THE deification and worship of human ancestors formed a part of the religion of the ancients. This practice is still found today in full force among many savage tribes, and in a greatly refined system among certain races of the Orient. Admitting the belief that man is material, what is more natural than to wish to deify and do honor to the material ancestry from which he is supposed to have sprung? Humanly speaking, some of the noblest sentiments have clustered around this filial devotion, nor would it be desirable to attempt to destroy this sentiment and the self-sacrifice to which it has given rise, without substituting for it an understanding of man's true origin.
Christian Science does not attempt to wipe out reverence for ancestry, source, or origin, but to transform that worship by revealing God as the Father-Mother Mind, and man as the ideal product of that Mind. With this new understanding, filial devotion becomes divine worship; what might seem like the cultivation of ancestral pride becomes virtually the glorification of man's true origin; self-esteem or special privilege is wiped out by the recognition of the one ancestor, the "eternal Father."
What are the imperishable facts about this glorious ancestry? They are set forth in the first chapter of Genesis, wherein it is declared that "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Here then is complete impartiality, a total want of respect for personality and an all-embracing love for the son, or His image. David understood the glory of this parentage, and often sang of it in the Psalms. "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee," he exclaims in the second Psalm. David's perception of man's true ancestry paved the way for the eventual realization by Mary that man is the son of God, and for the advent of the immaculate Christ Jesus, who should show forth this metaphysical fact by incontrovertible words and deeds.
