Article April 10, 1915 Issue

Man's Heritage

IRVING C. TOMLINSON, M.A.

One of the unmistakable signs of an enlightened government is the fact that it insures to its honest citizens the peaceful possession of all their inherent rights and privileges. In a righteous nation, its laws, its courts of justice, and an intelligent public opinion, secure to each the permanent enjoyment of all that belongs to him. The inheritance which he has received, the property he has honestly acquired, the privileges he has honorably won, must not be unlawfully taken from him, nor is he to be disturbed in his enjoyment of them. If one were not allowed to rest secure in his heritage, then law would give place to lawlessness, order to disorder, and peace to war and injustice. The test of a just government lies in its maintenance of the rights of its citizens.

If this be true of an earthly government, how much more true of that government in which God is sovereign! It is His invincible law that all shall retain and maintain every right which He has bestowed upon them. Man is God's child, and every law of the Father supports the son in the exercise of his rights. Man is the reflection of Life, Truth, and Love, and the demands of eternal justice are that he enjoy here and now the peace, prosperity, and dominion which belong to him as an offspring of such a glorious trinity. Because of this birthright he can confidently heed the admonishment in Science and Health, "Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs," and "rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good" (p.393). If we believe that we have inherited evil, materially, we should understand that through Christian Science we have inherited the power to overcome evil, spiritually.

It will be remembered that from the dawn of history the patriarchs and prophets have looked forward to a land where Israel might abide in peace and plenty. Abraham foresaw "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;" and the "new Jerusalem" was in time to be the home of righteous Israel, in which justice and harmony should prevail. The woeful mistake of pharisaism has been to fasten on the minds of mortals the belief that this "city" is not a present possibility, but a distant heaven to which one may at some future time attain. This mistaken and unfortunate teaching as to a post-mortem heaven has robbed men of their birthright here, and has made them content with, or submissive to, wrong and injustice this side of the grave, with the expectation that they are to have hereafter an eternity of idle enjoyment upon "flowery beds of ease." To seek to know ourselves as children of the Most High, and then to claim what already belongs to us as such, is to be at least approaching the goal. George MacDonald wisely writes of one of his characters, "It was truth and higher truth he was always seeking—only one thing could satisfy: the conscious presence of the eternal."

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