Conflict as the instigator of eventual harmony in relation to the nations, let us remember that the widespread extent of the conflict is indicative of climax, that the "points of crisis" which express the conflict are today well known to all men, that a "point of tension" has now been reached (of which the United Nations is a symbol) which will eventually prove to be the agent that will bring about a "point of emergence." I would ask you to keep these three phrases - descriptive of the working of the Ray of Harmony through conflict - constantly in mind in relation to developments in your own life, in the life of your nation or of any nation, and in the life of humanity as a whole. They embody the technique whereby the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet brings good out of evil without originating the evil or infringing the free will of mankind.