Editor's Table JUDGE SEPTIMUS J. HANNA, CSD          We wonder how many of us appreciate the extent to which we worship the god of jealousy and envy. We are apt to think lightly of this false god and regard its worship as of trifling importance. What a mistake! It is one of the most subtle, sickness-provoking, death-dealing gods of all the gods of the mortal senses. It is the prolific cause, in mortal mind, of much of the woe, the sorrow, the distress, the heartaches of humanity. Until one learns how to rise above and overcome, and then rises above and overcomes it, he is its abject slave, and perhaps, all unconsciously to himself, it is eating away his capacity for happiness and good. We think Christian Scientists, as well as all others, can read with profit the following from Cyprian, one of the early Christian Fathers, whose power of analysis as a Christian Metaphysician was evidently great: CYPRIAN ON JEALOUSY AND ENVY. (A. D. 250.)          To be jealous of what you see to be good, and to be envious of those that are better than yourself, beloved brethren, seems in the eyes of some people to be a slight and petty wrong, and being thought trifling and of small account, it is not feared. Not being feared, it is contemned (neglected); being contemned it is not easily shunned and it thus becomes a dark, hidden mischief, which as it is not perceived so as to be guarded against by the prudent, secretly distresses incautious minds. But moreover, the Lord bade us be prudent, and charged us to watch with careful solicitude, lest the adversary, who is always lying in wait, should creep stealthily into our breast and blow up a flame from the sparks, magnifying small things into the greatest, and so, while soothing the unguarded and careless with a milder air and softer breeze, should stir up storms and whirlwinds and bring about the destruction of faith. the shipwreck of salvation and of life.          He goeth about every one of us and even as an enemy besieging those that are shut up in a city, he examines the walls and tries whether there is any part of the walls less firm and less trustworthy, by entrance through which he may penetrate to the inside. He presents to the eyes seductive forms and easy pleasures, that he may destroy chastity by the sight. He provokes the tongue to reproaches; he instigates the hand by exasperating wrongs, to the recklessness of murder; to make the cheat he presents dishonest gains; to take captive the soul by money he heaps together mischief hoards; he promises earthly honors that he may deprive of heavenly ones; he makes a show of false things that he may steal away the true. Therefore beloved brethren, against all the devils, deceiving snares or open threatenings, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed, ever as ready to repel as the foe is ever ready to attack. And hence those darts of his which creep on us in concealment are more frequent and his more hidden and secret hurling of them is the more severely and frequently effectual to our wounding in proportion as it is less perceived. Let us also be watchful to understand and repel these among which is the evil of envy and jealousy. If any one will closely look into this, he will find that nothing should be more carefully guarded against by the Christian, nothing more carefully watched than being taken captive by envy and malice.          But through envy of the devil death entered into the world, therefore they who are on his side imitate him. Hence in fine began the primal hatred: the unrighteous Cain is jealous of the righteous Abel, in that the wicked persecutes the good with envy and jealousy. He was unrighteously stricken who had been the first to show righteousness. He endured hatred who had not known how to hate. Did not the Jews perish for this reason, that they chose rather to envy Christ than to believe him? Disparaging those great works which he did they were deceived by blinding jealousy, and could not open the eyes of their heart to the knowledge of divine things.          Considering which things, beloved brethren, let us with vigilance and courage fortify our hearts dedicated to God against such a destructiveness of evil. Moreover, there is no ground for any one to suppose that evil of that kind is confined to one form or is restrained within brief limits in a narrow boundary; the mischief of jealousy manifold and fruitful extends widely. It is the root of all evils, the fountain of disasters, the nursery of crimes, the material of transgressions; thence arise hatreds, thence proceed animosities.          The mischief is much more trifling, the danger less, the cure easy, where the wound is manifest. But the wounds of jealousy are hidden and secret, nor do they admit of the remedy of a healing cure, since they have shut themselves in blind suffering within the lurking places of the conscience. Whoever you are that are envious or malignant, observe how crafty, mischievous and hateful you are to those you hate. Yet you are the enemy of no one's well-being more than your own whoever he is whom you persecute with jealousy can evade and escape you. You cannot escape from yourself; wherever you may be your adversary is with you, your enemy is always within your own breast. Your mischief is shut up within you. You are captive under the tyranny of jealousy. (end of quotation)          Is it not in order for Christian Scientists to make thorough self-examination and ascertain to what extent they are under the law of jealousy and envy? May it not be well to seriously and carefully inquire whether or not the worship of this god has not much to do with the bickerings and divisions in our ranks, as well as the failures to demonstrate Truth as it should be demonstrated in the healing of sickness?          Of course the adversary whispers all sorts of soft things into listening ears. He comes invariably in the guise of good, assuming the role of an angel of light. He well knows that he cannot otherwise deceive Christian Scientists. His most subtle and effective whispering is that "You are perfectly right in your view of the questions on hand. You only are right and the others all wrong,—in error." Our side is true and loyal, the other side untrue and disloyal."          We are easily self-mesmerized into this way of thinking, and the devil (one evil, the false claim of Intelligence and Good) is ever ready to feed our self-righteousness. Thus it is that "a flame is blown up from the sparks, magnifying small things into the greatest, and so, while soothing the unguarded and careless with a milder air and softer breeze, should stir up storms and whirlwinds and bring about the destruction of faith," etc.          While in this mental condition we are bereft of right reason, of charity, of capacity to judge righteously, and hence become hard, cold, harsh, uncharitable and un-Christlike. There is need of much more prayer and humiliation in our ranks, of a broader charity and deeper conception of love, of more kindliness of affection. We need to study more deeply the Scriptures and our textbook upon this subject, as well as our Church Manual, and studying them, assimilate their meaning and bring it out in our lives. We should especially read and ponder and profit by section 1 of article viii, which we monthly read at our services. We need more of the Spirit, more of Love; less extravagant assertion, and more of good works. We shall run riot in the letter if we are not ever watchful and prayerful.          "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." There is a profundity of meaning in this Pauline admonition that we have not yet fathomed. Our own false and deceived sense of security is often our greatest danger. We are apt to lose our own footing attempting to "regulate" the footsteps of others. We are in danger of giving time which belongs to us in working out our own problem, to an overzealous watching of our neighbor. We must learn that time given to fretting and fuming over supposed incursions into our domain by our imaginary enemies either within or without our ranks, is time wasted,—nay, worse than wasted, for it reacts upon ourselves and makes our burden heavier.          We must know that we have no enemies. If we are ourselves right and serving God in the way of His appointing, the only possible result to us of seeming hardship, persecution, injustice, or cruelty is to drive us higher,—further and further away from the falsity of mere human personality, and nearer and nearer to God.          It is in this sense that we have no enemies,—indeed can have none.          How slow we are to learn this! Yet how brimful of just this teaching are the Scriptures! Jesus stated and restated this truth throughout his teachings, illustrating it by apt parable and minute object lesson. Our "patient, tender, and true" Mother in Israel has written and rewritten it and by every form of admonition and supplication, sought to arouse us from the heavy stupor in which we fancy we have enemies. And yet we continue in the false dream, stupid, headstrong, self-willed, self-righteous, self-mesmerized.          Let us awake from our stupor! Let us talk less and do more! Let us render obedience more with the heart and less with the lips.          If we were not in the belief of having enemies, we could be free from the demon of jealousy, envy and malice, for there would be no room for its assertion, or even its claim. God help us to be Christians.   "Editor's Table" by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, CSD The Christian Science Journal, October, 1896

 

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