Article April 4, 1970 Issue

How Do We Compare?

[For young adults]

ELIZABETH K. BRISCOE

From birth, a baby is compared to his immediate family to see whom he resembles. As he grows up, his achievements are compared with those of other pupils in his class, school, state, or nation. His formal education completed, the individual now finds his accomplishments being compared with those of his associates and co-workers or with his own past record. All these comparisons deal with man as if he were a mortal; they compare him to other mortals and judge him by mortal measurements.

What is the result? If the comparison is favorable, it can lead to a feeling of superiority, personal accomplishment, and pride. If unfavorable, it may lead to a feeling of inferiority and discouragement.

Mrs. Eddy has given us the correct standard for comparison. She does not define man as a mortal but holds that God made man, and that man is the image and likeness of God, hence spiritual. In describing the real identity of each one of us she uses the illustration of a person in front of a mirror. She says in Science and Health: "Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original." ^{Science and Health, pp. 515, 516;}