ON page 228 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states that "heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly ills will disappear." These words come with a glorious message of comfort and deliverance to many who have been in bondage to the false manmade law of heredity.
If we study this passage from Science and Health in connection with the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, we shall gain a still clearer understanding of the absolute freedom which right desires and actions bring to us. It is there clearly and emphatically stated that a man can suffer only for his own wrong-doing, that the sins and failures of his ancestors have no real power over him, and that no punishment will be given him for another's sin. The words contained in verse 25 —"Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?"—clearly indicate that it is the false carnal mind alone which has imposed the belief of heredity on poor humanity, that mortal mind which is full of injustice and the desire for revenge and destruction, and which is unequal and unstable in all its ways.
To break the mesmerism of this belief of heredity, it is necessary that we should go to the very root of the error, the false sense of man's origin. Jesus clearly pointed out that God is the sole creator of man. He said, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Many of us have shrunk from this question because we are afraid of losing our human sense of parentage; it may seem that we are seeking to destroy something which the world has always held to be very sacred and beautiful; but we can lose nothing by striving to know more of God's perfect law of love and harmony. If we can once realize that God is the only Father-Mother of the universe, it will lift all burdens from our shoulders; we shall no longer fear sickness, sin, or death, because we shall know that from such a pure source only good can come to each one of His children. There will no longer be envy in our hearts against those who seem to have inherited from human parents gifts, such as beauty, genius, great intellectual or artistic ability, or even an abundance of material wealth and prosperity, because we shall know that good emanates from God alone, and that all His children have an equal share in that infinite unlimited good, and that perfection in all things is man's inalienable heritage.
