ONE may sometimes profitably compare his present with his past experience, to note the progress made out of wrong conditions, but to compare one's own experience with another's is seldom if ever wise or profitable. Such comparison is apt to lead us into the deception of self-righteousness that we are doing so much better than our brother, or into the slough of discouragement because our brother is apparently doing so much better than we. One sometimes progresses faster than another because he works harder, because he is more willing to abide and be governed by what he learns, or is more faithful to the ideal unfolded to him in Christian Science; but these are differences which lie within one's own power to adjust. The Scriptural statement that God will render to every man "according to his works" should prevent all jealousy, discouragement, or self-glorification over the differing degrees of understanding and demonstration reached by different students.

Divine Principle holds each individual to the strict performance of his own work, not that of another. The morning-glory does not cease expressing its fresh loveliness because it is not a rose, nor does the rose withhold its fragrance because it is not a butterfly or a bird; and neither should we refrain from being the best we can because we do not seem as well favored as are some others. God expects every man to do his duty, that is, to express his full measure of sweetness and purity and love and goodness, and all the other Godlike qualities which make up the real man. This is not too much for the divine creator to expect of His offspring, and it is not more than we should expect of ourselves. The doing of this, the fidelity to man's true nature, comprises all that makes human life blessed and glorious; it sums up all that the best man has achieved, yet it is not beyond the reach of the least in the kingdom of heaven.

To be good should be the highest ambition of all men. To have a less supreme desire is to give place to evil, invite it into our thoughts, and become its servant. Jesus defined this ambition as seeking the kingdom of God first. If we are diligent and wise in the use of our one talent, we shall not compare ourselves with the man who has two or five, and so lay away our one means of salvation in the napkin of ingratitude and jealousy, but will rather rejoice in our brother's greater abundance. We must acknowledge in our own hearts, if honest, that if there were none better than ourselves it were a sad outlook for human advancement and growth towards perfection. Then let us not compare our own progress with those beyond us, except to give thanks that their experience is such a bright prophecy of the larger good awaiting us.

To seek good first is to seek it within as well as without ourselves. It is to discard whatever will make us selfish or mean or unjust, whatever will prevent us from loving our neighbors as ourselves; it means that we should picture man as a citizen of God's kingdom, the product of good only, and hold this picture before our mental vision whenever we think or talk of others or ourselves. This does not cover evil, but uncovers it, reveals its falsity, and finally dissipates it in the knowledge that God's work is absolutely true and perfect. What if another's material or spiritual prosperity be in advance of our own, when we remember that perfection is the attainable goal before us all, notwithstanding the differences and distinctions, the advantages and disadvantages which a mortal, finite sense of things would now attach to men. It is not truth, but error that would limit our attainments.

Christian Science has set before all mankind an "open door," through which they may enter into the realization of man's rightful dominion over error and evil. There is no lack or limit in the Truth of being; the source of goodness and beauty and joy is exhaustless, yielding more than the heart of man can conceive. To gain this right apprehension is to lose the sense of jealousy or covetousness or discouragement because we think others are in advance of us, or the sense of superiority because we think we are in advance of others. To correctly understand our own individual bearing in the universe, such as is possible to us in Christian Science, is to understand the harmonious interrelationship of all the units in God's infinite creation. In this understanding each has his own position which another cannot fill, his own work which another cannot do, and his own reward which none other can receive. Realizing this, we should be satisfied to be just ourselves, no matter how modest our position or how insignificant our work, knowing that that position rightly filled and that work well done are essential to the perfection of the whole.

Among those who seek Christian Science for physical healing the comparison is sometimes made between one who recovers more quickly from some disease than another, usually to the discouragement of the one who has apparently been slower to receive help. These comparisons are never wise, because they benefit no one and but add to the work of him who has the case in hand. The workings of error in human thought are so subtle and complex that although the outward discord may have the same name the mental conditions may be vastly different. Because two individuals are afflicted with rheumatism, or defective sight, or any other disease, it does not follow that these two patients present the same mental problem to the practitioner, or that the conditions have resulted in each case from the same belief, or fear, or sin. The work required to restore harmony in any two cases is never quite the same, neither is the openness of thought to receive truth always equal, so that a just comparison is not practicable, even if desirable. Each individual sufferer has traveled his own particular road to his present experience, and the thought transformations necessary to replace the sense of discord with the consciousness of harmony will be more or less rapid and successful according to the impression that has been made upon his belief, as well as the degree of his willingness to accept the truth. It is well for patient and practitioner to lay comparisons aside, knowing that there is not a hair's breadth of partiality in God's bestowal of good to those who seek Him aright.

We cannot bring out the best we have while perplexing ourselves as to the how and why another is doing so much better. It is but right and just that those who love most shall be forgiven most, and that those who love little shall receive in like measure. Who would not be ashamed to reflect against the fairness of that rule? yet it is this rule that metes out to us our Christian reward.

All Christian Scientists feel that they are but beginners in their understanding of this Science, that as yet they have demonstrated but a small fraction of the power and presence of infinite Truth and Love; nevertheless it is but natural that there should be among them some different degrees of attainment, even as there have been different degrees of earnestness, of love, or of self-denial. Yet it is too early in the day, other things being equal, to say who among them has achieved most or advanced farthest into the kingdom of heaven. The problems of Christian Scientists are in various states and stages of solution; some have struggled with and overcome conditions which others have not been educated into, or which may be still latent in their belief. Although outward conditions would sometimes seem to indicate marked differences of progress, yet had we perfect knowledge we might know that divine Love has been supplying their need with equal tenderness and wisdom.

Could we but realize as did Jesus, and as the Discoverer of Christian Science must have done to become the interpreter of his teachings, that all which makes up this mortal existence has but the semblance and the substance of a dream, we would not be disturbed by its distorted and changing evidences, but would have one model for all men and for all time, the perfect Christ who forgiveth all our iniquities and healeth all our diseases. ‹‹‹‹‹

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