Article November 27, 1920 Issue

Selling One's Birthright

EARL R. BROWN

Birthright, as explained in the dictionary, is "any right or privilege to which a person is entitled by birth." The question arises, How does Christian Science explain birth? On page 17 of "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy says, "A material or human birth is the appearing of a mortal, not the immortal man." In the following paragraph she continues, "With the spiritual birth, man's primitive, sinless, spiritual existence dawns on human thought,—through the travail of mortal mind, hope deferred, the perishing pleasure and accumulating pains of sense,—by which one loses himself as matter, and gains a truer sense of Spirit and spiritual man." With this interpretation, it is easy to understand Jesus' admonition, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Then, it necessarily follows, one's birthright is the kingdom of God, and comes to him in proportion as he is "born again." "The new birth is not the work of a moment," Mrs. Eddy states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 15). "It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love. Time may commence, but it cannot complete, the new birth: eternity does this; for progress is the law of infinity."

In the twenty-fifth chapter of Genesis there is a valuable lesson about Esau selling his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of pottage. The bowl of pottage might be likened to "the things which are seen," which Paul declares "are temporal," and one's true birthright to "the things which are not seen," which, he continues, "are eternal." Like Esau, who sold his birthright for a temporary satisfaction of material appetite, we are tempted to overlook the sacrifice we are making by giving up our birthright. We might ask ourselves, in our eagerness to attain something: Am I doing all I can to help prove the kingdom of God here and now? Am I giving encouragement to those in need, and supporting the cause of God under all circumstances? Or am I selling my birthright for a mere bowl of pottage? Let us be careful and weigh each word, each move, each action, so that we shall not become a stumblingblock to our fellow man; let us "prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

Our seeming existence here is like one rowing a boat upstream to a promised prize—peace, contentment, plenty. The prize is for all who row the required distance. The second we stop rowing we begin to drift back, and we must cover the distance again if we would reach our goal. We cannot reach the goal blindfolded, for there might be a floating log or a derelict or a protruding rock or rapids to be passed, and we need to put more exertion into our strokes. The temptation may come to stop and drift back to our starting point; but that would never do, for we would never reach the prize, and it would be a poor example to set to our friends who are rowing the same course. We would not want to cause them to turn back because we may think the goal too hard for ourselves to reach.

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