Editorial May 28, 1955 Issue

FERVENCY AND DEVOTION

Robert Ellis Key

Those who are familiar with the Beatitudes as given by Christ Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount will recollect the emphasis which they put upon righteous desire. Indeed, the idea of righteous desire is breathed through the Beatitudes.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 1), "Desire is prayer." Righteous desire felt with fervency and sincerity is a powerful and a healing prayer, for it reforms and regenerates. Fervency is akin to desire and is a basis for effective prayer when heartfelt, honest, and sincere. The Apostle James declared (5:16), "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Job expressed a deep fervency and devotion when he said (Job 23:3), "Oh that I knew where I might find him [God]!"

Our Leader exhorts her followers to be fervent, positive, single-minded, and sincere. She writes in Science and Health (p. 3), "The Divine Being must be reflected by man,—else man is not the image and likeness of the patient, tender, and true, the One 'altogether lovely;' but to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire."

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