Article September 3, 1938 Issue

"The firstlings of his flock"

ALBERT F. ENGEL

The interesting story of Cain and Abel, related in the fourth chapter of Genesis, is familiar to students of the Bible. A deep moral may be drawn from the offerings of each to God. We read: "And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ... And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect."

In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our inspired Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has defined "sheep" (p. 594) in part as "innocence; inoffensiveness." Abel's offering, "the firstlings of his flock," was therefore wholly acceptable. But Cain, finding that the Lord "had not respect" for his offering, rose up in jealousy and slew his brother. Cain attempted to worship God from the premise of matter as substance, whereas Abel's offering typified purity and innocence, qualities which reflect Spirit, God, the only true substance.

Christian Science, the demonstrable law of God, is revealing for the benefit of all who earnestly and unfalteringly cling to its fundamentals the availability of limitless, imperishable good, emanating from the infinite Mind, God. Moreover, it is proving, through individual spiritual understanding, the perfection of man as God's reflection. Good cannot die. Right is never vanquished. These truths involve the spiritual essence of eternal life, the facts of infinite being; hence, the enlightening reference in the epistle to the Hebrews, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh." How truly genuine success springs from holding to spiritual essentials, whereby we realize the perfection, demonstrability, and might of spiritual law! Failure, lack, disappointment, and loss, on the other hand, are ever the results of belief in the deceitful falsities of material sense—the basic claim of matter as a creator.

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