"Pray without Ceasing"

Some recent experiences and observations have aroused in my consciousness a series of introspective questionings concerning the import and application of the Pauline injunction: "Pray without ceasing," the benefit of which I would lovingly share with the readers of our periodicals.

It seems clear from signs and manifestations which come under our frequent notice, that the time is matured wherein we can with individual and collective profit introspectively examine our states of consciousness and inquire of ourselves if, as Christian Scientists, we are scientifically and unceasingly praying the prayer of Truth and Love. Are we with sincerity righteously employing this great revelation of Science vouchsafed unto us for sacred purposes of selfless good? Or are we too often diverting the glorious freedom and opportunities thus bestowed into a means of liberty unto the flesh? Are we considering the type and shadow of the things whereof we are given richly to enjoy in a mere unsatisfying sense of material pleasure? Are we too often prostituting the precious liberty so dearly bought for us by our Master and by our Leader to ignoble ends in seeking self-gratification and personal ease and indulgences? Are we gratefully seizing upon our opportunities for that continous, silent mental work of declaring the truth, whereby we earnestly pray that the kingdom of our Father—the Father of all—may come, and thus attuning our own mentalities to the modes and methods of that inevitable coming?

Are we guarding against the enticements of "fashionable lunacy" and all the frivolous concomitants of thought in which those temptations involve us? If we are striving in our personal appearance to bring out aspects of dignity and harmony, our demonstrations in apparel will rightfully proclaim our status in such matters, and a capricious world will have little occasion to question the sincerity of Scientists who are denying the claims of materiality in all directions.

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December 12, 1903
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