"Heredity is not a law." In this unequivocal statement on page 178 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy declares the falsity of one of the most strongly held beliefs of the human race. Throughout the ages mankind has believed itself to be helplessly bound to a physical law by which sin and suffering are transmitted from one generation to another. Many indeed have questioned the justice of a law which punishes one for the sins or misfortunes of others, yet they have resigned themselves to the belief that their suffering is in accord with God's will. Even a human sense of justice will not long tolerate such a law; and Christian Scientists are daily demonstrating with certainty and joy the truth of Mrs. Eddy's categorical affirmation quoted above.

Whence, then, originated this so-called law, so generally evil and destructive in its effect? It was founded on the belief in a creation apart from God, the mythical, substanceless, dream creation of which we read in the second chapter of Genesis. Here is presented a kind of man formed of the dust who believes himself a creator and in pride and lust seeks his perpetuation by reproducing others of his own kind—mankind. Of this man the Bible records nothing good. His first offspring was a murderer, and his end was foretold by the Lord God, his supposed creator.

We read that the Lord God said to Adam (Gen. 3:19), "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Clearly this is not the man referred to in the opening chapter of the Bible—man made in the image of God, having dominion over the whole earth, the whole universe of God's spiritual ideas, which constitute His creation.

How may we establish in human consciousness the truth of man's spiritual being, his inseparability from his one and only Father-Mother God? Once again our Leader, in clear and unmistakable language, gives us the key to the solution of the problem. On page 63 of Science and Health she states: "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." This is the real man, the only man there is, the man we really are; and this fact must ultimately be revealed to everyone.

We may at first seem to prove our spiritual sonship with God only in small degree, but God gives us the ability to do this. Thus we are enabled to discard the illusion that we are mortals living in a material body, subject to all the vagaries of chance and change. As we increase in spiritual understanding through consecrated, prayerful study, human consciousness is lifted into the light of Truth, and we find ourselves gaining greater freedom from the errors and disappointments of this dream of material living. As Christian Scientists all of us are working toward the individual recognition of perfection, toward the day when we shall see the earth filled with God's glory and shall experience the sinless joy which constitutes the real man, who is spiritual and incorporeal.

Meanwhile human generation will go on, and the race will continue its progress through growth in spiritual understanding. Increasingly we shall see the children of all right-thinking parents, especially of those instructed in the truths of Christian Science, manifesting more intelligence, health, and goodness. This will not be by reason of their human parentage, but by the understanding which their parents possess of true being and the allness of God, good. Thus step by step mankind will demonstrate their true inheritance as the offspring of an all-inclusive, all-wise, all-loving, Father-Mother God.

Christian Science has Scriptural authority for its adherence to these facts. The Bible contains many promises of man's freedom from mortal so-called laws. The ninth chapter of John's Gospel, which records the healing of a man blind from his birth, commences with Jesus' outright rejection of his disciples' suggestion that heredity might be the cause of the blindness. The Master affirmed that man lives to manifest the works of God. And long before the time of Jesus, the prophet Ezekiel wrote (18:1—3): "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel."

The writer will never cease to be grateful for the release from fear which came to him early in his study of Christian Science as a result of the healing of a wrong sense of family. In childhood he had learned that his was one of the families which in England could reliably trace their history back for many hundreds of years. This fact, though of some human interest, became to him unwarrantably coupled with a certain sense of superiority, as if the fact of a long lineage conferred some kind of personal prestige on the individuals concerned.

As the years passed by, however, he began to recognize that from the human point of view he was identified with a family history which, as is the case in most other family histories, was not all to the good. Pride gave way to a fear that he would be inescapably linked with weaknesses of health or of character which, even if as yet unknown to him, might be thought to "run in the family." In time, this fear became an almost constant companion.

At that point, he was led to Christian Science, which showed him the glorious truths of man as the child of God and of man's perfect and only ancestry. He began to see that actually the only law of inheritance is God's law, the law of perfection. At once the darkness of superstition began to disappear before the light of this truth. Very quickly this spiritual light removed the fear that hereditary beliefs were supported by a law to decree man's enslavement and destruction.

This light established a better mental and physical state and set the student on the right road to the goal of demonstrating the present fact of man's spiritual oneness, or unity, with his Father. The rejection of false human family ties by no means suggests separation from those whom we love. On the contrary. This student discovered that in gaining a clearer sense of the true nature of man and his relation to God, his sense of family had become enlarged and purified, and he had found more affection, not less.

It is, however, not enough to reject a false sense of ancestry and family ties. Paul tells us (Gal. 1:14) that he was formerly "exceedingly zealous of the traditions of [his] fathers." And he goes on to say, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."

This indicates the most vital steps in our progress Spiritward— the rejection of our false sense of selfhood and the gaining of an understanding of our true identity as the child of God. As long as we believe ourselves to be mortals who live in a material body, we have not completed our warfare with the false belief of carnality or the carnal mind in which the so-called laws of sin, disease, and death have their only and illusive foothold.

God, omnipotence, works with us, and a grain of understanding of the truth accomplishes much. We have our Leader's exhortation and promise (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118), "Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory."