One of the beautiful and helpful thoughts which unfold to the student of Christian Science through the study and practice of the teachings of the Bible and Science and Health is this: that his entire inheritance is from God, the divine Mind. This leads to an awakened understanding of God and a growing understanding of man in God's image. The student may have believed himself liable to inherit undesirable qualities or conditions, nervousness perhaps, poverty, or rheumatism, laziness, or even that graven image "temperament," but now he is learning that neither the human brain nor the human body has the intelligence to confer any characteristic upon man, and if he has perceived even faintly his sonship with God, consequently his inheritance from God, he may begin at once to prove that he is "not under the law, but under grace" that grace which is but another name for divine Love.

To human thought an inheritance of houses and lands seems the most substantial possible, and those individuals with such a legacy are said to be well placed; while he who starts without worldly possessions is expected to find his path strewn with difficulties. The study of Christian Science, however, shows us that our inheritance from God is infinitely more secure than anything which could come to us in a material way; no flaws can be found in our title to it, we do not have to wait for the use of it, nor fear that we may be robbed of it when we receive it. The Bible is full of the records of those who experienced, in varying degrees, their divine inheritance. "But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day," were the words of Moses to the children of Israel, who needed constant reminders of their inheritance from God, even as we do to-day; whenever they were conscious of this great fact, as individuals and as a nation, they were able to prove the ever presence and power of God to meet all human needs.

Paul in his epistles makes many references to this point, having first proved in innumerable instances his inheritance, as he himself says, in perils on land and sea, in weariness, hunger, thirst, and cold. To the Hebrews he wrote, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." This patriarch's experience shows clearly that trust in God, good, is perhaps the first essential for inheritance of God's gifts, and Mrs. Eddy has beautifully written of Abraham, "This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding" (Science and Health, p. 579). Speaking of Esau, "who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright," Paul says, "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." What was this birthright, this inheritance which Esau deliberately sold, what but the knowledge of man's spiritual being, of his connection with God and his dominion over all the earth? This priceless inheritance was bartered away for something which had no life, substance, or intelligence of its own but which to the senses seemed desirable or even necessary at the time. We shall do well if we take to heart the lesson of Esau's experience. It is interesting to see how almost all the Bible references to divine inheritance contain a condition to be fulfilled; in other words, something more than mere passive acceptance is necessary. Jesus' promise, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth," requires constant spiritual activity on the part of the recipient; for surely one needs to be active to be truly meek, to know under all circumstances that God is the Principle of every good thought and deed and that man accomplishes everything by reflection of this Principle alone. Again, in the psalms we read, "Those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth," and in Hebrews Paul's advice, "that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."