Editorial May 20, 1916 Issue

"Pray without ceasing"

Archibald McLellan

One of the readily available assets of the Christian Scientist is that of unceasing prayer. Wherever he is, however pressing the emergency, instantly he may lift his heart in prayer to the omnipotent and all-loving Father, with the same assurance that it will be heard and answered as Jesus had when he affirmed, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me." The Christian Scientist has learned that to "pray without ceasing" means a constant striving to enter into the kingdom, to labor to the end that in thought, word, and deed he may be obedient to the great commandment which bids men love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves. If, therefore, in his daily living he is manifesting love, it may be truly said of him that his life is an unceasing prayer.

Such prayer, Mrs. Eddy tells us, "is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice" (Science and Health, p. 15). If our desire is for holiness, for health, for protection, then our part is to begin at once to manifest holiness or health, for the promise to those whose supreme desire it is to do always the things which are pleasing to the Father, reads, "Before they call, I will answer." Everything that is good is already ours; the prime necessity is that we realize our heritage. If we are children of the King, we must live up to our obligations. If our Father is omnipotent, we cannot for a moment admit even the possibility that there is any other power. When we come to see this clearly, we shall speak and act "as one having authority," and find the answer to our prayer in the overcoming of all that is unlike good.

Paul strikes the key-note of true prayer in one brief phrase, "In every thing give thanks." To many people this requirement seems quite as unreasonable as that which calls for continual prayer. How can any one be thankful when he is sick, or needy, or sorrowful, is their plea; and then they waste time and energy in explaining how long this particular error has held them and how long—years, it may be—they have had treatment, yet their healing has not come. Surely there is something to be thankful for even so. Who can say how much heavier the burden would have been but for the faithful work of the practitioner, the unceasing affirmation that because Truth is omnipotent, evil is powerless! No declaration of the truth can fail in its final accomplishment. The woman whom Jesus lifted up had been in bondage eighteen years, yet the bond was severed as if it had been of yesterday's forging. She had come into an understanding of the truth, and she found her freedom.

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