Religion: Peace

Over the little village of Solebury, shining down on eastern Pennsylvania’s rolling fields and wooded hills, the moon was clear in a still, star-frosted sky. In nearby Washington’s Crossing and New Hope on the Delaware River the sirens and automobile horns had stopped their clamor. The old fire engine which had clanged happily around the green-banked dirt roads was back in its barn.

In little Trinity Chapel (Episcopal) on the Old York Road candles burned in the windows and on the altar. As people fresh from their radios and the great news of the Japanese surrender began to gather, the organ swelled out A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. There were Episcopalians, Presbyterians, two modestly dressed Quaker women, and many who had never been seen at church before.

Voices rang more strongly with each hymn. The people prayed their thanks, and an earnest young seminarian read the evening’s lesson: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . . Behold the dwelling of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. . . .”

Others were doing the same all over the country. At long last there was again peace on earth.