There has always been considerable interest in tracing family lineage. Genealogists trace, sometimes laboriously, the human descent of families from a common ancestor to a present generation. Frequently they uncover a hitherto unknown progenitor who adds luster to the family name or, conversely, one whose record clouds it. Occasionally a familial strain is brought to light that arouses concern for the welfare of future offspring. Paul in his first letter to Timothy (1:4) warns against giving heed to "endless genealogies."
What relief to discover, through the teachings of Christian Science, that we all share a common Parent, God, and therefore have a common spiritual lineage! And what comfort to know that no threat of material taint can violate the purity and integrity of a child of God; no stigma of human heritage can rob him of his spiritual birthright!
Describing man in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 475), "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker." That this man, here described, could fall victim to or benefit from a pedigree compounded of error, is inconceivable and indicates that mankind has little understood the hallowedness of spiritual genesis.
Man's relationship to God, as well as his true nature and character, is established for eternity. God, according to the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, made man in His own image and likeness and then declared that all that He had made was very good. Our Leader apparently saw in this account an incontestable basis for sonship, because she writes (ibid., p. 63): "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry."
Happily, with man's relationship to his creator irrefutably established, we can challenge materia medica's claim that certain factors, or the lack of them, determine whether or not an individual is to be considered normal or mentally deficient. Medical science claims that familial retardation can be carried from forebears to children by means of nonintelligent elements of germ plasm called "genes." What a travesty on creation and the creator's masterpiece, man! Are we required to accept this distortion of man's true lineage, or shall we reject it on the grounds that it profanes the basic truth of the real man's perfection as a child of God, the purity of his source and substance?
The creator of ideas, God, endows them with His own attributes, which include intelligence, wisdom, understanding, perfection, perspicacity, completeness. Of "every one that is called by my name," God says, "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him" (Isa. 43: 7) . Is it reasonable to imagine that the idea of Mind, created for His glory, abiding, as it does, in the divine Mind and forever progressing according to divine law, is capable of deterioration and defect? No, of course not, and no searching of man's true, spiritual history will prove otherwise.
Society has been manifesting an increasing concern for what it calls its retarded children. This interest has helped to point up mortal mind's utter reversal of the scientific fact of creation as understood in Christian Science. As alert Christian Scientists we can refute this misrepresentation of God's offspring by correctly identifying the true selfhood of each child as the spiritual emanation of Love, eternally endowed with God's own perfection and beauty. This action can be thought of as our contribution to the compassionate and well-meaning attempts of social and educational agencies to relieve families under the burden of an unjust decree of mortal mind.
Perhaps a parent or grandparent is anxious to free some loved child from such an unjust imposition. If so, he might begin by asking himself what he would do if one he knew to be a beautiful, loving, and bright-eyed child should come up to him wearing a mask that depicted him as an aged, cruel, and ugly pirate. Would he believe what his eyes were trying to tell him, or would he recognize the disguise as a mask and nothing more? He would reject the sense testimony as utterly false and reassure himself by calling to mind the true characteristics of the child as he knew he existed behind the mask.
Likewise, he can reject with the same conviction the distorted view of God's perfect child as a mortal with mental limitations. He can reassure himself in this instance by recognizing the absurdity in the claim of perfect cause and imperfect effect, omniscient Mind and limited idea. He can know that man is Mind's expression and that Mind imparts truth, not limited, distorted views of spiritual facts.
It was the writer's privilege to work for many years with so-called retarded children. In her capacity as teacher, and later as director of a special program, she refused consistently to accept the mask as the reality and never permitted a child to be labeled or referred to as a retardate. She insisted that all children in the program be treated exactly as though the cruel edict of limitation had never been pronounced upon them.
This was contrary to practice, and at first teachers expressed surprise at what must have appeared to be an impractical approach to the work. When, however, the children began to function up to twenty points above established quotients, the staff not only accepted the idea but became stanch supporters of it. The examining psychologists tried to find an explanation for the phenomenon and failed, and in their report they finally attributed it to either "superior environment or some special teaching device not generally recognized."
The order of mortal mind, claiming that error can be handed down from generation to generation, is not the order of the divine Mind, or Principle, wherein is to be found all law and the perfect order of progression. Our Leader, speaking of the order of mortal mind as the order of matter, has this to say (Science and Health, p. 552): "Thus it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when the perfect and eternal Mind is understood."
Christian Science gives us directives for freeing ourselves or others from the enslavement of beliefs concerning human generation. We must gain an understanding of the eternal Mind and its order of unfoldment. The importance Mrs. Eddy attaches to the gaining of such an understanding is seen in the fact that there are several hundred references to Mind in Science and Health alone. An earnest study of these references will reveal the child of God, his lineal links forged by Spirit, not matter, and in the likeness of his creator.
God's child is compounded of Mind's attributes: unlimited intelligence, perception, and wisdom. He is the reflection of completeness and perfection. He sees, he perceives, and he understands. He is idea, and he unfolds in orderly progression according to his governing Principle.
Under the unerring control of Mind, God's child is not and cannot be retarded, slow, out of order, misplaced, deviate, or immature. This is the truth concerning the child of God, and it cannot be reversed, violated, reduced, or changed in any way by material research, graphs, charts, or human chronologies.
Since Mind is All and infinite, there is no place for mortal mind to operate and nothing erroneous for it to chronicle. Mortal mind is only a presumption without authority, true knowledge, presence, or power. This fact reduces it to a mere suggestion to be erased from consciousness by an understanding of Mind as omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience. Under the scrutiny of Mind, mortal mind's theories inculcating the genesis of error crumble, and Christ, Truth, is enthroned.
Then, with understanding, we can sing of the true selfhood of each one of us, as did the Psalmist of old (Ps. 1:3), "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
