Harmonious relationships are wonderful. They bring a sweetness to life that we want and need. But if brotherhood is lost in conflict or if differences prevent the establishment of amicable relations with others, we do not have to sit by helplessly wishing for something to change.
It can be useful when we're facing relationship challenges to consider the commentary in Science and Health on the story of Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve. There Mary Baker Eddy quotes this verse from Genesis (4:8): "Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." Then she states, "The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood of man at the very outset." Science and Health, p. 541 Any dispute, whether between individuals or nations, must be traced not to a personality or group of people, but to a false view, a mistaken presumption that life is in matter, and that man is a sinning mortal, fallen away from God and constantly facing disagreements with other mortals.
Cain was unable to separate himself and his brother from this malicious, murderous suggestion regarding man's nature. He succumbed first to jealousy toward his brother, then to rage, which ignited the impulse to slay Abel. Few of us are tempted to murder, but most of us have been drawn into Cain-like thinking in the broader sense—seeing another as the cause and object of anger. We need to learn to identify annoyance, condemnation, envy, bitterness, spite, and revenge as devilish suggestion. These traits have nothing to do with man's true selfhood, and we can refuse to talk about, ruminate upon, be absorbed or used by such falsehoods. Instead, we can quench them with the holy, distinct inspirations of Truth, Spirit, revealing to us the pureness, strength, wonder, and worth of everyone's God-given being. Willingness to honor man's spiritual heritage curtails inappropriate attempts to please and appease and dissolves the stinging intensity of anger in thought. So we are able to hear God's messages, telling us what to say and what to do.
