Article May 7, 1966 Issue

On Making Comparisons

EVELYN M. L. LIVESEY

When a child is born, he is compared with other infants as to weight, intelligence, and rate of development. When he goes to school, the process is carried further, and he learns to compare himself with others. If this comparison is favorable, he and his parents may fall into the error of personal pride. If, on the other hand, it is unfavorable, he may tend to develop what is called an inferiority complex, with its many attendant difficulties.

Human beings spend much time comparing themselves with each other. So widespread and subtle is the habit of making personal comparisons that even Christian Scientists sometimes allow themselves to compare their spiritual progress with that of others, thereby actually hindering their own advancement. Personal comparison is based on the belief of many minds, whereas one fundamental teaching of Christian Science is that there is only one Mind, God.

The mistake of thinking in terms of many minds is pointed out by Mrs. Eddy again and again. In "Retrospection and Introspection" she writes, "Whatever diverges from the one divine Mind, or God,—or divides Mind into minds, Spirit into spirits, Soul into souls, and Being into beings,—is a misstatement of the unerring divine Principle of Science, which interrupts the meaning of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of Spirit, and is of human instead of divine origin."^{Ret., p. 56;}

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