Article February 4, 1922 Issue

Competition

DAVID B. OGDEN

In the very early pages of the Bible is related an incident of human experience which well illustrates a mortal trait and taint as old as time and which an understanding and application of the Christ-mind alone can meet and overcome. Two brothers, each in his own particular way, sought to make "an offering unto the Lord," one by the fruit of the ground, the other by the firstlings of his flock. In the competition of their primitive and limited attempt to worship God through belief of life in matter, Abel with his "firstling" gave a better expression of real sacrifice than did Cain with "fruit of the ground," with the result, in Bible language, that "the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." The lesson in point is especially in the last four words quoted, "and his countenance fell." How vastly different might have been the finalities of this incident had the elder brother kept up the corners of his mouth and not succumbed to the temptation of unhappy comparison and jealous competition, thus outwardly expressed by a fallen countenance.

Of this incident Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 541), "Jealous of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of making his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High." Every mortal has daily to meet the temptation to respond to the competitive mental arguments of fear, pride, self-centeredness, and the like, which produce the negative tendency to indulge physically and audibly a fallen countenance, a drooping at the corners, but if this temptation is resisted in the name of God, in the consciousness of man's inherent capacity to express an increasing measure of that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," an outward and inward smile will be forthcoming and a victory gained.

In speaking of duty well done Mrs. Eddy writes in "Retrospection and Introspection," beginning on page 70, "Such a post of duty, unpierced by vanity, exalts a mortal beyond human praise, or monuments which weigh dust, and humbles him with the tax it raises on calamity to open the gates of heaven." This is a pertinent reminder that every seeming calamity or misfortune really becomes an opportunity to learn a helpful lesson, to profit by the experience, thereby placing a divident-paying tax on the circumstance and gaining a larger realization of Mind's ever present harmony.

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