Editorial April 11, 1931 Issue

"The parent Mind"

Violet Ker Seymer

Material theories regard the diseases and the mental idiosyncrasies of one generation as liable to recur in succeeding generations. When considering a case some physicians are wont to inquire even more closely into the history of ancestors than into that of the descendant himself. In some cases their conclusions seem to be drawn, deductively, from previous history and according to the character and constitution—not of the individual before them, but of his forbears. In this way, through no fault of their own, some individuals seem to have been born with a millstone around their neck. But this discouraging view regarding heredity is nullified in the light of the statement on page 336 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, "God is the parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring." Materiality then, truly speaking, has no power to originate or impair life, health, or intelligence, for these are the spiritual, indestructible gifts of "the parent Mind" to its offspring. On this basis Christian Science is teaching one how to prove his own spiritual sonship, regardless of any supposed previous handicap.

Matter, either as parent or offspring, did not enter into the calculations of Jesus. He knew that God's image is neither made nor marred by matter, and he said, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." Christian Science offers to mankind this same nourishment of true thinking, which casts evil out of mortal thought. God, Spirit, is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the one and the only creator of man.

We are called "to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Man is heir to unalterable harmony and immortality. For him there is no experience of material birth, growth, or death, and therefore no stigma of so-called heredity relating to the flesh. Holding to this real man of God's creating and rejecting fickle and fallible material theories, the student of Christian Science allies himself to God, good; thereby he refutes fear, sinful temptations, and every suggestion of discord or limited ability. He knows that, as he himself thinks and lives righteously, this individual rightness, derived from "the parent Mind," will absolve him from all unjust material verdicts and their consequences. He cannot be their victim if he knows that God, Spirit, is the only lawmaker.

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