Article September 9, 1905 Issue

"This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer"

WILLIAM HOLMAN JENNINGS.

In looking over the "New Testament in the Original Greek, Revised by Westcott and Hort," I find in the list of "Rejected Readings" the Greek word translated "fasting" in the King James Version of Mark, 9:29; so that the verse should read as it does in the Revised Version: "And he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer." Westcott and Hort also reject verse twenty-one of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, which reads, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." The Revised Verson likewise rejects this verse from the text of Matthew 17,—relegating it to the margin.

Since in Christian Science practice we rely on prayer alone, without fasting, in the physical sense of the word, I am very glad to find that our practice is borne out by the text of the most ancient manuscripts. There can be no necessary connection between physical hunger and metaphysical healing. Surely it is the hunger and thirst after righteousness that is filled in the healing of the sick and the sinful.

When our deepest desire is to see God's kingdom appear on earth, in the outward man, as we perceive its presence in heaven—in the inner man; when the ideal which we cherish—the perfect man—is expressed in the harmonious functions, organs, and activities of the human body, then we are reaching a realization and demonstration of harmony.

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