Article January 26, 1918 Issue

Accompanying the growing appreciation of the effectiveness...

The Christian Science Monitor

Accompanying the growing appreciation of the effectiveness and availability of Christian Science healing, is an increasingly insistent inquiry as to what is Christian Science treatment, or what are the means through which are accomplished the remarkable results experienced by adherents of this teaching. That Christian Science treatment is prayer, is a frequent answer to this inquiry, and a correct one; but to the inquirer it presents another word that must be defined. Treatment that the world generally relies upon is not related to prayer. Prayer as it is commonly conceived and practiced had not proved an effective means for the treatment of human ills. It is apparent then that the conventional use of either term does not describe Christian Science practice or explain its results.

It is from the standpoint of treatment that most seekers approach Christian Science, but it is from the standpoint of prayer that they come to understand it. So far as the words are differentiated in Science, prayer is the expression of truth in terms of God, and treatment is the expression of the truth in terms of man. When the scientific unity of God and man is realized, then the synonymity of the words is understood. Since it is fundamental in Science that man cannot be separated from God, the demonstration of this teaching requires that prayer and treatment be understood and applied as synonymous spiritual terms.

It is in terms of prayer more than of treatment that Christian Science is explained in its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy. "Prayer" is the title of the first chapter of this book, and it is marvelous how logically and comprehensively this infinite theme is developed in the brief space of sixteen pages. Any earnest, intelligent study of this chapter will reveal something of the availability and power of spiritual prayer. The reader may ponder it more deeply, and appreciate more of its application, if he remembers, while he reads, that this prayer is the treatment through which Christian Science does the works that approximate the Christlike standard of practical effectiveness in dealing with human ills.

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