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 heart-aches 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:
"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: lie makes a show of false things that lie 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 read}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.
