Article December 6, 1924 Issue

Guarding Our Inheritance

ETTA M. GILBREATH

As we progress in spiritual understanding, we grow in the realization of the need of depending more and more upon God for guidance and protection. Mrs. Eddy has written in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 262), "Consecration to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but heightens it." Indeed, the goal of all Christian endeavor is absolute and unremitting reliance on God. Christian Science has come to the world that this ideal may be gained; and the main avenues through which we learn the letter of it are the Bible, Science and Health, and the Church Manual. We have these precious books as our spiritual inheritance, the outward expression of the indefatigable love and effort of those unselfish friends of mankind who so earnestly desired that we should have the joy of godliness as an inheritance. Prophets of old, as well as Mrs. Eddy, lent themselves to this purpose; and no one can read these books without realizing in some degree the earnest hope that animated their work,—namely, the hope of freedom for all mankind from sin and sickness. As Mrs. Eddy grew in understanding, she saw this need of reliance on God, and directed every effort towards pointing the way thereto. In fact, it was her loving desire for the welfare of humanity that inspired all her ceaseless activity; and her followers cannot have the blessing of Christian Science, which she so earnestly desired for them, unless they are sufficiently appreciative of it to use and guard it.

When first these books are read, one experiences a feeling of refreshing inspiration. There follows an eager desire to acquire immediately a more complete understanding, to claim it as our own with the ardor that attaches itself to newness. In this fresh enthusiasm there is a tendency to feel that we may claim this inheritance as our own with no parting, no pain, as if one were going along a clear, beautiful, straight pathway, edged all the way with flowers. It is true that the inheritance is wonderful, and that it is ours,—ours forever; but we must awake to an appreciation of its value and the fact that we have the responsibility of proving it to be ours. We cannot adequately appreciate its worth unless we know the price that was paid for it. Others who have gone before have paid a great price in self-sacrifice; and for us to feel that it has come to us easily is only a temptation to take it superficially.

One may inherit a house and lands; but if the house stand empty and the lands remain uncultivated, they soon become worse than useless. In fact, constant care is necessary to keep them in good order. Unused or vacant property is often a place wherein evildoers seek to hide, where ignorance and superstition weave webs of haunting illusion; and stories of wrongdoing there fill the listener with dread. Indeed, an unused house is often avoided, even though there may be no greater reason for shunning it than that it is unused. To restore such a place to order and usefulness may require much time and means. There is only one way really to possess our spiritual legacy, and that is to live in it,—to use it all the time. We know that much of the wealth contained in the Bible has been hidden to the world for many generations, not because it was not for all, but simply because, through ignorance, those who had it did not understand how to use it.

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