Editorial October 30, 1915 Issue

Freedom in the Truth

Archibald McLellan

To the Christian Scientist all right thinking, all real progress, and all that makes for the good of humanity is the manifestation of infinite Mind, God. Only, therefore, as we understand God and man's relation to Him can we really progress along spiritual lines and rightfully claim to be Christians. Christ Jesus said that his mission was to help mankind to know God, and it was to be through this knowledge that men were to find life eternal. This knowledge of God was to be obtained through prayer and right doing; through communion with the Father, and through righteousness. On page 1 of Science and Health, in the chapter on Prayer, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be molded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

In this same chapter Mrs. Eddy sets forth the difference between the prayer which seeks by much insistence to change the divine will, and the prayer of Christian Science, which has for its object the right apprehension of divine law, and is based on a desire to conform to this law. Through Christian Science it is manifest that there is an unchanging divine law, which is always in operation and always governing every right thought and desire. It is the law which the Master invoked when at the grave of Lazarus he prayed, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always." In the prayer which does not conform to Christian Science there is always the danger of attempting to instruct omnipotence, and also the danger of perpetuating whatever there may be of selfishness at the root of our petition. This is not possible, however, in the true prayer of Christian Science, for there can be nothing in it but the pure desire to do God's will and to be conformed to His law, a law which like its author is without beginning or end, "the same yesterday, and today, and forever."

In the one great prayer which the Master gave to his disciples a very striking and impressive phrase is, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," and the thought which these words express is to be found throughout Jesus' ministry. The prayer of Christian Science necessarily follows this thought, and is not based on the belief that God is the creator of evil, or that in being submissive to evil we are submitting to His will. Christ Jesus never taught that God was the author of evil, and the prayer which healed the sick was based upon an understanding of the omnipotence of good and the unreality of evil. Christian Science prayer necessarily recognizes God, infinite Mind, as the only creator, and man as His image and likeness,—God the Father as Spirit, and man the son as spiritual. Through this recognition of the divine creation, mankind is brought into communion with God, and humanity is governed and guided as was Christ Jesus, who gave credit to the Father, who "doeth the works," for all he accomplished.

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