Article February 25, 1911 Issue

Some one has said that "prayer is the soul's sincere desire,...

George Shaw Cook

Kankakee (III.) Democrat

Some one has said that "prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed;" and it is true that the honest desire to know God, good, is a necessary precedent to that knowledge of the power and presence of divine Mind which Christian Science reveals as the only real power and presence. "But," the inquirer may say, "if God is, as Christian Science teaches, infinite intelligence, immutable Truth, unerring wisdom, unchanging Love, why desire, supplicate, or petition such a God to do what of necessity He must do without being asked?" An answer to this question may be afforded by the following illustration: Suppose a student of arithmetic attempts to solve a given problem. It is evident that he must understand to a certain extent the laws of mathematics and that he must correctly apply the mathematical rule governing the case if he is to obtain the desired solution. It is likewise evident that any petition or supplication, however fervent or eloquent, to the basic law of mathematics would be of no avail. Yet it will be easily understood that a humble, earnest, honest desire on the part of the student to understand said law and the rules involved and to be obedient thereto, would make him more receptive to the desired knowledge and better able to apply it correctly. This, as the writer understands it, illustrates the office of "sincere desire" as the stepping-stone to the prayer of faith, understanding, and demonstration.

Prayer has seemed to be unanswered, and the effort to pray aright has been hampered in all ages, by the belief that man is separated from God and must reach Him or get into communication with Him in order that prayer may be heard and heeded. God is not a far-off being to whom man must project his thought in prayer. God is ever-present good, the all-inclusive, all-pervading, divine intelligence, or Mind, by whom man was created and in and of whom man exists. Then true prayer must consist in receiving and entertaining the good ideas which express God and in bringing them into manifestation in thought, word, and deed. The spirit of such prayer, lived in the daily life, will enable Christians to comply with the Scriptural injunction, "Pray without ceasing."

In order to pray scientifically one must acquire a better understanding of God as omnipotent and omnipresent good. True prayer is the realization of this fact, the silent, sacred, conscious spiritual communion with divine Truth and Love which heals sickness and destroys sin. Such prayer in the time of the ancient prophets and of Jesus and his disciples raised the dead, and will do so again when vitalized and empowered by the faith and confidence in the eternity of Life which revived the son of the Shunamite and brought forth Lazarus from the tomb. That such scientific prayer is today being attended by increasingly satisfactory results in the experience of thousands, is evidence of the truth of the first words in the chapter on Prayer in the Christian Science text-book, where Mrs. Eddy has written, "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,—a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love" (Science and Health, p. 1).

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