Editorial January 27, 1912 Issue

THE LORD'S PRAYER

Annie M. Knott

There are no Christian people who give greater prominence to the Lord's Prayer in their devotions than do Christian Scientists, and respecting it their Leader says that it "covers all human needs" (Science and Health, p. 16). This prayer with its spiritual sense, as given on the page just indicated, is included in the "first lessons" which form such an important part of the study of all the pupils in Christian Science Sunday schools, as provided for in the Manual of The Mother Church. Occasionally some outsider asks why any interpretation is necessary, why we do not take the prayer "just as Jesus gave it," quite forgetful of the fact that every one must strive to reach and interpret its meaning, unless he is content with a mere repetition of words.

Certainly nothing could be more important than to grasp the meaning of this prayer as the Master gave it, but do Christians in general do this? It is very significant to find that when little children who have not been taught in Christian Science are asked where heaven is, they almost invariably reply that it is up in the sky, and when they are asked how we can get to heaven, they are likely to say that we shall go there after we die. Now this is surely not what Christ Jesus meant when he taught his followers to say, "Our Father which art in heaven." The infinite Father is forever present, and a clear sense of His omnipresence and omnipotence constitutes heaven, which in Christian Science means "harmony; the reign of Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 587). No one can deny that it must be heaven where God is, and in the Bible we read, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." It is therefore of the utmost importance that both child and adult should keep constantly before thought the everpresence of God, and of heaven as taught by Christ Jesus and insisted upon in Christian Science as the great truth which heals sickness and overcomes sin.

It is admitted by nearly all thoughtful people that worry is the source of a large percentage of the diseases which afflict mankind, but why this worry? It certainly never helps to work out any of the problems of human existence, but rather tends to paralyze the energies which should be given fair opportunity to overcome every difficulty that may present itself. Does not all worry spring from the false belief that man is separated from God; that he is held down by material laws and discordant conditions, and that God manifests His power chiefly in afflicting His children for some supposedly good reason which is wholly unknown to them? Under the pressure of such a belief, is it any wonder that worry is intensified and that disease is so often chronic?

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