Article December 22, 1928 Issue

Man's Heritage

FRANK A. UPDEGRAFF

A heritage may be defined as that which is inherited, as an estate, quality, or condition, and it is said to attach to an individual by operation of law. To human sense it may be that which comes from the circumstance of birth—a condition or quality transmitted by ancestors. In the same sense, according to generally accepted theories and opinions, it may include any evil tendency, disease, or sin, as well as good qualities or conditions, manifested in the experiences of some ancestor.

But, thanks be to God, the Father-Mother and creator of the spiritual real universe, thousands in this age are being brought, through Christian Science, to the understanding that man's heritage, as the perfect child of God, is freedom from imperfection or bondage to evil, whether classified as sin, disease, or death, regardless of human ancestry or so-called prenatal influences. "Heredity is not a law," writes Mrs. Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 178). And in the same paragraph she says, "The remote cause or belief of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and the connection of past mortal thoughts with present." And this statement of truth begins at once to destroy the popular false beliefs about heredity in human consciousness; and the evidences of such false beliefs, manifested in the form of disease or sin, begin to disappear.

To a student of Christian Science who, prior to his investigation of its teachings, had for many years suffered from a so-called hereditary disease, the blunt statement that "heredity is not a law," seemed unbelievable; and at first it aroused a sense of contention. But the voice of Truth having been heard, it would not be silenced; and it continued to challenge the false belief until it had its day in court, so to speak, and the adversary was vanquished, together with the evidence of disease.

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