Article July 20, 1946 Issue

Is Good Enviable?

GRACE E. HOOVER

In reviewing an interesting business letter, a Christian Scientist's attention was arrested by the phrases "enjoying such an enviable reputation" and, farther along, "enjoying an enviable business." Doubtless it was the coupling of enjoyment with envy which caused her to pause and ponder these strange partners. These terms "enviable reputation" and "enviable business" may deceive many into believing that a desirable reputation or business is something to be envied. But is it?

Envy in the Scriptures is linked with hatred, murder, deceit, strife, malice, lust, divisions, wrath, back-bitings, drunkenness. In agreement our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 3), "Envy is the atmosphere of hell." On the following page she makes plain that envy goes hand in hand with rivalry. There she states, "Competition in commerce, deceit in councils, dishonor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin with 'Who shall be greatest?"

Can there be then a place for rivalry—in any direction—in the thought of him who understands, with Peter, that "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34)? Let us a thousand times prefer having the minimum of material possessions and unacclaimed worth to letting the poison of envy darken our consciousness. Mrs. Eddy urges this upon us in these words from "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 356): "Envy, rivalry, hate need no temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom."

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