THE success of the earthly mission of Christ Jesus was due to his unqualified acceptance of the facts of being and his proof of those facts by rejecting every claim which presented itself in opposition to them. For this reason, when questioned by the Jews about his origin he answered boldly, "I proceeded forth and came from God;" and, in the words "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven" he rejected absolutely the suggestion of human origin or parentage. Again, on the few occasions recorded in which his mother Mary sought to claim him as her son, he gently rebuked the thought, and acknowledged God as his only Parent. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?" were his replies to questions implying human relationship.

It is quite certain, then, that Jesus rejected at all times the human concept and admitted no other ancestor than his heavenly Father. He never boasted of his royal descent from King David nor attributed his success to any inherited qualities of his progenitors after the flesh. This rule of the Master is also a rule in Christian Science, for on page 63 of Science and Health we read: "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being." There is an infinite source of hope and comfort in this for humanity, for it annuls the false claim and breaks every so-called law of heredity. What a host of men and women have succumbed to the belief that they have inherited some disease which they in their turn must transmit to their offspring. How many to-day are dwelling in wretchedness, victims to the generally accepted belief that undesirable traits of character in their forefathers must be reproduced in themselves. To all such Christian Science brings the explanation and the significance of the Master's words, "One is your Father, which is in heaven." It brings the possibility of freedom from every belief, imposed by our fears or the fears of others, in the origin, existence, or continuity of evil. We can neither inherit evil nor transmit it to others.

In one connection does heredity seem to be a permanent influence in the experience of mortals, but when examined carefully it is seen that there is, in reality, no departure from the absolute rule. It may be thought that individual goodness may be transmitted from parent to child, and from generation to generation; but the mistake is in considering the origin of this goodness to be in mortals. What this seeming transfer of goodness really proves is the continuity and eternality of a right idea, which has its origin in God. This idea may be perceived by generation after generation, unfolding more and more with individual or general human progress, and sometimes culminating in epoch-making events. "Jesus," Mrs. Eddy writes on page 29 of Science and Health, "was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God." But the goodness Jesus inherited was from God, not from Mary, and he himself afterward repudiated the personal sense of goodness, when he said, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." Undoubtedly, it was Mary's purity which enabled her so to commune with God, but this again had its origin in the source of all purity. No one can say just when or by whom the divine idea manifested by Christ Jesus was first perceived. The writer of Genesis foresaw that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head, and Isaiah actually foretold the manner of the appearing, while Simeon waited patiently to behold its fulfillment. The Master himself knew that the Christ would remain after the departure of Jesus, to be more fully revealed by the Comforter, divine Science. This immortal Christ-idea must continue its un-foldment, until all mankind shall come to the knowledge of man's true origin as a child of God, and understandingly acknowledge one Parent, our Father-Mother God.